Since the perp is my stepson, my husband also received a copy of the summons. A couple of days later, I got paperwork from the prosecutor saying that I can have input about what I believe punishment should be and that I can give them information regarding the case. I have a question for anyone who has been through this.. Since the first court date is to see if the case will be tried, do I go ahead and contact the prosecutor's office now to give my input, or do I wait until the case moves on to trial?

I have been disgusted with how our case has been handled. It took a week and a half for them to set up the forensic interview and then we didn't hear anything for 3 months. When I read the summons, it trashes my husband and makes him sound like a deadbeat dad. His ex says that he told her he doesn't want anything to do with his son anymore and that she is worried about the relationship between them. No, my husband hasn't seen his son as much as he did before this happened, but how can he? He can barely look at him in the face because of the things he did to our daughter. He has seen him about once every two weeks. He hasn't figured out how to handle his visitations yet because he isn't sure where to go. He can't come to our house with him. The summons also makes stepson sound perfect. She has actually lied about activities he is involved in, I guess to make him sound like a great kid. Not that he's the most terrible kid in the world either, he has kept good grades and hasn't been in legal trouble before. He does have a serious issue with telling lies and has had that problem since he was probably 5 or 6 and obviously the child molestation is also a serious problem too.

Any advice that you can give me regarding the process of going through this, I would greatly appreciate.

Also, just to touch on my daughter (victim), she has been seeing a therapist referred to us by the child advocacy center. She has said that having my daughter talk about the abuse several times is supposed to lessen the trauma she feels about it. Anyone hear this before? I'm just worried because on the days she does talk about the abuse during the sessions, she is very sad and distant afterwards. She was 5 while the abuse happened and she wasn't physically hurt so it seems that she is having a more difficult time with the separation in the family than the actual abuse itself right now. She is a sensitive child and I believe she really feels a lot of guilt over this. Of course, we are working on that but it doesn't make her feel better overnight. She has been more emotional, she has been eating a lot more (gained 5-6 lbs this summer), and she sometimes talks about wondering when stepson can come back. She knows he isn't coming back to live here again but I think she still wants to see him. She has never expressed fear of him or anything like that, except that one day after therapy, she did say that she is scared he may do it again and she knows he isn't supposed to. So I guess I'm just wondering if anyone else has dealt with a similar situation and if you have any advice regarding my daughter.