This Is Justice?

I am so angry, annoyed, frustrated, fill in the blank with all the negative adjectives you know and I am all that and more.  A little backstory as to the reason why.  Two years ago, my purse was stolen from my car.  I reported it to the police but really thought it was just some random teenager seizing an opportunity.  Boy, was I mistaken.  I could not have had the 'luck' to have been robbed by a teen, oh no, I was robbed by a supposed criminal kingpin the police had been trying to capture for two years.  As if that was not enough, several months later I got the shock of a lifetime when I opened my mailbox and found a subpoena.  Now, I don't know how much you know about subpoenas but let me tell you what I learned since I started getting them (more on that in a minute).  Once you get a subpoena, you basically lose your rights.  Afraid to testify?  Prefer to be deposed?  Too bad, the alleged criminal has the right to face his/her accuser. Moving?  The court will call you back to testify.  Don't fly?  The court will put you on a train--so what if it takes two days to get there for a 20 minute testimony.  What about your children?  Too bad, find childcare.  Get the picture?

Now, back to the multiple subpoenas.  I am testifying in not one but two trials--apparently the 'alleged kingpin' has a girlfriend who shares his profession. You must understand that my annoyance stems not from not wanting to 'do the right thing' but, rather, from being plagued by continuances.  I have yet to testify despite being sent 9 subpoenas--the girlfriend's trial has been postponed 6 times and her paramour's 3 times thus far. I was just notified that the trial I had been emotionally prepping for next week has been continued yet again as the judge has recused himself from the trial.  Why, you might ask?  I was told 'no one knows.'  I doubt that.

The bigger issue is that I am never able to put these trials behind me, to cross them off my list and move forward without them looming ahead of me all the time.  I am victimized each time the court postpones the case whether it be for the third firing of an attorney, an attorney not 'being ready' (try that one at work some day...tell your boss you are just not ready and see how that works for you) or because someone will not take the plea deal and the court decides to postpone the case.  These alleged criminals are out on bail perhaps victimizing other people but they seem to have more rights than I do.  I keep having to remind myself that I am just the innocent victim and I lost my rights the day I got that first subpoena.