I had one of the more terrifying experiences of my life today, and that’s what I’ve blogged about over at Babble tonight.

I am SO PROUD of J, who found out today that she’s been accepted into her high school’s International Baccalaureate Diploma program for her upcoming junior and senior years.

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If you are on Twitter (you can follow me at @kgranju) please share this blog post using the hashtag, #justiceforhenry

PLEASE FIRST READ PART 1 of JUSTICE FOR HENRY

Henry, six months before his death at age 18

In the two months leading up to Henry’s emergency hospitalization on April 27, 2010, it was clear to our entire family that his drug abuse was rapidly escalating. In February or early March, he came to me and told me that he had begun shooting up opiate pain pills (I am not clear what the process is for converting the pills to liquid). He told me that he was scared and that he needed to get out of Knoxville in order to try to kick his habit.

Since early 2010, Henry had been dating a teenage girl one year older than he was. His girlfriend was a Bearden High graduate and comes from a well-known and prominent Knoxville family. Henry was nuts about her, and she seemed to feel the same way. It was clear to me the first time I met her that she, too, was a drug addict. When I questioned Henry about this, he didn’t deny it. He told me that they were both desperately attempting to get clean, and that they planned to support one another in their efforts. Despite this, I saw no evidence that either one of them were doing anything concrete to kick the drugs.

For the several months they were together, Henry and his girlfriend stayed with her family until they were kicked out, and then alternately stayed with friends and with Henry’s grandparents, who allowed them to live there. They were drifting, and very sick with the drugs. I was desperately worried every second of every day. Henry’s grandparents continued to pay for a cell phone for him, and he and I spoke just about every day, texted often, and saw one another regularly for lunch or a walk together. All I did when we were together was beg him to allow us to get help for him. He told me that he didn’t want to go back to drug treatment, even though he admitted he was very sick and wanted to stop. Because he had turned 18 a few months earlier, his father and I had absolutely no legal authority to force him to do anything against his will. It was a terrible, helpless feeling.

Henry was arrested for the first and only time in late February or early March. I can’t recall exactly when. He and his girlfriend were apparently parked in a West Knoxville subdivision, doing what teenagers do, when a police officer happened on them. Henry’s girlfriend was arrested for pot possession and possibly something else. I am not sure. This was not her first arrest. Henry was charged with public intoxication, public indecency, and possession of a controlled substance. I never was able to get a clear answer from anyone – Henry or police – as to what the drug was, but it actually wasn’t pain pills, benzodiazapenes or an illegal drug. It was some kind of prescribed antidepressant or something for which he had no prescription.

When I found out late that night that Henry was in jail, I was both terrified and hopeful. I believed that this could be the chance we had been looking for to force him back into drug treatment. His father and I agreed that we would not bail him out under any circumstances, and we asked other family members whom we knew he would ask to refrain from bailing him out either. They agreed.

I began working with my brother in law, a local attorney, to get the judge to require drug treatment as a condition of Henry’s release. My brother in law was working toward that goal when I got a call only a few days after Henry had been arrested letting me know that he had been released without my knowledge because the jail was crowded, and he was a first time, non-violent offender. I was horrified and heartbroken.

His girlfriend stayed in a few more days because she had a record, but she was released as well. Both were required to show up for court within the next few weeks. At Henry’s court date about a week (??) later, he was ordered to complete community service over the next few months and also complete some minimal outpatient therapy program. They told him he would have a clear record if he took care of these.

The next week, he came to me and asked if he and his girlfriend could try living with us. I said absolutely yes, as long as the two of them would agree to attend daily Narcotics Anonymous meetings, plus observe curfew, maintain employment, etc. I had grown very fond of his sweet, completely lost girlfriend by this time. She seemed totally grateful and relieved that I was suggesting an arrangement in which she would be required to get help and be accountable.

That evening, I drove both of them to an NA meeting. They went, and I picked them up after. They ate supper with us, and went to bed in separate bedrooms (that was a condition of them staying with us, given the fact that we have younger children at home and had enough ambiguity to explain to them about Henry without delving in to romantic issues).

For the next two days, they stayed with us, went to meetings, and I got to enjoy my child’s company, as well as his girlfriend’s. After those two days, however, Henry told me that if he wanted to have any hope whatsoever of getting off the pills, he needed to get out of Knoxville. He said that as long as he remained here, there was no chance he could kick the pills.  He told me that he wanted to go to Bell Buckle – my hometown in middle TN – and stay with his Uncles in order to go thru the physical withdrawals that would come. After that, he wanted to get a job there and try to get his life together. He said that his girlfriend wanted to go too, for the same reasons. I asked her if that was really what she wanted, and she said yes.

