Patch Plainfield, IL --Brian Peppers recalled watching the television show Cops with his grandfather, and how the old man warned him that if he didn't change his ways, he would end up like the shirtless man getting chased down and tackled by the law.
"Boy, if you don't get your stuff together, that's going to be you," Peppers said his grandfather told him.
"No, grandpa, that's not going to be me," Peppers remembered replying.
Maybe Peppers got to keep his shirt on—and wasn't tackled—but he still got slapped with a five-year prison sentence for sexually abusing a 15-year-old girl.
Peppers, 25, of Plainfield got to talk about his childhood and grandfather during a lengthy speech before Will County Judge Sarah Jones handed down her sentence Thursday afternoon. But that wasn't all Peppers told the judge. He also touched on the biological father who wasn't there for him, writing poetry for his baby half-sisters and changing their diapers, his belief that he has an anti-social disorder, how the other inmates in the county jail talk behind his back and have attacked him in his sleep, his love of marijuana, how marijuana is "procrastination's best friend," his spotty employment history, stealing his mother's prescription medication and selling it to buy marijuana, how he was bullied as a child, the way his incarceration has made him a more outgoing person, how he didn't mean to slash a teen with a razor blade he had stolen from his stepfather, how his long-time girlfriend "wasn't right for him," and how he ended up having sex with a 15-year-old when he was 22.
"Here's the thing, your honor," Pepper said. "I didn't think there was any reason to ask her age. If anything, I would have asked her name."
Peppers met the girl at a party in February 2010. The party was at the home of a 20-year-old neighbor, and Peppers claimed he was deceived by the teenage girl's mature appearance.
"The fact that she was drinking alcohol, the fact that she was smoking cigarettes, the fact that it was one in the morning" all factored into Peppers' confusion, he explained.
Assistant State's Attorney Tricia McKenna told Judge Jones about Peppers' three prior felonies and how an evaluation performed at the jail showed he is a high risk to offend again. McKenna said the evaluation revealed that Peppers has a "sheer inability to accept responsibility for this crime or any other crime he's committed in the past."
This surprised Peppers.
"I thought it went pretty well," Peppers said of the evaluation.
Peppers' attorney, Philip Villasenor, asked Judge Jones to hand down a sentence of probation. Villasenor pointed out that probation would prove the more arduous sentence, as Peppers will be released from prison in a matter of months after his time served in jail and day-for-day credit are taken into account. Peppers also would be able to participate in programs to improve himself if he is on probation, Villasenor said.
Peppers asked for probation as well.
"I want to be with my family, and I want to go to school," he said.
But Jones still went with prison, despite Peppers' long-winded case that he should be released and his belief that he has honed his oratory skills while locked up.
"Maybe I should become a salesman," he pondered aloud. He also told the judge he was considering becoming a chef or barber.
"I'm all over the place with what I have to say," Peppers said, "because I think really fast."
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