Standing Up to a Bully Cost Me $600

Standing Up to a Bully Cost Me $600

I’ll never confront anyone at an AA meeting again.

Photo by Umanoide on Unsplash

It was 1998, and I was 7 years sober and still attending AA meetings. There was this lanky loser named Logan who used to come to meetings with his guitar. He thought he was Eric Clapton the way he sat playing before and after the meetings, but he sounded more like a toddler plucking at those strings. Everyone ignored him. You do get weirdos who try to get sober, and he was one of them.

A young, meek, and quite plump girl named Lisa came into the rooms of AA to get sober. I don’t know if loser Logan got rebuffed by her or he just saw her as prey, but he started verbally attacking her.

Lisa spoke about leaving an abusive relationship one night, and loser Logan came over to her afterward and said she probably deserved the abuse, laughing as he said it.

Another time he knocked her purse off the table deliberately. Another time he made oinking sounds around her.

I had enough of watching this asshole bully this young girl. One night before the meeting, I went over to Logan, who was sitting on a railing smoking a cigarette. I had to look up at him, but I told him I didn’t like the way he was treating Lisa. Enraged, he told me to fuck off and got off the railing. I thought he was going to assault me. I pushed him; it barely made him move.

Then, I ran inside the building where my husband was and told him about the incident. He ran outside and told loser Logan if he ever tried to harm me, he’d have that guitar of his shoved up his ass.

Logan didn’t go to the meeting but came back a while later; there was a disruption at the meeting. The loser bought his landlord, Big Cindy, a heavily tattooed (before tattoos were in style) low-life who rented a barn to Logan, where he lived.

Cindy yelled at me that there would be a price to pay for assaulting Logan. Assaulting? What was she talking about?

They were told to leave by the person leading the meeting, and they did, surprisingly. I think they just wanted witnesses to hear what I supposedly had done.

About a week later, I was home alone when there was a knock at the door. A young policeman was standing on my porch.

As I opened the door, he said, “I’m looking for a Carole Olsen. Does she live here?”

I told him I was her, all 5 ft 1 inch ( I hadn’t shrunk yet) and 106 lbs ( I used to be thin when I was into running) of me.

He looked puzzled by my response. He told me that an assault charge was filed against me by Logan Tanner as he held out a subpoena for me to appear in court.

I looked just as surprised. I told the policeman that I pushed him slightly because I thought he was going to attack me. The cop told me that because I touched him, he was calling it an assault. All it takes is any contact to call it an assault.

The policeman knew people like loser Logan just wanted one thing: money. He felt really bad for me, but what could he do? Nothing! he advised me to get legal counsel.

I told my husband when he came home, and he said that we’re getting a lawyer. I told my daughter and her then-boyfriend, and they laughed. They said they would get me a poster for my cell, just like the one in The Shawshank Redemption. I had to laugh; it was funny.

I met with the lawyer. I forget his name, but he was humorous. He joked about me being a big bruiser. He told me not to worry. He would put loser Logan in his place.

The day in court had come. My husband, my AA sponsor, and a sobbing me sat in a row way in the back of the courtroom. My lawyer walked in and immediately said it would be okay, patting me on the arm.

In came big Cindy, followed by loser Logan, who trailed behind her like a puppy dog. My lawyer went over to them, and I watched as they talked. Cindy got meaner and uglier talking to my lawyer, while Logan just stood there, looking like one of the strings on his guitar, wimpy and plucked.

They went to the front of the courtroom and spoke to someone. After that, big Cindy and the dweeby loser Logan left the courtroom. You could hear the door slam as Cindy punched her way out the door, making everyone turn their heads.

My lawyer came over and told us the case had been dismissed. He told big Cindy and loser Logan that we were going to countersue them. He said that their case was fraudulent and he would prove it if they didn’t dismiss the charges.

I was so relieved; I guess the $600 for the lawyer was worth my peace of mind. But why did any of this happen in the first place?

We never saw loser Logan or big Cindy again, thank God. Lisa, the girl I was trying to defend, stopped going to meetings.

I never stood up to anyone acting like a bully at AA meetings again. One guy even tried to bully me about not knowing the Steps of AA. I just walked away.

After many years, I stopped going to AA. I was hearing the same thing over and over. I was sick of the ones who thought they knew it all. I was sick of the losers who came to the meetings occasionally. I have remained sober for 35 years at this point. I’ve done it, a day at a time.

Thanks to Deanna Bugalski for a prompt I could relate to.

August 26: Deanna Bugalski 💋 asks,“Have you ever witnessed something as a bystander (a stranger in trouble, an argument turning ugly, someone treated unfairly) and felt compelled to step in?” Write about a time you crossed from watching to acting. What did you see, what made you get involved (or hold back), and what happened next?

Here is an answer to the prompt by Adrienne Beaumont. She doesn’t like injustice, either.

[embed]I Never Sit and Watch: It’s Not In My Nature Fortunately, I’m Australianmedium.com