That evening, I fixed my son the last meal I would ever prepare for him – a stir fry with curry. He and his girlfriend and his 12 year old brother E and I ate together on our front porch. Everyone was in good spirits, and after they ate, E and Henry got out their ripsticks and played on them on our front walkway. Henry’s girlfriend and I watched on the porch. It was a beautiful early spring evening.

Before dark, Henry’s friend picked him and his girlfriend up to take them to Bell Buckle. I hugged them both goodbye.

Over the next two or three (??) weeks, I spoke to Henry just about every day while he was in Bell Buckle. He and his girlfriend stayed with my family members. The first week was hell, as they experienced the uniquely awful physical withdrawal symptoms that come with kicking any kind of opiates, whether that’s pain pills or heroin. We were all hopeful. But after only a brief period, Henry told me by phone that he and his girlfriend had to return to Knoxville immediately because they had realized that her court date was imminent. Somehow, they found a ride back. I didn’t see either of them in the first days after they returned, but on the day his girlfriend went to court – with Henry accompanying her – she was taken into immediate custody for missing a previous court date. She handed Henry her cell phone and was led off.

Henry got in touch with me that day, hysterically upset and begging me to try to get her out of jail. I had never heard him so upset. I told him that we needed to talk with an attorney, and with her parents, but that maybe jail could help her get clean once and for all.  As a besotted teenage boy, Henry was unable to accept this, and told me he HAD to figure out how to get her out of jail.

Henry and I texted over the next few days. I was frantically worried about him. On April 26th, he texted me that he was having a really rough day.

In the late afternoon/early evening of April 26th, Henry called me at my number. I didn’t get the call. According to his phone records, he next tried his stepdad’s number – within only a minute of calling my number. As it turns out – and I did not find this out until 6 months after Henry died – Henry’s little brother happened to be carrying my husband’s phone that day, so it was E who answered. Henry apparently asked his little brother if Mom was with him. E explained that he was on his way to lacrosse practice, and that Mom wasn’t there. Henry told him to please let Mom know that he REALLY needed to talk to  her, and that I should call him.

That was the last time anyone in our family spoke to him before his fatal brain injury. I will never, ever be able to forgive myself for missing his calls. The fact that he called his stepdad’s # right after trying mine – something he only did when there was an emergency and couldn’t reach me – tells me that he knew he was in danger and wanted me to come get him. But he never got the chance to tell me that, and I didn’t find out I’d missed his call(s) until later.

NEXT: Justice for Henry – Part 3

PREVIOUSLY: Justice for Henry – Part 1

If you are on Twitter (you can follow me at @kgranju) please share this blog post using the hashtag, #justiceforhenry

If you are on Twitter (you can follow me at @kgranju), please share a link this blog post using the hashtag, #justiceforhenry

Below is information you need to know before reading what I have to say about my son’s death, and the way his case has been treated by the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, as well as the office of the Knox County Attorney General. Thank you for reading it in full.

• My son, Henry Granju died on May 31, 2010 after 38 days of terrible suffering in the hospital. He was only 18 years old. He did not want to die.

• My only goal in sharing this information, and in telling our family’s story is to encourage local authorities to conduct a full, professional criminal investigation into the circumstances of my son’s death. That has not happened yet. It is my belief that if a high-caliber, completely objective investigation were to take place, there would be arrests and prosecutions of the individuals whose criminal behavior led to my child’s fatal brain injury.

• Henry suffered from a serious drug addiction. Our family has been completely open about this, and we will continue to be completely open about it. His drug problem led him to involvement with the people whom we believe are criminally responsible for his death.

• Both Tennessee law and federal statute define death resulting from the distribution of illegal drugs as homicide.

• While “failure to render aid” is not a de facto criminal offense in Tennessee, prosecutors should look at the totality of the circumstances in deciding whether failure to render aid rises to the level of criminal liability based on omission.

• Cases in which drug suppliers are successfully prosecuted in overdose deaths are increasingly common all over the country. They offer one important tool to authorities in fighting the drug overdose epidemic now terrorizing our communities. (Here is a running list of such prosecutions which I intend to update regularly. Check it out to see how different prosecutors approach these cases in different ways in order to get results) Knox County has a very poor record in prosecuting such cases (I can only find one case, and as far as I can tell, the case remains unresolved). However, by actively investigating and prosecuting Henry’s case, it would allow local authorities to send a powerful message that things have changed, and drug dealers are on notice.

