In my last blog, I left off pretty crushed after loosing who I thought was an attorney who was willing to put up a fight for me, and back to my original attorney who basically had made it plain as day that was had no intentions of taking the case to court because I had already told the police everything that had taken place that day, so I assume there was no other pictured that could be painted in court, If I had already made the picture pretty plain to the police. This left me with only one option according to him, Whatever plea that was being offered by the prosecutor, take it!
Somewhere during the time before my trial date, there was a new prosecutor, the first one wanted to "make an example out of me" I was told. I guess this means she wanted no sympathy, she wanted me to suffer the same consequences that some men suffered that had been in my shoes, and I'm certain these consequences consisted of some prison time. The second prosecutor was offering a "lesser sentence" in the eyes of my attorney. A little while before it was time to go to trial or go before the judge to accept the plea, I was informed what the new plea was, and I was still not happy. Although the severity of the situation was finally sinking in, I still could not understand why I was going to be punished for my lack of knowledge. My lack of knowledge of the guy's true age and that he was being untruthful at the time, it just baffled me!
The new "lesser sentencing" was for me to take the plea deal, the plea deal consisted of me serving 1 year on house arrest with an ankle monitor, 4 years on probation, and to register as a sex offender! When I first heard this, I was beyond devastated, I didn't know fully what being a sex offender consisted of, but I was sure that it was not good, and it was defiantly not something I wanted to be associated with. Being on house arrest didn't sound fun, but I was sure I couldn't handle it, and even probation, I'm thinking how bad that could be, but being a registered sex offender, I was just getting into watching law and order and criminal minds a lot, and I knew just from those shows that anytime, anything happened, people on the registry would be the first ones blamed, and I wanted no parts of that. With that being said, my first respond to that plea deal was "no, I don't accept that" I was willing and ready to take my day in court. He told me once again that if I did decide to go to court it was basically out of his hands and whatever happened would just happen. I said OK, I'll take my chances, and left it at that. He told my family to talk to me, there as only a very little time before my court date.
I did go home and think very carefully about my decision that I was being forced to make. My mom did encourage me to consider it but at the end of the day, she did say the decision was mine to make. I had been told by my attorney that if I went to court and I was found guilty it was possible that I could be sentenced to 15 years in prison and STILL have to register as a sex offender after my release. Of course, the thought of this terrified me, but some part of me still convinced myself that the justice system would not fail me. I was just sure that a jury of my peers would never convict me to 15 years for a mistake. At this time, I still had faith, hope, and was certain that things would play out since I was sure that I had not willingly done anything wrong. I guess only time will tell.
Thank you again for going on this journey with me. Thank you for reading my blogs, any messages, comments, and feedback you all send are greatly appreciated. If you have not subscribed feel free to do so, so that you will be notified there are new blogs available. Thank You and God bless!
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