Thank you, Honorable Justice Ingram for your role during this trial (and beyond.) A very special thank you to Assistant DA Kevin O’Donnell for your endless hard work and sleepless nights throughout the trial in order to see justice served.
Standing here, I think back to those years throughout my ordeal when I suffered great psychological damage and fell into severe depression. I clearly remember how I would look in the mirror and see a person I didn’t recognize. I saw a girl who didn’t want to live in her own skin. A girl whose innocence was shattered at the age of 12.
A girl who couldn’t look at her own reflection without feeling repulsed knowing what abuse that tortured person was continuously experiencing. A girl who couldn’t sleep at night because the horrifying images of the recent gruesome invasions which had been done to her body kept replaying in her head. A girl who numbed her feelings and froze her emotions every minute of the day just to stay sane. A girl who was forced to lose any respect for herself. A girl who lost the right to say NO, to an abuser who used and abused her repeatedly for years that seemed like forever and ever. A sad girl who so badly wished she could have lived a normal young teenage life but instead was stuck being victimized by a 50 year old man who forced her to experience and perform sickening acts for his sick sense of pleasure again and again.
I saw a girl who didn’t have a reason to live.
I would cover up the burn marks inflicted on the body he used to serve his sadistic pleasures. Every time I would look at it, I would get flashbacks and feel my body burning all over again. I would cry until my tears ran dry.
But now, with the help and support of so many officials, family members, friends, supporters, and of my dear husband, I finally stood up and spoke out.
I gathered all my inner strength and courage to go through this battle. A battle of justice, to right in some small way the terrible wrong, to prevent further evil, to protect the innocent, and most of all, to heal. It continues to be a very rough battle that brought me, my parents, and family great humiliation and intimidation, aggravation and rejection, strain and loss of business, each too great to describe.
However, this same battle was one of righteousness. A battle that was the voice of other silent Weberman victims coming forward to bring this monstrous perpetrator to justice. Unfortunately, the others could not or would not publicly testify. Many were too scared to face the opposition and repercussions from the community while others had already passed the statute of limitations — but we were all one voice as they were with me in spirit.
