Letter from Jessica

Jessica is still in Santa Barbara County Jail. Apparently her attorney, Steve Balash, was able to get his motion heard and has a hearing on 3/13 about the problems he feels exist with Jessica’s sentence. The court also accepted his motion to keep her in Santa Barbara until then.This letter was forwarded from Reggie, a mutual friend of Alex and Jessica’s.From Reggie:Here is a message to you all from Jessica. It was embedded in a letter that she wrote to me as she was telling ME to keep the faith! Oh our Jessica, always thinking about others and how to help them! Ok, here goes: Some of you may get a repeat of this in letters that she will send out as I am doing something for her about that. anyway… Jessica says:”I know God’s there. He loves us, and He can, and does, make good from all of this. As Jared’s letter said to me, “I know He has a purpose for you. I don’t know what plan He has that involves this, but it is not our job to understand, it is our job to follow.” That goes for all of us…and often He will give your answers when you need them if you will but ask.We’ve had a lot of time to chat, God and I, and while I know it’s not the whole picture, He has given me a lot of insight and peace. First I am gaining oodles of knowledge and experience that very few people can rival (especially in the professional career path), and my depth and range of life experience has always been something I value and see as a gap-closer for me and clients (present and future).Second, this will make me one hel of a drug and alcohol counselor (and/or anti-drunk driving campaigner). My experiences, plus my leader personality and my ability to straddle the fence (deviant & straight edge) will enable me to reach, appeal to, and hopefully touch all sorts of people.And third, (and this one hit me like a ton of bricks just yesterday afternoon . . . wasn’t even consciencely aware of it till I was listening to myself say it to someone else), if I had gotten probation (and even electronic monitoring) I’d be campaigning and speaking publicly already, if not by court order, then out of love and “debt” to Susan and Alan. That rocked me to the core because I am in NO WAY ready for that. I’m still an emotional basket case! Until I truly come to terms with things and wholly, truly forgive myself, I can’t stand in front of an audience and openly share my story and answer questions. It would slowly destroy me, and if you aren’t at least somewhat stable and whole, how can you give anything to anyone else? I still need to be held together (like waiting for the superglue to set), passing me around or asking me to stand on my own (let alone hold up others) is just something I’m not ready/able to do yet. And God will heal me and give me His strength in HIS time, not mine or anyone else’s.Maybe I needed this time away from distraction and obligation to be able to realize that and really set to work on accepting and healing instead of hiding.” 

Write to Judge Lodge — Respectfully

Dear Susan,It’s indeed very depressing to see a young and educated person like Jessica being sentenced to 5 years in state prison. I believe that justice has not been served in this case. Why did the Judge sentence her to such a harsh sentence ? It is very sad to see drug peddlers who commit much serious offences being sentenced to probation, mutual fund advisors who embezzled thousands of dollars free on probation…but some one with no prior criminal record, some one who is educated from one of the top 50 schools in america, has been a rape counselor, works with autistic children, one who is not a risk to society being punished to not 1 or 2 but more than 5 years in PRISON.All this for cooperating with the court, for waving rights…… I can feel the pain Jessica and her family might be going through. One of my dearest friends, Melissa has been in the exact same situation 7 years ago. She was involved in a tragic accident just like this while vaccationing in Las Vegas in 2000. She was 22 back then…just like Jessica..had no criminal record, (not even a speeding ticket), extremely sweet and talented person…and above all she coperated with the authorities and spoke about the perils of drunk driving at 23 high schools in our native Chicago area….She waived her rights and the RESULT……6 to 20 years in Nevada prison. At the moment, she is serving her 6th year in prison. One thing, I can say is that she is not the same as she was 7 years ago. Prison has completely abused and shattered the poor soul. She still has 2 more years before her next parole.What I want to say is that…If she was outside the walls…she would have continued to talk to young kids about the Perils and be able to contribute in some positive manner to the society…but instead has been confined to her 12 by 9 feet cell, cleaning restrooms and cutting trees in the Prison.We would not like to see this happen to Jessica. I know that she is guilty of the Big MISTAKE she has made….but lets take the opportunity to make some use of this accident and not let some talent go to drain in Chowchilla.I bellieve that the Judge still has 110 days to recall the sentence. Lets all write a letter to Judge Joseph Lodge urging him to recall his stiff sentence. The more letters we send, the more pressure will be on him…We should let him know that Prison is not the place for a 1st time offender like Jessica, the right place is school campuses where she can talk to kids like her about the perils of Drunk Driving.The address is:Judge Joseph LodgeDepartment 9118 E. Figueroa StreetSanta Barbara, CA 93101My heart goes out to you and Jessica. Susan…I am deeply moved by your kindness and wish you best in your efforts. I hope we will be able to get justice in this case.Sincerely,Owais