My husband Jeremy’s devastating, senseless, and preventable
injuries (see story here) are a testimony to why the offender’s actions should be punished. This is not
just a matter of fairness – it is a test of the integrity of our judicial
system.
Jeremy is a pretty private guy, so going public with our
story is uncomfortable but socially responsible. It is our civic duty to reach
people by opening ourselves up in order to educate the fact that intoxicated
driving laws need to be stricter and enforced.
There is a disconnect between punishment for this crime and
Jeremy’s lifelong, life-changing injuries.
Let’s be clear, here, that Rhonda Renee Sutton Bryant’s
actual guilt and responsibility due to her choices and wrongness of actions are
without question. She committed the crimes. She is to blame. She had clear and
total liability. Jeremy was an innocent bystander in our front yard preparing
to go fishing. The proof of her guilt was witnessed by our neighbors and the
dozens of law enforcement and emergency providers on the scene. She was stuck but
not crushed in the driver’s seat of her car for the entire hour that I was
forced to watch Jeremy’s struggle to stay conscious and live through utter agony
while he was stuck and maimed between the hood of her car (smelling his own
flesh burning on her engine) and the bumper of his truck. I know that she was
uninjured because none of the emergency personnel on the scene treated her while
they were trying to extract Jeremy and keep him alive. They let her remain seated
in an obvious stupor. I am certain that they evaluated her condition upon
arrival at the scene and judged her intoxicated but physically fine.
The legal guilt and judicial integrity in Cumberland County,
North Carolina, I shall discuss in a few moments.
Some people have asked why I didn’t kill Bryant that day.
The truth is that I barely focused on her because the scene was so shocking –
it looked like Jeremy was about to die, there was nothing I could do to help
him, and the police would not allow me to be near him. I don’t necessarily fault
the policemen’s decision during the intensity of this situation because Jeremy’s
injuries were so gory that they were likely trying to protect me from the trauma
of the close-up view, and they were likely thinking that my up-close presence
would impede their ability to save him. And maybe the police were concerned
that I would kill her. Still, a wife should have the ability to say “goodbye”
when the outcome by all practical appearances looks inevitable and imminent. I
experienced extreme anguish.
Some people have asked if Bryant has apologized. Nope. We assume
that by now she has knowledge of our circumstances and an inkling of the harm
that she inflicted.
Instead of accepting legal guilt or apologizing, she has
clogged the legal system for the past 15 months (to the day today) in an
attempt to save her own skin. These actions also don’t show me that she feels
personal guilt, even if she blames her attorneys for advising her not to confess.
This is a failure of morality that ultimately rests with Bryant herself.
I respect and commend Matthew Cordle’s integrity when he
confessed in a video about his DUI that consequently killed Vincent Canzani. Cordle
caused grave suffering, but he saved taxpayer expense and the victim’s family
from prolonged emotional agony and additional victim punishment caused by the
judicial system.
I condemn and share the outrage over the judge’s 10-year
probation sentence for the “affluenza” teenager, Ethan Couch, who killed four people:
Breanna Mitchell, Brian Jennings, Hollie Boyles, and Shelby Boyles; and injured
two: Sergio Molina and Lucas McConnell. Yes rehabilitation treatment is good,
but not serving time in jail is a blatant disregard of justice.
I signed the change.org petition to have that judge, Jean Boyd, taken off the bench: Adjudication that
underscores justice not only protects and serves our communities, it respects
the values of citizens, efforts of our lawmakers, and safety of our
law-enforcement officials. If judges do not enforce reasonable sentences, then
what is the point of having laws? This judge failed the test of common decency
and sensibility.
I struggled for months to have Bryant charged with felony
bodily injury and ensure that her misdemeanor charges were not dismissed. When
I heard last month that the judge suggested the plea option that Bryant serve
only two months in jail in exchange for a guilty plea, well, I was sick because
it was an affront to our pain and suffering. She should not be in jail for less
time than Jeremy was confined to a hospital bed.
The District Attorney Billy West claims in the Help For Victims brochure that his
office will “strive to prosecute every case fairly and vigorously under the
law.”
The judge and DA’s integrity will be revealed in time.
Their integrity will be put to the fire because next week a deeply
appreciated media outlet’s interest will throw sunshine on their actions in
Jeremy’s case and help garner public support. We needed help, and a wonderful
reporter and a lovely cameraman have taken up our story. My blog and our pain
won’t be in vain. Thank you to everybody who reads and shares our story! We
want to see justice. We want Bryant to go to jail for the maximum time allowed
by law. We need help from the community to provide oversight in this case.
Lastly, I’ve thrown around the word “integrity” without
defining it. It’s a concept that challenges people to reflect on its essence,
much like the words “liberty” and “justice.” I am certain that every reasonable
person can agree Jeremy’s liberties were breached by Bryant’s lack of
integrity, and justice is our collective social means to correct and prevent criminal
and egregious behavior.
Martin Luther King Junior said, “Never, never be afraid to
do what’s right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at
stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our
soul when we look the other way.”
(I promise to quote a different role model in my next blog.)
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