A Truckload of Judicial Bullcrap!

I got a phone call today from a friend who was seriously upset. She had just received some news that is not only heartbreaking to her and to me, but should also be alarming to everyone I know. This story really starts this past spring. I was having some difficulty sleeping one night, so I stayed up and read a book. I had just finished as my phone started ringing. Knowing that my friend would not be calling me at 3 am for just any reason, I answered the phone. She was very upset and demanded that we talk, and my only thought was ‘What the heck did I do?!’ however, the moment I got in the car those thoughts changed. All I had to do was look at her, I could see the torment in her eyes as she silently begged me to make everything alright. I knew in that moment that I had to be strong for her. I calmly asked her what had happened, and listened in silent horror as she broke down and sobbed in my arms at the end of her tale. I calmly but firmly insisted that I was taking her to the hospital, and once there, I filled out all the required paperwork, found someone to give her a priesthood blessing and gave a statement to the officer that arrived at the hospital for all the evidence and helped convince her to press charges when she wasn’t really sure she should or not. I even had to handle the phone call from my friends parents, explaining where we were and why we were there. I took her home and offered her a place to stay if she felt alone. I listened as she cried and I have tried to follow up with the case in the several months since. After this all happened, this man was arrested, but was only in jail for a few hours. Weeks passed before the sheriff even got around to getting my statement officially, when he finally did, he assured my friend that this would be taken care of in only a few weeks. A few months passed and there was no change in the case. Suddenly, word that he was getting ready to skip town surfaced, it seems that he is wanted in New York for similar charges and he decided to flee to Nevada to avoid all the legal chaos. Wyoming decided to hurry and process the paperwork or something so that he couldn’t leave and New York couldn’t charge him til they were done, then I never heard much more. Today my friend calls me and tells me that the county attorney decided that he just didn’t want to press charges, so New York cant do anything to him because his stuff is unresolved in Wyoming, and Wyoming isn’t going to do anything. So this man who has assaulted more than one girl, will get off unscathed. He will be allowed to keep his cushy state job with insurance and benefits, and his record will be untarnished so no one will ever know what he did. At least two girls are reeling in the aftermath of his actions, maybe more, and there is absolutely nothing that can be done to change it, it seems. Now, call me crazy, or psycho, or even pissed off, I don’t really care, because at this point it is true. This man has wrecked havoc on the life of someone I care about a lot, and the fact that he will suffer not even one night in jail really pisses me off. The fact that the cops didn’t get our statements right away and didn’t file the paperwork ASAP is not only asinine, but its terrible! The fact that the attorney can read a case like this and decide that he doesn’t WANT to press charges is, quite frankly, unacceptable. I don’t exactly feel reassured knowing that the place that I call home is so laizzez faire about things like repeat sex offenders. So I have decided that I can either stew in silence or I can be the Voice. Someone needs to stand up and say that this is wrong, because it is. Justice demands that this wrong be addressed, these women should not have to fear anymore because of what he has done and the rest of us women should not have to worry that we will be next. Please, if anyone has any insight or counsel to offer, it would be appreciated, if all else fails, a lynch mob may be in order.