Nikki gets her day in court

On July 7th, Nikki went to court for the trial of the man who carjacked and beat her back in March. She was very nervous... I could tell, after she upchucked her breakfast in the parking lot at the court house.

It was a very cut-and-dried affair. The man had a long history of domestic abuse and assault, although all of these cases were dismissed when the victims refused to testify. He wasn't so lucky this time. The prosecutor met us when we arrived & told Nikki that the defense attorney had already brought up a plea bargain request- a sure sign that the defendant had nothing. As usual, both sides wanted to avoid a jury trial, due to the unpredictable nature of juries. Up 'til now, the 23 year old man had only served two minor jail sentences and had never been in state prison.

Over the next two hours, the attorneys jousted in the judge's chambers. The man was facing 2 - 8 years on the assault charge alone, not to mention the two other charges against him, plus probation violation from a previous crime. After conferring with Nikki, the prosecutor insisted on at least 4 years in the state penitentiary. The defense attorney agreed to this, but wanted only 6 months served, with 3-1/2 years on probation. Nikki refused, saying that wasn't enough. Everyone finally agreed to 1 year served and 3 years probation. Probation will include mental health counseling, drug counseling and payment of $1500 to Nikki for damage to her vehicle.

After this agreement was reached, everyone appeared before the judge in open court. Everything was spoken into the record and agreed on by both parties. The judge berated the perpetrator for his crimes, telling him he was lucky that Nikki was more interested in seeing him get treatment than she was in seeing him in prison for up to 8 years. Nikki then got up and spoke, telling the man that she wanted him to get well and hoped that no other woman would have to suffer at his hands. The guy never looked at her. And that was it.

I'm glad that Nikki got pretty much what she wanted, without having to go through the emotional strain of a jury trial. She was dreading having a defense attorney tear her apart on the stand, exposing her private life to all. I really hope this is her only exposure to our legal system.