03x47 - Weed, Wheels, and Wisecracks

[bunniefuu]

Police stopped you in your car.
They found two handguns.

They put you in jail.
Who did you call?

-My father.
-No. You called your daddy.

You called your daddy and you said,
"Come and get me out.

I'm in jail now."

Don't be a wiseguy with me, 'cause
I eat people like you for breakfast.

[narrator] This is Judy Justice.

[theme music playing]

[narrator] Marvin Navas Sr. is suing
his son, Marvin Navas Jr.,

for bail and attorney fees
after his son was arrested.

[Kevin] Court come to order. All rise.

Have a seat, please.

Hello, Judge. Case 3087,
Navas vs Navas.

-Thank you.
-You're welcome.

How old are you, Mr. Navas?

Twenty-five.

[Judy] How long have you been living
at home with your mother and father?

[Marvin Jr.] All my life.

[Judy] Are you still living there?

[Marvin Jr.]
Not right now at the moment, no.

-[Judy] Where are you living?
-With my grandma in Van Nuys.

And you left because you had
a disagreement with your father.

A huge argument. Yes, ma'am.

[Judy] Shh.

Some time ago...
you're gonna tell me the date...

-police stopped you in your car, correct?
-Correct.

[Judy] On what date was that?

Uh, about two years ago.
Super Bowl Sunday on February 14th.

On Valentine's Day.

I believe so, ma'am.

[Judy] 2022.

[Marvin Jr.] 2022, yes.

And you were stopped because, according to
what I read, you were smoking.

But you must have been smoking
something other than cigarettes.

Uh, marijuana, ma'am. Yes.

-[Judy] Okay. In what state do you live?
-[Marvin Jr.] California.

[Judy] Was smoking marijuana in a car...

you were the driver of the car, correct?

-Yes, ma'am.
-[Judy] Well...

is that ill*gal
in the state of California?

[Marvin Jr.] I believe so.

I would say so.
Just like you can't

have a bottle of vodka
and drinking it while you're driving.

And when the police stopped you
for committing a crime...

which endangered a lot of people,

because you know,
when you're not totally together,

you're not supposed to be driving a car...

they found two handguns.

Correct.

[Judy] Who else was in the car...
it's not funny.

I happen to not think it's funny.

I know that you think it's funny,
but it's not funny.

I mean, I got off scot-free, so...

I'm not facing ten years, ma'am.

How many... how many other people
were in the car?

I believe four other people.
I had a full car.

[Judy] You know how many other people
were in the car. You were driving.

I just said four, ma'am.

[Judy] Four others.

Yeah. Full car.

And where were the g*ns found, sir?

I don't know.
I was not the police, so...

[Judy] No. But you were in the car.

Don't be a wise guy with me, 'cause
I eat people like you for breakfast.

I don't think you're
either cute or accomplished.

[chuckles]

You're neither cute or accomplished.

-I know I'm cute.
-[Judy] At age 25,

-you don't live on your own.
-I know I'm cute.

[Judy] You either live with
your mother or your father.

Then when they throw you out,
you go and live with your grandmother.

I neither think that you're
cute or accomplished.

Maybe young girls do.
I'm an old lady.

I fail to see your attractiveness,

and I fail to see
how any of this is funny.

You ever see my smile, ma'am?
It's pretty attractive.

It depends. Let me ask around.

You find that attractive? No.

Whitney, you're younger than I am.
A little bit older than Sarah.

You find that attractive?

-Absolutely not.
-[Marvin Jr.] They wanna keep their job.

It's not... it's not only not attractive,

but when your grandmother watches that,
she's gonna think you're a fool.

Along with a lot of other people.

And it's going to be my joy...
my absolute joy...

to fill in the blanks.

So you don't know where
the two other g*ns were found.

And everything got thrown out, so now...

-you have no adult criminal record.
-Correct.

Did you have a juvenile criminal record?

Answer the question.
Did you have a juvie record?

Of course you did.

I know everything.

Wise guys like you always have
a juvie record.

So when they booked you,
they put you in jail.

Now, as a juvie, you had been
taken into custody before,

but I don't think that you had been put

in an adult kind of situation
in an adult facility.

So let me ask you a question.

Did you call your girlfriend?

-Nope.
-[Judy] Did you call your priest?

Nope.

[Judy] Did you call your family physician?

Nope.

Yeah. I'll assume for the record, Whitney,

I'm going to assume that
this accomplished 25-year-old

who lives under the auspices
of his parents or his grandma

doesn't know how to say "no"
or "no, ma'am" or "no, Your Honor."

He says "nope."

I assume, sir, that you are
not a graduate of any university.

Nope.

No. See?

So you didn't call any of those people.

Who... they gave you a phone call...
who did you call?

I called my dad, told him to get me out.

[Judy] Just a second. You called your dad.

