the danish outpost
updated when time and inspiration allow. latest and greatest always in the blog.
revenge is a dish best served thru the court system.

2001-01-10

feeling kinda how a girl feels

two words for you: guuuuuuil-tay. while perhaps it is not the charitable thing to be doing, i have been doing the little happy dance all day. the court case went quite well. Gina was found guilty, and had to admit such in public. yee hah!

so sweetie stayed with me last night, and it was a great help. we talked about how i felt about the case, and what was making me nervous, and how he felt. but most of the night, really, was just making dinner and hanging out and playing with his new digital camera. slept way better than i expected to. (except for the fact that i winced every time the heat came on; i got the bill for last month, and it was *painful*. no number of news stories about the climbing cost of heating fuel could have cushioned that blow.) sweetie managed to break my alarm clock this morning in his valiant but short-sighted (literally - no glasses) attempt to hit the snoozie button. i suppose i should have dressed up a bit for court. i even broke out the ironing board this morning. but really... couldn't be bothered. don't get me wrong; i looked presentable. but i just didn't feel like i'd be comfortable dressing up. so i just wore black jeans and turtleneck (leading sweetie to nickname me Ninja Girl this morning). i got myself pulled together, and my best friend came over to pick me up to go to court. the two of them were really sweet about the hand-off, as they were both really looking out for me. sweetie stayed until ChicaBeanie showed up, just to make sure i'd be fine.

i started to get a bit jumpy headed over to court. then i just froze my ass off getting from the car to the courthouse. and, like every poorly designed 1970s building, the courthouse doors were impossible to open, as the wind tunnel created by the building placement essentially held the doors shut. and the inside set of doors didn't create a mushbox (buffer zone... ask me sometime if you want to know where the other term came from) - just a vacuum lock. fortunately, my amazon of a best friend wrested the doors open, and we shivered our way thru the metal detector and the lobby to the elevators. if you remember from the last time, this was the building with the substandard elevators - warning signs where safety inspection slips should be. still the same. we made our way up to the 14th floor (actually the 15th, because they started counting at 0... don't ask), and signed in. it was a bit disconcerting when the DA came thru the door and greeted me by name, until i remembered that he had seen the evidence photos. eh. then of course i felt badly that i hadn't introduced him to ChicaBeanie. ~sigh~ one of these days, i'll loosen up on the WASP training.

got some tea and a danish, and settled in to wait. god, what a cast of characters in that place. some were entertaining, some were just creepy. and i had no qualms about telling guys who creeped me out to knock it off. hey, if you aren't safe doing that in a courthouse, then why not? the DA kept running by to check in with me. i swear, the man operated on caffeine and nicotine, and not much else. we had gone upstairs at one point to use the ladies' room, in order to avoid walking by Gina and Jim. [side note: we nearly lit up in the bathroom - shades of high school - because others apparently had, but i didn't want to chance setting off the sprinkler. nerves, and waiting in a no smoking zone. bad combo.] those two were all chummy, and i asked my DA about that, as Gina was legally not supposed to be talking to any of the potential witnesses, i.e., Jim. he didn't think it was worth pushing, but did say it was wrong. the case actually resolved itself pretty quickly. in return for a continutation without finding ('yes, i'm guilty, but i won't say so'), Gina pled to all three charges: assault and battery, assault and battery with a deadly weapon, and threatening the victim.

i chose to go into court to watch the sentencing, but not to make a statement. i didn't think i'd be able to do it, but i walked in and looked Gina right in the eye. she needed to know that she can't scare me. more than that, i needed to know that. Gina and Jim (if ever there was a dysfunctional pair made in heaven, they are it) were sitting behind us waiting for the case to be called. my DA came over and asked if i had changed my mind about a statement, and i said that i hadn't, but wanted him to say that she needed to be held responsible for her immature and inappropriate actions. god love my DA, he read that into the court records. 8) the judge's reaction? 'yes, she does.' y'all, this woman is 38 years old. 38. isn't it about time she got past the grade school sand box fights? most of the rest of us have.

it was very satisfying to see her forced to stand up in front of the court and publicly admit to her illegal behavior. she had to answer to the judge on a number of points. did she agree with the evidence? yes. did she realize she was waiving the right to confront her victim? yes. did she admit that she had, in fact, done the things she was accused of? this must have been a tough one, as she hesitated before saying yes. oh, so satisfying to hear that. did she realize that she was losing constitutional rights by so pleading? yes. had she used drugs or alcohol in the last 24 hours? no (but she looked thrown by that one). my DA then read in the facts of the case. on or about August 20th, Gina and the victim had plans to meet for the evening. after taking a short drive, Gina drove back to her place of work, and ordered the victim out of the car. Gina then ducked into the car and wrapped her hand in a handkerchief. Gina then asked the victim to take off her glasses so that Gina could break her nose. when the victim refused and turned to walk away, Gina grabbed her by the shoulder, tore her sweater, punched her in the face several times, knocking her to the ground, and then kicked her repeatedly. the victim did nothing to retaliate, only tried to block the blows. Gina then threatened the victim, saying that if she were to tell anyone about the incident, Gina would hunt her down and beat her again, and more severely.

she seemed to flinch a bit at hearing all this. i have no idea if she was just putting out yet another carefully crafted facade for a specific audience, or if she really was sorry or nervous. doubtful, as there is a marked lack of human sentiment or intelligence in her. but you know what? don't care. Don't. Care. apologetic or not, she got the sentence she deserved. she is on parole for a year, has to attend anger management classes, cannot approach me directly, indirectly, thru a third party, or on a slow boat to China. and she is going to have to make restitution for medical costs. since she said it would take her over a month to scrape together the $60 charge for today's hearing, she's gonna shit a brick when she hears how much the medical bills are going to set her back. and she has to have it paid off by the end of the parole. she tried to skeeze out of having to appear for that hearing, and the judge would have none of it. he looked a little pissed off, and said, essentially, i don't think so - you're going to show up. maybe she's afraid of losing her job because she has to take more time off. oh well. you should have thought about that while you were planning on deliberately breaking the law and assaulting someone. piss poor planning on your part.

y'know, as angry as i've ever gotten at someone, and as violent as my revenge fantasies may have been, i have never contemplated actually acting on any of them. i haven't even thought about doing property damage as an indirect assault. it is beyond me how anyone can not just think about harming someone, but plan it out carefully and then do it. how do you live with yourself after that? and the fact that she was upset with the person she considered to be her boyfriend, but who clearly did not consider himself to be so, and chose to take her misdirected anger out on me? sorry. not my fault. i am fully prepared to take responsibility for my own actions, but i did not cause whatever damages Gina felt she suffered. perhaps she needs some therapy; it's blindingly clear that she needs to learn how to handle her emotions and behave like a responsible adult. i'm thinkin', tho, that if you haven't started down that path by 38, there isn't much hope.

cynical? unforgiving? yes. and i'm okay with that. i'm also relieved that the bulk of the process is over, and she's been found guilty. wench.

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