JURY FEEDBACK

I recently completed a trial of a man who had raped a 6 year old girl and an 8 year old boy (when he was 14 and 16 respectively). The 8 year old boy was raped anally 25 times over the course of a year (younger brother). He has also raped a 15 year old girl when he was 17 years and 10 months.

Horrendously difficult case because the rapes of the 6 year old and the 8 year old took place when the man was a juvenile. I have a right to review juvenile files although juvenile files are usually closed. The courts take the privacy and security of juvenile files as seriously as they take anything. When I attempted to obtain the juvenile records, they were missing. I very aggressively pursued those files for almost two years. Eventually, the Assistant Attorney General was able to find copies of partial files which he turned over to me.


Eventually, it came out in trial (after I had already testified and left the courthouse) that the official court records had been removed from storage and hidden by the defense attorney in the current case we were working. The Judge was not happy!
I've always believed that defense attorney was "dirty" and now I know he's dirty.

We won the case anyway and the Jurors provided feedback to the Assistant Attorney Generals that my testimony was critical in their decision. They said a lot of very nice things about my testimony and that feels good. I'd worked very hard on that case because it is important that a young man who does that sort of thing 1) get treatment and 2) that he doesn't ever have a chance to do it again. Yes, he brutally raped three children but he won't do it again---at least not for 40 or 50 years.

The cross examination was absolutely brutal. The defense attorney did everything he could think of to demean me, humiliate me, and undermine my credibility that he could. I was on the stand from 10:30 until 5:55 and it was brutal.

The Assistant Attorney General just called me to give me the jury feedback. The jurors were very impressed with my testimony. This trial took a lot out of me. There were major personal prices to be paid. Every price was worth it for those children and for all the other children who will be spared their fate. Sometimes, you choose to walk right into the face of hell itself so that other people can live safely.