Student fights the good fight

An ordinary party turned into a battle of right and wrong when a videotape forced my friends and me to stand up for our beliefs and values and fight for the well-being of a woman we had never met.

Last summer a videotape made us do what we knew was right, even though we were making other people angry. The tape was brought to the party by a guy named Tim and played at the urging of other guests. On the tape, Tim and some of his friends were verbally abusing an elderly woman. More disturbing, the woman has Alzheimer's disease and is the grandmother of one of the girls on the tape.

My friends and I demanded that the tape be turned off; it was degrading and immoral and we wanted no part of it. That offended many people and we were looked at as the bad guys. Since no one would turn off the VCR, my friend Mike took it upon himself to remove the tape and throw it out the back door. His action only fueled the arguments that had already begun.

We thought there was nothing we could do, but the next day we learned there was something. My friend Jamie told her dad about the incident and the tape. Jamie's dad told a friend, a police officer and he brought it to Jamie's attention that the actions on the tape were illegal.

We got together with a police officer and told him our story. He talked us through the legal procedures and explained what the people on the tape could be charged with. The least severe was first-degree burglary, with a maximum sentence of one year. The most severe was a felony charge of first-degree elder abuse with a maximum sentence of five years.

I could not believe it. Not only was what they were doing illegal, but they could go to jail for it and I would be responsible for putting them there. This disturbed me a little. I knew what we were doing was the right thing, but how would I feel knowing I sent a person to jail? After thinking it over, I decided that I had to put my own hesitations aside and help this lady; she needed someone on her side.

After our meeting with the police officer, we didn't hear much for the rest of the summer. We had pretty much forgotten about it until October when we received subpoenas to appear in court. We received our fist one but it didn't have a time to appear. All it said was please stand by, do not appear unless called. So we waited and neither one of us ever received a call.

As the weeks went on, we began to receive these subpoenas regularly, sometimes in the mail, sometimes they were hand delivered. There were five different defendants so there were five different cases.

After a couple more weeks went by, I decided to call the prosecuting attorney and see what was going on. He explained the entire case to me and let me know how things were going. He also informed me there was a stay in the cases and that they would resume after the first of the year.

In January we began receiving subpoenas again and to stand by for the date of the trial. After receiving several more within a five-day period, I called the attorney again. He told me to appear in court the next day to testify. I took off work, stayed at home and just as I was getting ready to leave, he called me to tell me I was not needed, the defending attorney was not going to contest my testimony. He thanked me for my cooperation.

Still today I am receiving subpoenas in the mail and they are getting delivered to my house regularly but I have yet to appear in court. I was supposed to appear a couple of weeks ago, but I was called and told I was not needed.

I have learned that one of the cases is complete and one of the girls, not the granddaughter, was found guilty and given a one-year probation. The trial of the granddaughter and one of the guys on the tape was set a while ago. The prosecutor was asking for at least one year in prison. I haven't heard the outcome yet.

I am often asked, was it worth it? All the waiting around, not knowing if I was to appear in court. My only reply is, yes. I know I am a better person for helping this woman, even if she doesn't know that she was helped. She has been removed from the home of her granddaughter and from what I have been told, is doing well in a nursing home. It was not easy turning these people in; I still have concerns about what could happen next. If I ever had to do it over again, however, I would make the same decision and not think twice about it.