Mama Manis Mania

First she was doing detention with her delayed daughter. Now Susan Manis is doing time for her deadbeat delinquent son.

The arrest warrant was issued after Manis failed to make a monthly payment on fees and fines levied against one of her sons when he was a juvenile.

"I accepted responsibility for them," Manis said. Because her son, now 19, doesn't have a steady job, she agreed to send the court $50 a month to repay about $10,000 he owes from three different convictions of offenses as a juvenile. She said she was unable to make last month's payment.

She said she was handcuffed, put in a patrol car and taken to a holding cell at the Brazoria County Jail.

While the officers and jailers treated her with respect, being in jail wasn't pleasant.

"I just cried at first," she said.

Her husband, Steve Manis, called a judge, who called the jail and ordered her release. She was in court Monday and agreed to make a payment by Thursday.

Frankly, I am not disturbed by this arrest. What does she thinks happens to folks who fail to pay their fines? That her husband was able to get her sprung without a hearing is much more disturbing to me. Why shouldn’t she have to wait in jail like anyone else would? It must be that she thinks that the rules don’t apply to her and her family. Maybe that’s why she has such a difficult time allowing her children to accept responsibility and punishment for their own wrongdoing. I can now certainly understand why the people of Pearland rejected Susan and her husband for school board last year.

I also have to wonder if this is the reason for her failure to complete her reply to my earlier post the other night. She suddenly trailed off, and didn't come back to finish. Maybe it was because she was being "cuffed and stuffed" by her local police.