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Right in the middle of a work day, Gisele Pollack, 55, declared she needed help. “I have some health issues,” she said. “I’m going into treatment for them.” Pollack has battled alcoholism, and apparently suffered a relapse, as she “acted erratically at work” — crying, yelling and screaming at her assistant, and demanding her car keys be returned. Her job? For nine years, she has been a judge in Broward County, Fla. Her specialty: drug cases. Two days later, she was back in her courtroom for an appearance by dozens of offenders who had graduated from a rehab program. “You’ve got to remain vigilant,” she told them, to avoid a relapse. “She understands the problems of addiction,” says a defense attorney — “that it’s a disease, and she is doing the best she can to get people through the criminal justice system without having to bear the scar for the rest of their lives.” (RC/South Florida Sun-Sentinel) ...Sometimes showing is better than telling.
Original Publication Date: 12 January 2014
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 20.

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