The first step to a prosperity consciousness is to take responsibility…for your thoughts, words and deeds.

~ Marilyn

If you're headed in the wrong direction, God allows U-turns.

~ Unknown

Redemption

So there she was…Miss Defendant…ready for her close up. :-) Her hair was a new color and styled, face fully made up, high heels and outfit ready for a tv appearance. Perhaps she already knew she would lose the case and no longer needed to portray the innocent, the “ingénue.”

I greeted her and her witness. The witness was the kind young woman friend of hers who had provided me with contact information and who had later revealed the defendant’s identity to the police. It was obvious that the action had not jeopardized their friendship.

I will share a few highlights from our interaction with Judge Wapner. I have not viewed the videotape in all these years, so my comments here are solely from memory. I could easily put the tape in the VCR and view it (although I use only the DVD player these days) but I decided not to. So far, the meat of my story segments have been told from memory, so I think I will continue in that vein and let my subconscious guide me in the highlights. First, I was asked to tell my version of the event to the Judge. Then Judge Wapner turned to Miss Defendant and he was not easy on her. She explained that she was out clubbing with her friends that night and had a few drinks. Judge Wapner asked her how many drinks she had had. She started to reply, “I’d say I had…” He abruptly interrupted her and scolded, “I didn’t ask you what you’d say. I asked you how many drinks you had.” Whew. He was tough.

Then it was time for a commercial and the Judge said that he wanted to look at my car during the commercial break. We were directed to the back door of the studio so the Judge could look at the car and so that my witness could explain how Miss Defendant could easily have caused that dent. While we were waiting for the Judge to come to the back area, the producers had Miss Defendant stand right next to me. I could tell she was nervous. Suddenly she turned to me and said the words that I believe I was sent to the show to hear. She said, “I’m really sorry, Marilyn.” I recall smiling and thanking her and asking her if it was all right if I mentioned her apology on camera. And by the way, this part of the scenario – this conversation – would not be on the videotape. As mentioned, this was during the commercial break and we were not on camera.

As far as I was concerned, from that point on, the rest of the show didn’t really matter. I knew I would win – Miss Defendant never denied what she did – and I was happy to accept whatever the Judge gave me. But I was most happy to have seen Rhonda – she had now graduated in my mind to the status of a real person and I will reveal her name – I was most happy to see her own up to what she did that night in the garage. She took full responsibility for her action and got the nerve to offer an apology. That’s important. If she had been my daughter (and remember I had a son just a few years older than she at the time) I would have been proud of her.

When the cameras started rolling again, the Judge got tough with me. He thought the price of $1,000 was exorbitant to fix my car – but I gave him the actual written quote I got from a good quality body shop. He decided to award me $600.

I don’t know if the current People’s Court programs have the same format, as I have never seen them, but in the original, Doug Llewelyn was the court reporter, who would announce the matter of the dispute at the beginning of the show, then interview the plaintiff and defendant as they were leaving, to get their reactions from the verdict.

He asked me if I was upset about getting only $600 instead of the full amount I had requested. I could sense that he wanted complaints and gripes. But instead I told him that the defendant had apologized to me during the commercial break, took responsibility for what she did, and that’s what was important. I don’t think he knew how to react to that. I walked out very pleased.

I do believe the Universe brought Rhonda and me to People’s Court to play out our personal “karma”, so to speak. She had a lesson to learn in growing up. At some level of my being – the emotional or perhaps spiritual level - I needed an apology. And I wanted to get my car fixed but didn’t believe it should be my financial responsibility. Rhonda certainly didn’t have the money. The Universe knew exactly who did.

But this is not the end of the story. In fact, there is even bigger excitement and a bigger “star” entering the scene, and a large financial wallop about to be delivered by the Universe. Stay tuned…

To be continued...

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