It seems like time moves so much differently in today’s world than it has in the past. 

We see new headlines every day, every hour - a new story, a new issue, a fresh new tragedy to trigger our anxieties and compound the stress to our empathetic souls. 

It’s a lot, it’s constant, and it never sleeps. For whatever cause you stand, there are scores of other causes that are all as equally-worthy of your time, attention, and care… and to be fair, it’s an impossible goal to be able to devote your energy toward everything that needs to be attended to, to solve all the problems, to make all of the hurt go away… it fatigues the soul seeing and knowing how much heartache there is in the world.

So how do you choose? 

How could it ever be fair to choose?

And where is the right place to draw the line that decides if caring about a cause is “worth it”?

Our cause here… this particular one… where we want people to continue caring about how one girl from a town in the navel of nowhere was wronged by a peer she barely knew and then wronged a second time by a circuit court judge - is this worth it?

In our view… yes. 

Definitely, yes.

Because yeah, it’s about this one young woman this one time - but it’s more than that. This is a case where an authority of the justice system ruled the rapist is guilty of committing criminal sexual assault, a Class 1 Felony… and the rapist was still not held accountable. And what confidence in the judiciary do you think that lends to survivors - to persons who are now currently being victimized - to the persons who will find themselves victimized in the future? 

If in a case where there is ample testimony of what a compromised condition this young woman was in leading up to, during, and still even after, the assault took place…

where there is DNA evidence of the encounter… 

where the person victimized has a number of supportive friends and family members rallying around her, and the person has been blessed with the gifts to be confident to use their voice to tell people in no uncertain terms what occurred… 

where there are laws written in very clear language that demand this situation could not have been consensual, even if the victim said they were a willing participant, which they did not… 

If this person is not able to have the judiciary hold their rapist lawfully accountable, 

what kind of accountability is available for anyone?

Judge Adrian wrote to our community something like a year ago, and one thing he said to account for his own actions was, “blame God.” 

Blame God.

It sounds kind of funny coming out of the guy who ran his very-nearly-failed retention campaign on the platform of “conservative values,” and who I am sure has rested his hand on The Bible as his honor code of choice to be sworn on. But OK. Let’s talk about what God might think about all this. Does God think since a bulk of this took place a year and a half ago, and the news stories have dropped off, and people aren’t talking and posting about what happened - doesn’t that mean this has all blown over and what hasn’t blown over has been successfully swept under the rug? Shouldn’t we just let sleeping dogs lie? Let bygones be bygones? Forgive and forget? Move on with our lives? Let time heal all wounds?

No. LOL. God’s word says, “Delayed hope makes the heart sick, but fulfilled desire is a tree of life.” Time doesn’t heal all wounds. It makes us sick waiting for justice. And that’s a sickness Judge Adrian breathed into our community, into our world. Do we all “sin” and “fall short of the glory of God”? Yeah, absolutely; but it’s by admitting our faults and asking for forgiveness that we’re saved - and it’s by reaching back into time and fulfilling what should have been done back then that we grow and thrive. Judge Adrian doesn’t care about making rapists face mandatory lawful consequences. He’s said he stands by what he did, and that he’s committed to help other young men avoid the lawful consequences of rape in the future… 

This guy is still a judge in our community, and that is terrifying.

How can we have faith in the judiciary when we know they don’t care about following the law?

So we’re writing now to ask everyone to remember, the people who profit most off of how our hearts and minds soften trauma as time goes on are those who issued the abuse but would like to avoid being held accountable for it. It’s abusers who benefit. If they can outrun the press, outrun the initial uproar, if they can slink into the nether shadows and continue to lurk undetected until the ire has died down, then oftentimes they’re not ever going to be held accountable. It’s bad enough when that works for the criminal; what separates anyone when it works for the judge?

Look, there’s a lot of heartache in the world. 

Life has to go on whether at the end of the day what is true and just is upheld, or if the sickness is allowed to live on in the body. But remember that there are still lots of good people in this world who will continue to fight for the right, even when it feels a little like there’s no hope. Remember that the truth is the truth regardless of what anyone says or thinks should happen - the truth simply is. And if there is anything worth it in this entire world, it is upholding what is true. 

Remember your truth is important, and your voice can break the silence.

Remember there are people who want to break the cycle.

And remember, remember… the 9th of November.

(Because that’s when Judge Adrian goes on trial.)