Marissa

And so I was really grateful that he ended up not getting off of probation early because I think that that extra time is just going to be so important for him and for me and for our community.

That was also very validating.

Moving forward, there is a chance that he could try to get off of the registry early, and I am hoping that I'm notified about that.

I think it's after five years he can try to get off of it early, but that's kind of where we're at today.

When I had given my first impact statement at the sentencing hearing, I had probably 15 to 20 people.

There was quite a few people there.

I depended on

all of those people back then so much, and they did so much for me.

For this hearing, I decided just to have my husband there.

Really, at this point, he's who I need.

I feel genuinely privileged that I was able to get criminal charges.

That's why I feel an obligation to talk about this.

I know so much now that it feels wrong of me not to share this and try to explain to other people this process and what their options are.

I think that everyone deserves to know the reality of the systems put in place to help them.

Everyone deserves to know what's normal in the process and when to start asking questions and advocate for themselves.

So many things in my case didn't go the way that they should have.

The people that I believed would protect me didn't, and...

So many outcomes that I had hoped for never came.

The reason that I'm sharing this is there were so many times that I had to fight for myself because no one else was going to.

I want people to know that their voice truly matters.