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Kevin Green apologizes to community of Mammoth |
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Saturday, 14 November 2009 |
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By Erick Sugimura
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
 Mammoth Times photo/Erick Sugimura Former restaurant entrepreneur Kevin Green speaks to the Mammoth Lakes Noon Rotary Club “I want to apologize to the community,” Kevin Green told the Mammoth Lakes Noon Rotary at its luncheon on Nov. 5.
In 2006, Green was an developer making news with his efforts to buy four restaurants in Mammoth Lakes. However, the news about Green later centered about his arrest for felony fraud for writing a bad check in the amount of $34,000. Recently, Mono County Superior Court Judge Ed Forstenzer sentenced Green to three years of unsupervised probation, fines and fees, with credit for time already served.
The reason his life was derailed: alcoholism.
Green stood before the Rotary Club with 20 months of sobriety behind him and nothing but praise for the community that he felt he let down a few short years ago.
“I was wrong and I love this place,” Green said. “I just got really far off track.”
According to Green, his drinking had lead to anti-social behavior and bipolar tendencies. A warrant had been taken out for his arrest in 2007 when a complaint was filed against him in a Mono County court and Green was arrested when he re-entered the country after an overseas trip.
“I knew right away that it was the experience I needed,” he said. “I just needed to get back to the guy I was before I started drinking.”
Green spent 16 days in Atlanta in “a very tough jail” before Mono County Sheriff’s Deputies arrived to bring him back, handcuffed on two flights, to serve time in Bridgeport.
“Bridgeport turned into almost a spiritual retreat,” he said. “I was able to do the time and not let the time do me.”
After the charges were dropped to a misdemeanor and Green was released, friends told him not to go back to Mammoth, but he felt obligated to face up to those he had wronged or failed.
“It’s a pleasure to be here, standing on my own two feet, and see what I can do for the community,” he said. “I am everything you saw on the news… and I think I am more than that.”
While Green intends to start giving back to the community soon, he hopes to be able to work quietly and on smaller projects so that his efforts won’t be misinterpreted or be overshadowed by his past behavior. |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 20 November 2009 )
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