All Dressed Up and Nowhere to go

Some people, like Bill Gates, make money the hard way. They zero in on their passion, turn it around and work on it through many a sleepless night. Others, like 23 year-old Richard Rodriguez, traipse along their chosen path, too even if it is the wrong one.

In 2007, Rodriguez, a gang member with enough body ink to keep a tattoo parlor alive, was involved in a police chase that ended when an El Monte police officer kicked him in the head.

Rodriguez and his lawyer, former LA councilman, Nick Pachecho, are suing the city for 5-million dollars, which is about 4-million, nine hundred ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine dollars more than he is worth.

After all, a kick in the head may be just what he needed. He apparently didn't get enough of them growing up, which is probably what led him to jump into a gang to begin with. Although he claims to have suffered from dizziness and blurred vision since the incident, it was probably not much different before then.

His booking photo and the photoshopped picture his lawyer is proposing he copy for his court appearance may already give him an out, should he follow his counsel's advice, which he probably will. In the photoshopped after pictures, the gang tattoos are camouflaged and he sports a conservative suit and Tom Selleck-style, "Magnum PI" fuzzy mustache that hides the name of the gang that that genius tattooed on his upper lip. Should Rodriguez win and collect a payout from the city, then his victims will hopefully line up and sue him in return.

In the meantime, see how (sort of) nice he could look if he wanted to?

(courtesy of the Los Angeles Times, July 23, 2009)