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It all happened on a chilly night during the Christmas holidays in 2002. Our son, Tim Jr., was a senior in high school enjoying an evening out at a home of one of his friends. It was around 10:00 in the evening when Tim decided to drive down the street to the Marathon station for a Slim Jim. That had always been his favorite snack since he was a little boy. It happened to be around closing time when Tim went to the front door of the Marathon station but it was locked. He left there to go to another convenient store that was about two hundred yards away from his first stop. This is when our awful story begins!
One of Tim's neighbor friends from across the street rang our door bell frantically to tell us that he watched Tim being arrested by the city police on State Street in Fremont. He looked as white as a ghost when he told us. Even though nothing like this had ever happened to our family before, I knew quickly to call a lawyer. What I didn't know is that he would want $4000.00 up-front for his services. Since Tim was arrested on a Friday night, he wouldn't be released on bail until the following Monday which happened to be Christmas Eve.
The meaning of Tim's arrest became more evident as time passed. When I visited him the next day at the county jail, I found Tim bewildered and confused. He was barely able to express himself because the situation unfolded so quickly and unexpectedly. Tim was an eighteen-year old who was in a situation of nightmarish proportions.
Our son had been arrested for aggravated armed robbery! I quickly went with my daughter to the police station that night as we were greeted by a city police officer who seemed to relish Tim's arrest. This particular officer who greeted us was considered to be a corrupt cop by many in the community of Fremont. What I didn't know at the time was that he was recording our conversation until a slight click went off in his pocket. I never gave any reaction to this but knew what he was up to. He was adamant about Tim's arrest and seemed to be baiting me on as Tim's father. He proceeded to tell us that Tim was going to be sentenced to ten years in jail. Here it was 1:00 in the morning as the officer, in his obnoxious manner, was telling us that my son was guilty without any evidence. I could feel myself becoming emotionally overwhelmed as my daughter, Molly, was close to tears.
There was no doubt in my mind that the officer who greeted us was trying to bait me in hopes that I would react aggressively towards him. Since I knew what he was doing, I made sure to keep my cool. He would have loved nothing better than to have another strike against the Gocke family. One big disadvantage for us was not being a home-grown family from Fremont, Ohio, and for that reason we were considered outsiders to their political system.
I was told by the neighbor the next day that there were as many as four patrol cars at the scene that night with lights flashing so brightly that they were enough to blind my son and any other person unfortunate enough to have been watching this ugly story unfold. As I said earlier, Tim had driven to another convenient store when he found the Marathon Station was closed. At the scene of the other convenient store, there were several police who actually had their guns drawn on Tim as he was coming out of the store with his Slim Jim.
The police were so ruthless in their pursuit and interrogation of Tim that night that the courts cautioned our lawyer to consider the effects of showing the interrogation video to the Gocke family. Our lawyer then cautioned us about watching the interrogation by the police because he felt it would only make the situation worse for us. We were reluctant in doing this but also knew watching the video couldn't change what happened to Tim. It made more sense (if there was any at the time) to concentrate on things we could do for him right now and for his future.
Even the principal at the high school, who we soon visited after the false arrest occurred, added his two cents by telling us that Tim's felony arrest was the first one he had ever seen at the school in the years he had been principal there. That statement didn't go over well with my wife and I as it just added more discouragement to an already dismal situation. The fact that he was falsely arrested and found innocent of the charges soon after his arrest, didn't even register with this principal.
That's when I knew people believe the first thing they read in the paper. The true story of Tim's innocence became known a week later but wasn't placed on the front page of the newspaper as it should have been.
Our purpose for visiting the principal was to have him look out for Tim's safety related to possible harassment and teasing from other students. Both Mary and I knew the visit to the principal's office really was to make us feel better. Deep down, we both knew that Tim was in for a tough road when dealing with student taunting and teasing.
A common statement we would hear from our friends was that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That's a statement made when there's a possibility of guilt. The fact that he was falsely arrested and found innocent didn't seem to register with our friends either. It was frustrating and agonizing for the whole Gocke family.
