Richmond Rape Case

I know you must be overwhelmed at the moment with information and notices about everything going on. You may have to track down as many as 25+ people to possibly prosecute for the brutal crime of raping, beating and humiliating a child who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her father searched for her for hours and she was only found after undergoing 2 hours of the most brutal and humiliating events that could possibly occur to a human being of any age...

I just have one small request, as a brother, a son, a friend, a husband and soon hopefully a father. Please remove these sobs from society with extreme prejudice. I do not care that they live in a bad area nor do i care if they fell into a "group mentality" where they felt this was the only way to go. They need to suffer for destroying a child's life in the most horrible way imaginable, they took from her something that she will never regain. The fact that people were walking by watching and filming the event while cheering the attackers on further confirms that this case needs to be dealt with swiftly and severely.

As a society we stumble sometimes and loose our way. This travesty is a mark that must be scrubbed off of the courts with extreme haste. I know that you will be challenged on a daily basis with remarks that bring into question the right to treat kids as adults. The only advice i can give is that this crime is not the crime of a child confused or questioning this is a crime of extreme hate and disgust that must be met with the full force of the legal system. Without sounding too preachy use this as an opportunity to show that there is ZERO tolerance for crimes of such ferocity and severity.

I appreciate your time and attention and wish you luck in the coming months. I can only imagine how trying they will be for you. I appreciate you taking the case on and ensuring that justice is found regardless of how bleak the crime is.

thank you



(if you would like to send your own letter feel free to do so to these addresses)

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_13662965?source=most_viewed&nclick_check=1

Contra Costa County
Contra Costa County District Attorney
900 Ward Street
Martinez 94553
(925)957-2200

Contra Costa County District Attorney
WESTERN OPERATIONS
100 37th St Rm 220
Richmond 94805
(510)231-1800

Contra Costa County District Attorney
CENTRAL/EASTERN OPERATIONS
10 Douglas Dr Ste 130
Martinez 94553
(925)646-2625

May Update (late May!)

Wow what a week, Dana and I found ourselves in PA with friends for an entire 7 day stretch. The longest we have been able to spend together since going on a cruise in late 2007. We had a great time checking out the sites and seeing everything we could in New York. I really enjoyed checking out Ellis Island... seeing something that my great great grandparents experienced when they immigrated here from overseas was amazing. So much history crammed into such a small island. We of course also went by the statue of liberty and rode on the subway while in the city. Some very colorful people were encountered including the street vendors on canal street... talk about aggresive and crazy!

Seeing Mike was great, he has met an awesome girl and I can tell that things are going to progress between those two over time. They purchased a beautiful home in an older neighborhood last year. When I saw it I immediately thought of the houses you see in movies with 2 people having kids running around on the porch, the mom in the kitchen baking or chatting with someone and the dad in the garage working on an old pickup with his son. They are in the process of renovating which looks to be time consuming but when the work is done they will have an incredible place. Frankly I have never seen Mike happier then he is now, he is really doing great which makes me happy.

Dana and I are both looking forward to when we can welcome them out to our neck of the woods and show them all of the things in CA that they may have missed. We are thinking the Observatory, the Getty and perhaps a few other places. Amusement parks would be high on the list of things to see and experience specifically Universal and Disneyland. We also hope to have made good progress on the house by this time next year including getting a yard and some walls installed. Hopefully we will have neighbors behind us at that time so we can work out where the property lines will be in regards to maintenace and setup.

Speaking of the house my sisters did some house watching for us while we were gone... I am curious to see if they managed to destroy anything. From what we heard the puppy is doing well, he spent a ton of time playing with my parents dog Misty and probably driving her nuts.. I want to get serious about training him soon, he is working well on basic tricks but I think some advanced training would do him some good. The question is though do we do it ourselves or get some help in the form of a trainer. They can be expensive but they can also make the difference between success and failure for making him a good family dog. My reasoning behind looking for a larger breed of dog was 3-fold. 1) I had a shepard I absolutely loved as a child, one of the hardest things I had to do as a kid was to put her to sleep. 2) If I find a job back in my field of expertise travel will more then likely become a forced item, I want a dog that can protect my wonderful wife when I am out of town. 3) He was frankly adorable when I first saw him, I held him and he started licking my face... how do a say no to that?

Before we left I had attempted to weedwack down as much of the brush as I could... I am scared to see how it looks after a full 7 days of running rampant.

*Update* It took me so long to post this that I have had time to observe the weeds invade my yard from all sides. What a pain in the ass!

Houston... the house has landed

After what seems like an eternity of searching and talking about buying a house we have finally reached the home stretch of home ownership. In less than 96 hours we will have keys to our "new" home. I say "new" because the house was occupied for about 6 months when it was first built, it was then taken back by the bank and has sat peacefully waiting for us to find it.

The stats I listed in a previous post still stand 4 bedroom, 3 full bath, 2500 sq ft house built in 2006. It was a custom home (there were 2 built the same way side by side) it does not match what the other houses in the neighborhood look like and the wife could not be more happy to be moving soon. I am a wreck just thinking about making everything work but the numbers make sense and we can't beat the price for what we are getting. Locked in a killer interest rate (5% 30 year fixed). So we are about to embark on the joys and terrors of home ownership.

I have never had to sign my name to so many things before, It felt weird having all of these people vying for my attention to get things signed. Glad it is over though.

From an interior standpoint the house is basically just what we want.. it already has travertine tile down throughout with granite counter tops and ample built in lighting. The master bedroom has a small deck that has room for 2 chairs and a small table... nice place to unwind at the end of the day before heading to bed. The master bath has the same tile and a jaccuzzi tub which sounds very relaxing. From there the upstairs has 2 additional bedrooms and what is called a jack and jill bathroom which is shared between the 2 rooms. There is a small tech nook which has room for a desk and maybe a TV.. not really sure at the moment what should go in there.

Heading down stairs we have a formal living room that has a small carpeted area. This is to the right of where you enter the house from. If you continue following the tile walkway you can head into the kitchen or make a left and head down to the restroom, garage, and downstairs bedroom (office). The kitchen has a family room with a fire place and the kitchen itself will be great for cooking in once we get it cleaned up. We have a lot of scrubbing to do before we can move in fully but I am hoping to start dropping off the first boxes on Tuesday night once I have the 2 exterior locks changed... perhaps spending our first night inside on Friday.

Holy Moly... an update

Yep actually typing out an update as we have had some big changes over the last few months. The wife and I spent the weekend in Big Bear and had a blast hanging out in the snow... everything was so pristine and clean. it was tough to come back to civilization and traffic but oh well. We found out a few weeks ago that the house we wanted to purchase was already in escrow so no go... which ended up working out for us as we found a place that was larger and in a better location for less... yep you read that right we are buying a house!

4 bedroom, 3 full bath 2500 sq feet... the house needs some serious landscaping love at this point but otherwise is exactly what we wanted. We are trying to close escrow in 45 days and we have to figure out how the hell to deal with this shit hole we live in now with regards to getting out with enough time to actually move everything out. Oh well... of all the problems to have this one ranks up there as a pretty nice one :)

As for everything else we are rapidly approaching our two year anniversary of being married... its been a great ride so far and the best is yet to come!