Apparently Hoodrats are an endangered species

God or Goddess help you if you chase one out of your neighborhood - that is apparently a criminal offense.

Well there's a first time for everything
Guess who's been arrested?

Me, charged with reckless endangerment and simple assault. Why? I tried to protect my neighbor's daughter after first exhausting all other options.

A little over a year ago my neighbor had said she thought her daughter was getting into trouble but wasn't sure and didn't know how to find out or what to do. I offered to investigate it for her, of course, and wouldn't dream of charging even if she could've paid. Turns out her daughter was into using and dealing drugs, burglary, auto theft and prostitution. She and a hoodrat went down at the same time, based on evidence I provided. She has been working hard for a year to get and stay clean and on the straight and narrow. Hoodrat has not. He's been harrassing her day in and day out, violating his probation and hers - no contact order - and not only continuing to deal drugs, but in broad daylight, right in front of her house. Her mother and I have tried calling the police and are told each time that this is a juvenile matter not a police matter, and that we need to stop bothering the police and contact the youth division. Each time we contact them we are told that the youth division does crime prevention through the police athletic league and other programs, but does not actually handle juvenile crime, and that we need to contact Hoodrat's probation officer. His PO and her boss, actually the whole legigh county juvenile justice department, are for some reason not willing to be as helpful as they were the first time around. Usually they don't answer the phone, they have yet to return a phone call, and the rare opportunity to speak with one yields, "We have a lot of kids to watch over, we can't run out every time this one does some little thing, and we don't take orders from you."

No one in law enforcement seems interested in enforcing the law in this case so I went out and chased him off, a week ago last saturday. An hour later I was under arrest.

My friends bailed me out in a day, free on $10,000 bail until trial, found me a good criminal defense attorney, and have been trying to keep my spirits up.

I'm not that worried about the trial, I'm more worried about what to do next to try to protect my neighbor's daughter.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.