Hi all. As you all know my little girl's perp is a juvenile. He was the grandson of an uncle and aunt we were very close with. When dd told me what had happened, when the dust settled after a couple of days, we decided to go the distance as far as the legal route would take us.
Dh and I (dd did not attend) each had the opportunity to say something, and I believe I shared my written statement on here with all of you. I didn't read it, just confirmed that the judge did and said it was written before Hunter admitted to what he did to our daughter. Dh was great, he mentioned that in the last hearing, when the judge asked Hunter why he did it, he just shrugged his shoulders. He stressed that this isn't something you shrug off- and certainly not something our daughter or we as a family can shrug off.
The perp got probation and mandatory counseling. The minimum for probation is 6 months. His DNA has been taken and will be kept on file forever, which I'm glad about. That's it. We really didn't expect much more, and I just have to keep telling myself that vengeance belongs to God.
The kicker is that the probation officer came to speak with us and asked us if we wanted to see the letters the family wrote to the court. I didn't want to, but dh did-- HUGE mistake (this happened after the sentencing). The kid wrote the standard apology (his mom probably wrote it)-- what made us nuts was the mom (dh's cousin) writing how proud she was of her son for confessing (ahem, after over 100 days after being accused, and after denying it hundreds of times, and after everyone calling MY dd a liar- and let's face it, they had his back to the wall and there was no way in hell after the polygraph and psychiatric that he'd get away with trying to say it didn't happen.) It just sickens me.
The icing on the cake was the letter from dh's aunt and uncle. Still saying it was "innocent experimentation" and not a crime and they were complaining that the perp was arrested at school (if you remember, it was because they were hiding him and didn't bring him into the police station on several occasions when they said they would). and complaining that he spent a whopping six days in detention with kids that were bigger and older than he was-- Hmmm, dd was attacked by a kid twice her age, over a foot taller and 100lbs heavier.
DH was so angry he wanted to spit nails, and frankly so did I. I guess I expected more from them. The problem is that the court sees this supportive family on the surface but none of them think what the kid did is wrong!! DH promised to go to every probation review so he can address the family's belief that what this kid did is innocent. guess statistics show that chances are he will offend again, but we did everything we could to support our daughter and protect the sons and daughters of others.

Those letters were so narcissistic- not about our daughter the victim, but about this dirt bag and his family, who up until this point felt that they could buy their way out of anything. . . they fancy themselves some kind of PA Kennedys I guess.

I'm trying to be Christian about the whole thing but my anger is so deep. . . .II could not have made it through without the support of this board.
Stay strong --and I'm sending hugs to all of you.