Hot Potatoes Sneak Preview: Free Kendra

Here’s the lead to Thursday’s Hot Potatoes column …

Dunno who deserves the biggest Hot Potato in the judicial two-step that will land scared-straight Kendra Goodrick of Hayden back in prison – 1st District Judge John Mitchell for overstepping his authority. The Kootenai County Prosecutor’s Office for appealing her case. The Idaho AG’s office for joining the prosecutor’s appeal. Kendra is the 29-year-old mother of a newborn who embraced Mitchell’s second chance and turned her life around. A recovering meth addict, Kendra has cleaned up her life since Mitchell put her on probation in January 2006. Not only did she land a job with a call center, marry her boyfriend and give birth to her first child April 10, but she’s stayed clean, continues to seek help with her addiction, and even volunteers to walk dogs at the Kootenai Humane Society. She’s considered a model of success. The prosecutor’s office rewarded Kendra’s turnaround by winning an appeal that Mitchell acted outside his jurisdiction when he granted her probation. I don’t have room to go into the specifics here. Now, Kendra’s waiting for the gendarmes to break up her family and lead her back to prison, where she’ll wait for at least six months for a hearing before the Commission of Pardons and Parole. Someone here needs a psych-illogical exam. And it ain’t Kendra.