Court Trial 6/8/2010

The trial for my Fathers court case of Negligent Homicide for the car accident was yesterday. The trail was supposed to last up to 2 days approximately 9am-4pm each day. Fortunately and Unfortunately it only lasted from 9am-about 130pm yesterday. The reason being that the boys Lawyer found a law that states you cannot draw blood on the scene of an accident without actual proof, or probable cause. So, since Jordan (the boy who hit my father) was not acting as if he was impaired or under any form of influence, the law states the officers were not able to take his blood. The judge passed this act, regardless of the fact that Jordan gave consent to have his blood drawn and since it was South Jordan's first death by accident case, the officers were just trying to cover all bases.
Since the judge passed this act, our case and trial was basically shot because all of our evidence came from the metabolite that was found in his blood from the blood test. We were given the option to dismiss court so our attorneys could do more research on this law and find more evidence to win the Negligent Homicide and come back in another 2-3 months for another trial. That was Option 1. Option 2 was to see if Jordan would plead guilty to the DUI and the improper look out charges. If he were to plea guilty, the trial would end, he would be sentenced, and we would be done. If he plead not guilt, another option was to carry on with the trial as planned, just without all of our evidence and winning points about the Negligent Homicide with the results from the drug test.
My mom and all of our family agreed that we all were ready to be done with it. We all were ready to be done with the legal proceedings of the case and were just ready to move on. So our attorneys went and gave Option 2 to Jordan. To all of our amazement, and an answer to our prayers, Jordan plead guilty to the DUI and Improper lookout. In doing so, he was sentenced to 102 hours of Community service, a psych test, and some form of counseling because the Judge was concerned about his safety and his psychological mind from the accident and from his continuation to do drugs. He needs to check up I beileve bik-weekly with his Probation officer for random drug testing and counseling. The Judge allowed him to use half of his community service hours, 52 hours, to be used for these meetings and for the check ups Jordan will have with the judge. The only 52 will have to be done directly to the community.
My grandma Brown, my mom, and I were all able to read our letters to Jordan. Must to my amazement, I found great closure in doing so. From the court case and experience yesterday, I feel like a weight has been lifted and that I am able to finally move on from that hurdle. I am grateful for all of the legal procedeeings to be done with. Now hopefully my family will be able to live our lives without Jordans name and the accident consantly on our minds.