At Work With ...

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