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At Work With ...
Scott Cannon, probation officer, Superior Court in Mays
LandingThe Press of Atlantic
City, Section G Page 1, Sunday, December
16, 2001
with staff writer Madelaine
Vitale
I get to work early so that by 8:30 a.m.
I'm at my desk and out of everyone's way.
I move slower than most
people because of my surgeries and I don't want a train of people stuck
behind me.
I've had three brain tumor surgeries. My first was eight
years ago. The second was five years ago. The most recent will be a year
ago this February.
I'm a probation officer, but technically I'm a
case manager. I handle pre-trial intervention cases. Half of this stack of
cases is PTIs to be interviewed. The other stack the Prosecutor's Office
rejected.
I enjoy my job because every case is
different.
Usually when the people come in to be arraigned, I
interview them. I ask them a lot of personal questions, like what type of
childhood they had. That gives a good picture of a person, through those
sorts of questions. I sometimes take them down to be fingerprinted if they
haven't been already.
Excuse me. (Cannon picks up the phone.) Team
B. Yes. Speaking. She didn't know who I was or what I was talking about
and I asked her to confirm or deny basic things I had asked her.
...
Sorry. Anyway, I graduated from Villanova (University) in 1987
with a double major in political science and psychology. I started to get
my master's degree right away but I started to get headaches. When they
got really bad I went home. I was a limousine driver for a while. Then I
got my first brain tumor surgery.
I was in a wheelchair for a while
and doctors thought I wouldn't walk. I really think spite had something to
do with my walking again. I wanted to prove it to them that I could do
it.
Even the most sophisticated doctors said there was no earthly
or scientific reason I lived. I guess it was a miracle. I really think
going to church every week has something to do with it.
I went back
and got my master's degree in English at Villanova and graduated in May of
2001.
I always wanted to get into politics and law. I might go
back to law school someday.
mystory
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