The newspaper account of his arrest, which had been on the front page of the city newspaper several times, had already done its damage to Tim. He had become a victim of false arrest. The police had hurried and coerced a witness at the Marathon gas station to identify Tim as the suspect. At the hearing and under oath, the witness on the stand said Tim was definitely not the person involved in the robbery that evening.
The police were incompetent at every level. They wouldn't even apologize for what I considered to be gross negligence on their part. What we didn't know at the time was how much this would affect Tim in the future. He was certainly angry enough to file a lawsuit against the city police department. Tim had to go out-of-town to find a lawyer who would take his case because lawyers in Fremont wouldn't touch it.
After an exhaustive search for a good lawyer, we finally found one who would take our case. Since she was a big-city lawyer (Toledo, Ohio), her response to us was less than enthusiastic. Apparently, robberies in the City of Toledo were quite frequent. I happened to look at the daily log in their newspaper and counted fifteen of them in one day. In her eyes, this robbery was not a big deal even though it was quite an ordeal for us. She failed to empathize with Tim over his false arrest. Tim stayed as her client anyway for the fear of not being able to find another lawyer.
Not only was she unfazed by Tim's false arrest, she also knew how difficult it was to sue a police department. The police have special immunity against mistakes made during and after an arrest. Unless Tim could prove malicious intent by the police, his chances of winning an award against the City of Fremont would be very hard.
What made this lawsuit so difficult for Tim and all of us was the rehashing of old events and the bitterness that comes with it.. Tim had been grilled by the lawyer to get all the pertinent facts in his case. It was heartbreaking to watch this as his father. I gave him as much encouragement and support as I could for a time that felt forever for both of us.
We plowed onward anyway with an official lawsuit against the city police department of Fremont, Ohio. I say we because I was footing the bill for this endeavor. How can you spell $5000.00? That was a real shocker to me on top of the previous $4000.00 I paid for a defense lawyer. Of course, as a parent no amount of money would keep me from protecting my son. Since Tim was just eighteen years old, I don't think he appreciated the value of money and was still under the assumption that money grows on trees or comes from somewhere unknown.
After many visits to the lawyer's office and a year later, the verdict was finally in and we were quite surprised. We had won a settlement that would stay undisclosed to the public. As for an apology, that wasn't part of the settlement because the city didn't admit any wrongdoing on their part. How one wins a settlement without the admittance of wrongdoing was baffling to me but the lawyer stated it was business as usual.
I told this particular story so the audience would get the true value, meaning, and feelings of what discrimination is like when police are involved in a situation like ours. Although this didn't happen to you, I'm sure the reader can empathize with this type of story because it was so significantly negative for Tim Jr. and the entire Gocke family. The types of feelings that come from being treated unfairly always have a negative impact on those involved.
As Tim's father and even though close to eighteen years have passed, I can still remember clearly what happened to Tim and those feelings of despair, frustration, anger, and disbelief that overcame our family. I can only imagine what Tim went through but have seen unlikely behaviors from him that certainly doesn't match his old personality. In some small way, I do understand the suffering he endured then and what he is going through now but mine is just the tip of the iceberg in comparison. I do know that saying, "being at the wrong place at the wrong time", has been scratched from the Gocke vocabulary.
As a result of this heartbreaking night, Tim began to suffer severe panic attacks. In a way, it is a form of Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder. In addition, he began to drink heavily and sometimes even in the mornings before going to school. As parents, we never knew the extent of Tim's drinking until he told us years later. This was a good example of a drastic behavior change as a result of that shocking event years ago.
Everyone faces discrimination in one form or another during their lives. It is unfortunate that human beings have to be subjected to the cruelty of it all. Every day some form of discrimination is taking its toll on someone in our society. For Tim, he has to live with this traumatic experience the rest of his life. They say that time heals all things that happen to us. Tell that to my son! For me as a father, I have forgiven in my heart, but certainly not forgotten that tragic event years ago.
Timothy N. Gocke, Author August 15, 2019
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