[audience laughs]

[Judy mock crying]
"I'm 24 years-old,

and I live with you.
I got... I was smoking in the car,

and they pulled me over and there were
two g*ns and I'm in jail now."

Yeah. What did you call your father for?

[Marvin Jr.] To get me out.

[Judy] Why?

That's... it's his job
to protect me, right?

-You have kids, ma'am?
-[Judy] What?

You have kids, ma'am?

Five. And 13 grandchildren.
One great-grandchild.

And I want to tell you something.
This is one of them.

And the last person they would call...

any of them...

if they got pulled over smoking a joint,

and there were g*ns found in the...
the very last person

that they would call is...

-You.
-Me.

The very last person they would call.

And they actually consider me
a pretty good mother and grandmother.

But they know: You're gonna act
like a fool, call somebody else.

So you called your daddy.

-You called your daddy.
-My father.

-No. You called your daddy.
-[Marvin Jr.] My father.

-You called...
-My father.

You called your daddy and you said,
"Come and get me out."

And he did, and he got you out.

He paid a bail bondsman,
which is what this case is about.

You think this was gonna be easy?

Not easy. You don't mind
my doing that to him, do you?

-No, ma'am.
-[Judy] Great.

-Are you his mother?
-Yes, ma'am.

[Judy] Is he your only son?

He's my only son.

[Judy] He's your only son. I could tell.

[audience laughs]

I could tell.

It's nothing against you,
but you can always tell

when a little boy has been
pampered by his mother

and thinks that he's the cat's meow,
even though he's unaccomplished.

He got you out and he got you a lawyer,

and that's what
this case is about, Mr. Navas.

-[Marvin Sr.] Yes, ma'am.
-This is about the bail

and the money that you spent on a lawyer.

-That he spent.
-Don't speak!

-[Marvin Jr.] That he spent.
-If you speak...

If you speak unless I speak to you, sir,
I'm gonna throw you out.

-Do you understand?
-I'm sorry, ma'am.

Or I'm gonna tell Kevin
to put you in your seat.

-Sorry, ma'am.
-[Judy] Very good.

So when I speak to you like I did before,
you can answer me.

Now I'm speaking to your daddy.

[audience laughs]

You got a tax return
and you gave it to your father.

That's either a "yes" or a "no."
That's not "I don't remember."

"I don't remember" means
that you're dull-witted.

-Are you dull-witted?
-No, ma'am.

Yeah. Okay. You're not dull-witted.

You're a wise-a*s,
but you're not dull-witted.

[theme music playing]

[narrator] Marvin Navas Sr. claims
his son, Marvin Navas Jr.,

owes for the cost of bail
and attorney fees

after his son was arrested
for ill*gal firearms.

Okay, so you are suing him for the $2,800,

or whatever it was, for the bail bondsman.

And you also paid an attorney $14,000.

-Yes, ma'am.
-[Judy] Now, when you paid this money

to the lawyer and to the bail bondsman,
what kind of work was your son doing?

Um, before that, he was working
for a security company.

-[Judy] As a what?
-In the warehouse.

[Judy] So he was working at
a minimum wage kind of job.

-Yes, ma'am.
-[Judy] And so you knew that

he didn't have $14,000 or $16,000.

You knew that he didn't have that.

And he's living with you
instead of living on his own

'cause he's not even earning enough money
to have his own apartment.

Couldn't pay for his own gas,
electric, utilities,

water, heat, air conditioning.

So he's living in his room...
in his old room.

Yes, ma'am.

[Judy] Ultimately, the case was dismissed.

[Marvin Sr.]
It's not completely dismissed, ma'am.

The statute of limitations hasn't expired.

[Judy] So is the case still pending?

Yes, 'cause, uh, I have this email...

-Can I see what he's got?
-[Kevin] Yes, ma'am.

[Judy] So the case has not been dismissed.

No, ma'am.

[Judy] The D.A. just hasn't filed on it.

-Yes, ma'am.
-Oh. Got it now.

Okay, so I can't ask him anything else
about these pending charges,

because right now his attorney's not here

and his attorney would not like
for me to do that.

Now, was your son still working
in the warehouse

when you had this incident with him
that caused him to move out?

No. Not when he moved out, ma'am, no.

[Judy] Where was he working?

[Marvin Sr.] He wasn't. He got laid off.

[Judy] When did he get laid off?

I gotta say probably, like, August.

[Judy] August of 2023?



'22, oh.

-That's '23, actually.
-[Judy] Shh!

-'23, actually.
-Well, but this is interesting, sir.

-[Marvin Sr.] That's right.
-Because you say in your complaint

that the charges were
fully dropped against him

in March of 2023, but that's not so.

That's what I assumed, ma'am.

Well, no, but it wasn't.
Not according to this letter.

