Tuesday, May 8, 2012

The Letter

For those just tuning in, my purse was stolen from my car over two years ago and going along with the rotten luck I seem to be having of late, it was not stolen by a mere teenager looking for some fast cash.  Oh, no!  My purse was stolen by a group of criminals that police from multiple jurisdictions have been trying to apprehend for quite a while.  The good news is that they caught some of them and, interestingly enough, that is the bad news as well.  I am now a subpoenaed witness in two trials that have been postponed a total of 11 times over the past two years.  I am not an eyewitness but for reasons I shall not go into here, I must be present in the courtroom.  The alleged criminals have all the rights as apparently, the victims lose theirs when they are victimized.  Out of frustration and my never ending need to explain why I get so frustrated over these postponements, I wrote the following letter to the Assistant DA yesterday.  Please note that all names have been removed from the letter for privacy purposes and to keep me from getting into anymore trouble than I already am.  I certainly do not think that anything will come of this letter, but sometimes I need to be heard even when no one wants to listen.


Dear Ms. XXXX,

I just got off the phone with XXXX and I must say that I am more than a little upset, not with her, mind you, as she has always been most pleasant and forthcoming, but with the MN judicial system as a whole.  I was just told that the (insert alleged criminal's name here) trial has been continued for the fourth time.  First, my experience as a subpoenaed witness in both the (alleged criminal) and (other alleged criminal) trials has shown me that victims have no rights, unlike the alleged criminals.  I never knew that once a person received a subpoena, all his rights were eradicated.  Second, I did not realize that trials could be continued repeatedly for such issues as unlimited changes in attorney, judges taking vacations without replacements and more reasons that I have not been made privy to.  To think that in total, these two trials have been continued 11 times and counting is mind boggling to a mere victim like myself--so much for the concept of a ‘right to a speedy trial’ that I thought existed.  The alleged criminal perpetrated the original crime and then the state of MN re-victimizes us by allowing those alleged criminals the opportunity to play the system.  Clearly, if the (alleged criminal) trial had been completed in February, he would not have had yet another opportunity to switch attorneys and cause yet another continuance.

I thought that having my purse stolen was awful but it pales in comparison to having these trials take this long to be resolved.  There is so much more to my life than these trials that I am obsessing over—terrified of the actual testimony itself. I find it unbelievable that that there is no system in place to allow the victim the chance for video testimony or signed affidavit—of course, that is because the criminal has the right to face his accuser and the victim has no rights. I am not even the one who is making any accusations as I did not see anything in the first place!

 Two days after my purse was stolen, my husband lost his job.  He searched for two years and finally found another one.  Five weeks later on Good Friday, April 6, 2012, he was let go as the company restructured and reduced its senior management team.  I am beyond stressed with worry about our lack of income, about my children and how they are coping with this all over again and the thought of potentially losing our house.   To think that these alleged criminals are working the system as they are because they are being allowed to while I worry about when I can have some closure to this nightmare is certainly more than a little frustrating.

Ms.  XXXX, I am a writer and I write partly because it is cathartic but also because I feel that if you don’t let others know how you feel or why you re upset, than no one can help you.  I simply cannot believe that I cannot put this behind me and that I have absolutely no control over this situation.  Clearly, being victimized over and over again is quite difficult to handle.  I just want to have closure with this awful time in my life.

Thank you for understanding.

Sincerely,

ME










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