Finally Over

Today we made our appearance in court, hopefully for the last time ever. This time I was glad to at least know enough to immediately sit in the witness area, rather than squish in with all the charged on long wooden benches. After talking to the D.A. and finding out the attending officer was willing to come in to testify in the event of a jury trial, we felt relieved, knowing his account would only add even more weight to our testimony. He later approached us, telling us that the defense was willing to consider a plea bargain. He had offered him a plea bargain which included ten days in jail, but they refused, still citing that one of our relatives had let him in (kind of difficult since they all live out of state). He asked if we would be willing to subsitute community service for jail time, which we agreed to since it would mean we would not have to testify and we felt that would still give him something to think about. The final offer the defense and D.A. agreed on was a year of court supervision, meaning he has to keep his record absolutely spotless for the next year, a $200 fine, 50 hours of community service, and the threat of being tried further if he contacts us in any way or is found on our property.

Nearly six months after the event, we are grateful this is now behind us. We hope he has learned his lesson, which hopefully he has since he pleaded guilty. Now he has 50 hours to think about the stress he put us through and about the drinking that put him in that situation in the first place.