On Friday, my brave and strong daughter sat on the witness chair and told the judge that nobody could tell how much he had hurt her, he broke her heart and trust and deserved to go to jail for what he had done to her and her family and for the first time since this nightmare started, 7 long months ago, she cried. Came down from the stand and broke down in my arms right there in the courtroom.
We had a very big support sytem, everybody who had had something to do with the case was there. The detective, the SW from CPS, the SW from SVU, the principal of her school and us. I felt so proud that my baby was strong enough to do this for her. The defense lawyer, tried to make it look like, OK you had a great summer, you went to Florida and had fun, you and your friends have done many fun things during the summer, you really have a normal life, so you really are not as traumatized as your parents are making it sound. The judge did not like that. Our case was the last one of the day, we sat there for 25 cases, and the judge sentenced everybody to the minimum within the guidlines. So I really was not expecting anything but the minimum which was between 1 to 3 years.
The judge gave him 10 years with 5 years suspended, he will spend the next 5years in jail. He was handcuffed and taken to the back cells crying and I visibly saw my daughter take the biggest breath, look at me and give me the biggest smile I have seeing in a long time, she was relieved the nightmare is over, now we can start healing. Even the prosecutor told us that he was very surprise when the judge went above and beyond the guidelines, since he is known as the "guidelines judge". The prosecutor looked at me daughter and told her that he was very proud for having met such a brave young lady and that he really believed she was the one who made the difference, "you should be very happy".
Thank you to all of you for your support and now I can really say that we are going to be OK, my daughter and family will be moving forward and start healing. Hope that with time and God's help, my daughter will be able to forgive even if never forget. That is one thing that needs to happen before the healing can come completely, her soul needs to forgive to be at peace with herself, but it will not happen for a few years, for now just give thanks to God that the worst of it all is past us.
I pray that many more case will have the good outcome that ours had. I give thanks that CPS, the detective and everybody else involved have gone out of their way to get to the outcome we had. Thanks again for all your support I would not have come this far without all you help, support and insides. Thank you from the deepest of my heart, and I will continue to come and support anybody else who needs it, if I can be of anyhelp to anybody please feel free to contact me.
Bella
Posted on Oct 5, 2009, 9:14 AM from IP address 208.247.58.25