And the reason I got that email
from the lawyer, ma'am,

is 'cause I reached out to her
to ask her about

the bail bond's exoneration letter

'cause my name was on the bail bond.

And then that's when she sent
that email stating that...

Okay, so now I want you to tell me, sir...
you see, the boy...

-The man.
-[Judy] The boy...

says that he never
had an agreement with you...

-[Marvin Jr.] Never did.
-to pay...

He never had an agreement with you
to pay you back.

And that what you did,
you did because he's your son

and you're his father.

And the reason that
you threw him out of the house

was that you came home from work one day...
what kind of work do you do?

I'm in sales, ma'am.

That you came home for work one day...
he was not working...

and he was... according to you,
according to your papers,

he was lying on the couch
and smoking marijuana.

-Well, uh...
-That's what you say here.

[Marvin Sr.] What happened, ma'am, is...

It was on a weekend.

I was drinking a beer,

and he went out... he left and came back...
and he smelled like marijuana

in front of us and I said...

Then that's when I asked him, I go,
"If you got money to buy marijuana,

how come you're not
making me whole on this?"

He made some payments on this.

Because when he filed his income taxes
on the years before,

we would keep his returns
to put towards what he owed.

Just a second.
Is what you're telling me

that you had an agreement with him

for when he got a refund on his taxes
that he would give you that money?

Right. He was making payments before.

-[Judy] He was making payments.
-Yes, ma'am.

How much did he make in payments?

He made a total of about $2,500.

Can I see the document
that you're looking at?

Yes, ma'am.

[Judy] Okay.

This says that you did, in fact,
make some payments to your father.

Income tax return.

And that was in April of 2023 that you
did, in fact, make a payment to him

of $1,222. Is that correct?

I believe so.
If it says right there...

[Judy] Just a second.

I'm asking you a question, boy.

If it says right there.
I don't recall that, so...

[Judy] Okay. Do you recall that you got
a refund on your taxes?

Um, maybe. It could have been
a severance check. I don't know.

All right, well, I can see I'm not getting
anywhere with you because you're a moron.

[audience laughs]

And what you really don't know, sir,
is how to read the room.

And you know, sometimes people learn that
when they're very young.

Sarah learned how to read the room
when she was three.

Doesn't require an education.

It requires listening
to what's going on around you.

So if you listened
to what I was asking you before,

it's perfectly logical
that your father might think

that because you had money
to go out and buy weed,

you should be paying him.

But in reality, he had no expectation
of being repaid

'cause you had either no job
or a low-paying job.

That's a perfectly reasonable thing
for me to think as a parent.

-Do you understand?
-Yes, ma'am.

Okay. But when I ask you...
and I'm sure that you remember,

because we're not talking about
something that happened

ten years ago but a few months ago...

You got a tax return, 1,200 bucks,
and you gave it to your father.

That's either a "yes" or a "no."
That's not "I don't remember."

"I don't remember" means that
you are dull-witted.

-Are you dull-witted?
-No, ma'am.

Okay. You're not dull-witted.

You're a wise-a*s,
but you're not dull-witted.

[audience laughs]

Then you made several other payments
in April of 2022.

You again gave your father $1,123.

-Does that sound familiar?
-Nope.

No?

[Marvin Jr.]
He could've typed that up yesterday.

[Judy] He could have. Just a second.
He could have.

So what you're telling me is

that you never made
any payments to your father.

Not that I recall, ma'am.

No, no. That's not
an "I don't recall."

That means that you're dull-witted.

-Somebody's gonna hurt him one day.
-[Marvin Jr.] Who?

-Somebody's gonna hurt him one day, yeah.
-Who?

That kind of wise guy always
gets himself into trouble. Always.

[theme music playing]

[narrator] Marvin Navas Sr. is accusing
his son, Marvin Navas Jr.,

for refusing to pay back
bail money and attorney fees

after his son was arrested.

Now, if you, in fact, made payments
to him, you would know.

"I don't remember exactly what they were,

but I did pay him some money when I could

when I was working
or when I got my tax return."

You're a wise guy,
but you're not dull-witted.

So I want you to think hard.
Don't give me "I don't remember."

Did you or did you not give your father

your income tax refund in 2022 and 2023?

Yes.

[Judy]
Perfect. That's all we need to know.

Now I know that you're just a wise guy,
but you're not dull-witted.

Okay. So, actually, the junior...

-[Marvin Jr.] Not a junior.
-You are.

Well, you are his junior, aren't you?
Your last name is Navas.

-Navas.
-[Judy] Navas.

Well, he's the senior here today.
You're the junior.

If you say so, ma'am.

Yes, I do say so.

And I have to tell you, sir,
that but for the fact

that your son has acknowledged

that he turned over to you
his income tax returns

as partial payment for this lawyer,

I would actually dismiss your case.

