How much could she have made working at that garden? Let's go crazy and say they paid her $20/hr. One week. $800. 2 weeks? $1600. What kind of penalty could she incur for that? Hardly something for which one would have immunity.
I gave the reference earlier about unemployment. Not much of a penalty. And not paying taxes on $1600? That certainlu would not be much of a big deal.
For what would she get immunity?
Yep, pretty much for that - the penalty for working for money under the table while collecting unemployment. I'm not sure how much we're allowed to relate from the other source, but it's my understanding that Dede claims to also be a victim in this as well, as her employer forced payment on her over her protests, thereby forcing her to accept money for work while collecting unemployment (I don't know if her employer also forced her to refrain from reporting that income once she was paid.. that part was naturally glossed over). And that the immunity would then be for that "small misunderstanding" of tax and unemployment fraud. And in return for that immunity, DDS apparently repeated the same story she had told a thousand times before. etc etc etc.
You know, reading back through the archives, DDS's People story, the gross aggressive sexts between TMH and that guy (that mentions DDS), the other stuff.... my take home message about DDS is that she's got a very dim intellect, a simple sort of mind, and is very easily led and was thrilled to rush in and become part of a dramatic situation. She comes across as "that friend" that smarter bullies seem to always have - the one that is so grateful for their attention that she'll do pretty much anything, thoughtlessly, to be part of the group. The smarter person usually has someone like that to unquestioningly stick with them, do the drudge work, buy the burner phones, be their yes-man. I feel like DDS was Terri's toady. I don't get the sense that she's evil - just kind of dimwitted and easily led.
Like how when Terri was doing something truly questionable (legally or morally) like lying about being "upset about the baby" as a cover story for driving to a booty call, she certainly didn't tell DDS. She needed DDS to be in crisis mode on Terri's behalf, ready and willing to do anything to defend her new best friend. It wasn't (IMO) a friendship of equals, but Terri manipulating DDS around to suit her needs. And I think for that to work, DDS had to think she was on a dramatic conquest to protect a wrongly-accused woman.
Look how openly and in a sort of thrilled tone DDS told People magazine that she and Terri thought the police were listening in to their conversations so they would sneak outside to talk and only ever talk about "family and kids" inside the house when they believed they were overheard. Or the disposable phones. Or sleeping by the front door clutching a fire extinguisher to "protect Terri" in case the bad guys who took Kyron came back for Terri! Would any thinking person really believe something like that would happen in real life? A kidnapper takes Kyron, then a week later when the case is on the front page and police are bugging and staking out Terri's home, the kidnapper would come back through the front door to kill the person who was, essentially, his scapegoat? Seriously DDS believed this? And believed that she would shoot him with the fire extinguisher like on Home Alone and save her friend and solve the case?
I mean the only options are that DDS is so naive that she actually believed that, actually believed that was what she was involved in - that romantic, exciting, "scary" but cartoonesque caper - or she is so naive as to think that it made for a convincing cover story. Any way I look at it, DDS to me seems like someone who was used for her dimwittedness. Like she was manipulated to become an alibi, or a defender, or an unwitting accomplice, or maybe to even take the fall for some part of the crime.
I don't know if that's true, but it's interesting to me to look at TMH's actions from that standpoint and see if any part of that holds up.
raying:
