...After the sentencing I attended only one more counseling session with Laura. In my mind I thought I only needed it to deal with the emotions brought up by my realization of having been drugged and raped, testifying at the preliminary hearing and to prepare for the trial. The trial was now over, the sentence decided and Marsalis was safely tucked away in prison and hopefully living in his own private Hell. So, for now, I was going to move on with my life as best I could. Since the moment I received that call in December 2005 I thought about this every day, all day. It consumed me to the point where I was frighteningly thin. I'm already a small girl 5'3" and 100lbs but I was more than 5lbs less than that for several years. For me stress manifests itself by accelerating my metabolism which is already high. I was eating but burning it off as fast as the food was digested. My pants/jeans didn't fit and when anyone would comment if I lost weight I just made some excuse. I have a favorite picture of me and my girlfriends where its very obvious. My weight didn't come back until months after the Idaho trial was over.
Originally the Idaho trial was to be scheduled the following year sometime a date TBD. It was always in the back of my mind that I would eventually get a call from Joe Kahn regarding those trial details and when Marsalis would be moved to an Idaho jail cell. Just so you know moving a prisoner is not as simple as putting them on a bus or plane. They take a nice long, uncomfortable trip across the country stopping along the way picking up and dropping off other prisoners. It's your criminal version of the Vacation movie. When it was time for him to go I tracked his progress anxiously awaiting the moment he was back behind bars. I was still suffering from those irrational thoughts that he would escape prison and find his way to me. For some reason, unbeknownst to me until much later, there was a delay in the scheduling of the Idaho trial and it would finally be put on the calendar for April 2009. Marsalis began his trek across the country from Pennsylvania in August 2008.
Around the same time I received and email from Joe regarding a press request. Since an incident in the Spring 2006 where a reporter directly called my house and left a voice mail requesting an interview Joe was fielding all press inquiries for the victims. I remember being at my brother's house late on a Friday night for my nephews birthday, while leaving I checked my cell phone and listened to a message from Joe warning me that some of the other victims called him upset that a reporter called them at home for interviews. Thank god because if I got home and listened to that message cold I would have had the same reaction of panic as the other victims. He said he was taking care of it and not to worry. He called the reporter and said she would not be granted any interviews by us as we were still preparing to testify and to never call us directly again. She agreed. From that point on he would be our liaison and whenever there was a press request he would forward us the information and let us decide for ourselves. He has always been protective of us and had our well being in mind.
So this particular press inquiry I received July 2008 would be the first of two events that would, unknowingly at the time, be a positive change for my entire future...
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