Just the facts:
This morning was the restitution hearing from the criminal case. It was held via Zoom, which was no less intimidating that being in the court room. Bunny attended from an office at LaPorte DOC. In addition to the lawyers, the victims attended and so did an insurance representative. We had received the initial restitution document back in April, but two more were filed immediately prior to the hearing. In fact, even our lawyer didn't have the documents that the judge was referring to. The defendants included the Janey's (whose house was a complete loss), the next door neighbor's (who had damage to their siding on one side of their house just from the heat and smoke from the fire) and the insurance company. Each filed their own motion for a restitution amount.
In a juvenile criminal case, only the juvenile can be held responsible for restitution (not the parents) and therefore the judge has to try to determine the juvenile's ability to pay. Bunny was questioned by both the judge and the prosecutor about her possessions. While our lawyer pointed out that her possessions were all gifts and had no been purchased by her own money, the judge determined that her valuable items could be sold for the restitution.
The final verdict was that Bunny needs to sell her laptop, iphone, 3DS, bike, etc and that she should be able to pay $750 in restitution. It was concluded that David and I could sell the items on her behalf. Our plan is to sell everything in a single transaction at a pawn shop that can provide us an itemized receipt for us to give to the judge. Obviously we will make up any difference between how much her possessions sell for and the $750 required.
Next steps:
- For those who don't know, Bunny should be done with her court ordered programs by mid-October but her "out date" is listed as March 18, 2021. Her case officer will be appealing to the judge after Bunny has finished her court ordered program for early release. We have no idea what will happen with that appeal, but it is our hope she would not be in DOC all the way into next spring.
- We have no idea what is next (if anything) in the criminal case. According to our understanding, this was the last step.
- A civil suit (which has not yet been filed) is almost certain. Now that the restitution has been established, we expect to receive notice of a civil suit. The victims have 2 years from the incident to file suit, so they have until January 7, 2022 to file a civil suit against us for additional restitution.
Now the feelings:
- Court is always super stressful - even over Zoom. Please pray for Bunny as she has to process all of her thoughts and feelings alone. There were some very big numbers thrown around before the final number was settled on by the judge and I'm sure she is dealing with some anxiety/guilt/etc
- Honestly, if David and I could give the victims all the money we have, we would. We feel that we SHOULD pay for their expenses and losses. Unfortunately, we live in a world of lawyers, so instead of us trying to do what we can on our own, we need to wait for the lawyers to go through the process and argue details before we have any idea of what we will give to the victims. This part of the process will drag on for some time, which is stressful for us.
- We still haven't seen Bunny (other than facetime) since March 10. That weighs on us, on the boys and on Bunny - it feels much longer than it actually has been.While she has a routine in DOC and we have settled into a routine in our new house - which in itself is strange and sad.
Please continue to pray for us all....
