Voices of Actual Victims @ Santa Clara County Superior Court Sentencing Day -sandra mickanen reporting
writing this from memory
only. did not take notes. -my 'witnesses' to what i'm
writing, include my husband, robert; our incredible friends, tom & elva
wilson, -who my husband and i locked eyes with several times
during the course of this experience.
are we hearing the same
thing? this is.. hideous! much, much..
far, far worse than i ever imagined!
and our in-laws were there, but
sitting across the aisle. Family present
via teams. tom and elva were sitting directly behind us, so this allowed
us to whisper and telepathically communicate throughout..
the brief explanation of ‘far,
far worse than I ever imagined’
is how dangerous-to-everyone-else
our (lack of) justice system is; how soft on known violent criminals, predators;
and on REPEAT offenders
how utterly UNcomprehended or factored
in are the life-altering traumatic experiences of real victims.
Shocking. I mean, I knew it was bad; but not just how
bad
****
we spoke with the wilson's over
lunch after the shared experience; in agreement, that what we heard...
outrageous! in and of itself.. -criminal
****
I share our experience with you
here:
-now, the reason we were even in the santa
clara county superior court building for sentencing day is because we were
there to read our own victims impact statements regarding the brutal murder of
cynthia mykkanen; and to hear the sentencing of ryan garner, first degree
murder -which was post-poned due to his 'no-show' status.
-all of that is written about
elsewhere and not the point of this specific post.
this post is about the other
crimes, other criminals, the other victims impact statements we were exposed to
hearing while we were in this shared court room.
if you've never been to a
sentencing cattle call day, we had not either.
It was brand new for us, and we had no idea what to expect.
I arrived thinking our case would
be the only one handled at a given set time; same as during the trial itself.
Sentencing Days are criminal cattle
calls, essentially. Let me show you what
I mean:
.jpg)
I believe this digital schedule was two pages; rotating, but I only took one picture of it.
You can see just how many
criminals are being sentenced on just this one day. All of them scheduled for the same time:
9:00am.
Everyone collects in the court
room: the judge, of course, the staff, court reporter, the bailiff, the lawyers,
the criminals, deputies, the victims, the families thereof; witnesses, victim
support, … long list.
It does not go in any predictable
order, like, alphabetical, but rather, we were told, the judge bases order, to
some degree, on how long it will take to read/process the criminal sentence. So, cases that include having Victims Impact Statements read
will naturally take longer than the others, so the sentences without impact readings
are done first, to help clear out the courtroom.
We sat and listened.
And will never be the same.
Sometimes we were only hearing
the pre-determined sentence (or lack thereof) for a given crime; Sometimes we were
hearing victims impact statements read by the victim themselves; Sometimes we
were listening to impact statements being read on behalf of the victim(s).
Any time we heard and learned about a victim, harmed by a criminal who already had a track record… -preventable!
And, did we just hear..? Did that repeat predator still get a
teaching job! At a school?!?
-what happen to
background checks?!
Did they just wave all the fees for that… what happen to consequences?!
What about the actual victims!!
Did they just give PROBATION… he should be in prison!
The amount of times we couldn’t
believe what we were hearing -it all
seem so obviously, blatantly, void of actual justice
-there was even a shared moment of inappropriate, stress-relief
laughter.. when, the legal representative of a criminal was asking the judge if
said criminal could attend church
-I don’t know who whispered it, but.. someone in the courtroom came out with
‘not in a youth group’
The entirety of it, left me
haunted with just how
PRO-CRIMINAL and too-bad-real-victims-and-society-at-large.
I think only 1 time out of all
the cases we sat through did we have any sense that something resembling
justice was being served;
He was a severe, multiple and repeat offender
of child molestation; sentenced to 30 years.
**
Opinion: He should receive a life sentence, be removed
from society permanently.
Question: how many of these innocent, precious child
victims could have been spared?
****
Dream of mine.. start all over with crimes and
punishments.. start from scratch,
based on what we’ve learned over all these decades; from across the nation, and
across the globe..
Child molesters permanently
removed from society. When these sexual
predators also murder;
Death penalty.
Anyone want to nominate me as judge… and jury.
Candid share moment. All my life I heard about how, child
molesters, were viewed as the ‘worst-of-the-worst’ in prisons
I mean, strange as it sounds,
these criminals even have some type of code..
And they would ‘take out’ the
child molestors.
And my candid share is this: I was always comforted by that information.
But,
Turns out it was just a
rumor. At least, when I checked in with
my husband, who was a deputy for 27+ years in the jails
When I asked him, if over the
course of his career any child predators were ever taken out by the other
criminals..
Not one. but some of them do get provided extra protection
in the jails, to prevent such a thing from happening.
My husband and i have had the conversation more than once: How the system goes out of its way to bend over backwards, protect predators, give them multiple chances
The child victims get no chance. How can we better protect them? Let's bend over backwards to protect innocent children! Let's give them a chance...
****
Okay, so, IN CLOSING,
I didn’t even know they sentenced
more than one criminal at a time; that we would share the courtroom with other
traumatized families.. but I did pray a
“Thank You! Jesus” prayer in the aftermath, because, while it was extremely difficult
to hear what we heard; and even more difficult to hear how preventable some of
it was.. I am enormously grateful I
was directly exposed to the hideousness that is going on; exactly because it
allows me to know the truth, and do something about it.
I would LOVE TO SEE A PUBLISHED BOOK, a
collection made available of the real victims impact statements in their entirety
that have been read at the Santa Clara County Courthouse on Sentencing Days.. removing private/personal info, and just capturing
the crime(s) and impact. One years worth, oughta do the trick 2025.
This collection should also
include a bullet point list of
Crimes and the sentences they
received. Any time it is a ‘repeat’ crime this should be made very clear.
I would love to see our justice
system serve some justice.
I would love to see us, society, -local as San Jose, Santa Clara County,
California, but across the nation: Public
Safety first and foremost, Tough on Crime
Currently believe in and am endorsing,
supporting Chad Bianco for Governor because he is aligned with these
values. He has direct life experience
(as does my husband); working with criminals; and seeing the impact on victims.
I’ve
watched probably over 20 hours worth of interviews on different platforms, with
different people hosting an interview with Chad Bianco
believe
he is the write person for our times; he shares our values when it comes to
public safety and he shares our values when it comes to fiscal responsibility,
accountability. He has the track record,
and God bless him, (that is, God bless THEM.. including wife, family, close
friends); They are willing to sacrifice and serve for the greater good. The shift in leadership we desperately need.
I’m going to repeat here: I did not take notes during the sentencing
cattle call. I recorded nothing. We sat and just listened.. and listened. We did not memorize, but we all
left with the same take-aways from this shared experience.
Our justice system lacks justice
and the system is broken.
posted by SANDRA MICKANEN @ 11:52 AM
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