• I am publishing this information on my blog because it’s the only platform available to me to make it all public.

• I will be publishing the information in separate installments in the days ahead because it’s simply too much for me to pull together into one, standalone blog post.

• If I remember things I accidentally left out, or if I receive information or materials that were not included in one of the installments/blog posts that I publish, I will edit my original version to add the new information. This means that what I will be writing in the days ahead is a type of living document. Any editorial or factual changes I make after an previous version of something I’ve written is published should not be viewed as me trying to be “sneaky” or “change the facts.” Instead, any changes that I might make to what I first published are a reflection of new information or material being made available to me, or of me adding more details if I later remember a detail I failed to mention.

• Our family is actively seeking media coverage of Henry’s case. If you have national, regional or local media contacts, we would be immensely grateful if you would draw those contacts’ attention to Henry’s case, and to our family’s story. We are happy to speak on the record to reporters at any time. Again, just email me at mamapundit@gmail.com

• I will be referencing specific documents, witnesses and other supporting material. If you are a member of the media interested in covering Henry’s case, or our family’s quest for justice, please email me directly at mamapundit@gmail.com. I will be more than happy to provide the original documentation (emails, medical records, etc) to legitimate journalists. I will also be more than happy to put you in immediate, direct contact with the witnesses I reference.

• If you have information, tips or other material you believe would help us with Henry’s case, please DO NOT post it in the comments, but instead email it directly to me at mamapundit@gmail.com.

• I have huge respect for the incredibly challenging and underfunded work that is done by law enforcement, as well as prosecutors. My sharing of what our family’s unfortunate experiences have been thus far should in no way give the impression that I have anything but the greatest admiration for those of you who work at these difficult and underappreciated jobs. I continue to be optimistic that criminal investigators and prosecutors will do the right thing in my son’s case.

• I welcome your comments below my blog posts related to Henry’s case. I cannot respond to every comment, but I will try when possible to answer specific questions commenters may raise. If I am unable to respond personally to some specific question or comment, this is simply a matter of limited time on my part and should in no way be seen as me “ignoring” someone’s comment.

• I welcome your comments, even if you disagree with me or question my recounting of information. However, this is a very stressful undertaking, and I am not willing to allow pointlessly inflammatory, unkind, flatly erronious, or insulting comments to remain. I will delete them. So if you want to disagree, please do so politely and in a way that is relevant to Henry’s case.

• I will also delete pretty much any comments that specifically reference Henry’s brother or sisters, no matter what the comment is about (meaning, even nice comments). I am sure you can understand my reasoning for this.

• Our entire family, including Henry’s father, his stepparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents stand together in trying to get authorities to fully and objectively investigate Henry’s death. While I am writing in the first person as Henry’s mother, I am writing with the active input of the rest of our family.

• Last, but not least, while I am a writer by trade, this is not something I ever expected or wanted to write. It concerns the painful death of my teenage son, and it requires me to pull together a lot of information. Thus, I will do my best to create a coherent and well-organized narrative, but I ask your patience if my writing is not at its best in telling this story. What matters here is the information, and I will do my very best to make that understandable and readable.

Thank you.

Katie, Henry’s Mama

Next: Justice for Henry – Part 2

If you are on Twitter (you can follow me at @kgranju), please share a link this blog post using the hashtag, #justiceforhenry

Pretty much every weekend, C and her cousin NC play together most of the day, both days – either at our house or over at my sister Betsy’s house. Today, they are here, and I decided to check in with the girls to see what’s on their minds at the moment.

The answer? Fairies, Disney Princesses and Justin “Biebers.”

You can watch the girls chatting each other up on the (insanely cute, if I do say so myself) video that I just posted over at Babble.

Yeah, the whole world seems to find Charlie Sheen both compellingly entertaining and pretty damn funny at the moment, but I can tell you without reservation that to his parents, there’s nothing even remotely amusing about their drug addicted child’s worsening condition. That’s what I’m blogging about over at Babble today.

I’ve had an amazing and inspiring experience at this event in NJ for the past two days. But then Jon send me this photo of G tonight and I am wishing I could use that Harry Potter “Floo” teleport device to be home immediately. There is nowhere I would rather be right now than wherever Baby G is.

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