I'm telling you I would dismiss your case.

Because you actually did
what a parent is supposed to do

when their ne'er-do-well kid
acts like a moron, smokes dope in a car

with four other morons...
two of whom have g*ns.

You know... [laughs]
but you don't want him to go to prison

and you've probably gone to pick him up
at police stations before.

-Yes, ma'am.
-[Judy] When he was young.

Now he's getting older.

The only thing that I can suggest to you

is, despite the fact
that your wife adores him...

you know, he's her baby...

you have to let him stand on his own
because he's a wise guy.

And somebody...
somebody's gonna hurt him one day.

-[Marvin Sr.] And that's...
-Who?

-[Judy] Somebody's gonna hurt him one day.
-Who?

That's... that's my biggest fear.

That kind of wise guy always
gets himself into trouble. Always.

But, but for these two payments,
I would have dismissed your case.

However, he did make two payments,
which he acknowledges,

so the debt is real.

He acknowledges that it was a debt
by making two payments.

Do you have the bill from the lawyer?

-[Marvin Sr.] Yes, ma'am.
-I'd like to see it.

Here's the bill. Here's the receipt.

And this is what we paid.

[Judy]
May I see the bill for the bail bondsman?

[Marvin Sr.] Yes, ma'am.

Here's the, um, bill,

and then this is the email
that will correspond with that.

The stuff with the lawyer.

I got you an email that...

I'm sorry, ma'am.

Okay. Is he living with your mother
or your wife's mother?

My mother, ma'am.

-[Judy] Your mother.
-Yes, ma'am.

[Judy] How does she feel about that?

-She loves me.
-Shh. I didn't ask you anything.

You know, she loves him.
She's torn up.

[Judy] Does she have anybody else
living with her?

My brother.

[Judy] Mm-hmm.

And to the best of your knowledge,
is your son working now?

No. I don't know.
I haven't spoken to him since May.

This is the first time I've seen him.

Are you currently employed?

I'm looking for work.
No, I'm not employed right now.

I'm looking for work.

Okay. Well, in case you find work,

I'm entering a judgment
on behalf of your father for $10,000,

which is the court's legal limit.

He paid the lawyer a minimum of $10,000,
and he paid the bail bondsman.

I would hope that your legal case
ends well for you, sir.

I appreciate it, ma'am.

I do hope it ends well.

And it seems to me that you have
certain, innate intelligence.

If you waste it, it's your life
that you're wasting. Nobody else's.

We're done here. Thank you.

-Thank you, ma'am.
-[Kevin] This court is adjourned.

I don't think it was fair.
You know, my dad spent his own money.

He paid the lawyer himself.
He got the bail bondsman himself.

I just made one call
when I was in jail.

I was very happy with it.

Um, you know, I needed
to have this for closure.

I believe he's my dad,
he has obligations to,

you know, for his son...
to just get me out.

I don't think I owe him a dime.

Well, you know, if that's what he thinks,
what can I do?

All you can do is be a father.

He's not really a crier like that,
so for him just to

fake cry in front of the judge,
I think it's ridiculous.

I just didn't want him to go

and be in a situation
that'll be worse for him.

To be honest, I won't speak
to him for a very long time.

If we reconcile, we reconcile.

But my focus is just my three girls...
my mom and my two little sisters.

And hopefully our relationship
can move on and get better.

I'm cute, but I'm not going to jail.
[laughing]

It's just tough love,
and I just gotta learn that, you know,

deal with it as it comes
and be prepared.

You know, sometimes I take for granted

the legalese and the elements
that are in the background of my mind

when we listen to litigants out here.

Because I know for you and for me,

as soon as we heard
that he made just one payment,

that's acknowledgement of the debt

and therefore he knew it wasn't just

his dad being the best dad in the world
getting him out of jail,

but a loan and an acknowledgement
of a debt if he paid one payment.

He didn't know that. [chuckles]

He thought that it was going to be
great for him that he paid.

'I paid him. I gave him the money.

The rest of it was
just him being a good dad.'

You know, so he didn't know
which way to go.

He didn't know which way was up or down.

He didn't know what was good for him,
bad for him.

-But...
-[chuckles] You know,

what I found interesting
about that young man

-is he's clearly intelligent.
-Sure.

And he spoke too much out of turn,

but he was clearly articulate.

You know, life is a journey.
It has a beginning, a middle,

and... unfortunately for everybody...
it has an end.

In between is your journey.

Mm-hmm.

And that is a wasted journey,

because he's just a wise guy

and he's not taking advantage of these
wonderful, innate gifts that he has

of being able to communicate
and being nice-looking

and looking healthy.

-Just a waste.
-Yeah.

And it's really too bad,
because the journey is finite.

What you do with it is yours.

[narrator] Are you having
a family dispute?



[theme music playing]