I don't know if anyone is interested in hearing about it, but just in case, I thought I'd let people know how things are going.

Not too long after the arrests took place, the local newspaper ran two articles about the case, both of them on the front page. People that the man had previously been in contact with recognized him and spoke to their children. As of now, seven children have come forward with allegations of abuse (including my three nieces). He is charged with only three counts of sexual assault. While he was originally charged with sexual assault against a child under 12 while acting as a custodial figure, which is a heavier offense, they lowered it to all charges being simply sexual assault against a child under 12. He faces life in prison. Chances are very good that would not happen, but I do hope that it does. None of the children have been given examinations, and there is no physical evidence of what occurred. I only hope that testimony alone is enough to convict him.

He has been in and out of the hospital while in jail. He's tried to slit his wrists and has been on suicide watch. He's also been beaten at least one time by his fellow inmates. He continues to deny all of the allegations.

As for my sister, she's spent most of her time in jail in solitary for her own protection, as her fellow inmates have found out why she is in jail and have begun making threats. In case anyone reading this is not aware, people involved in crimes against children are not treated well in jail or prison. The majority of them spend most of their sentence in solitary because of it.

We've gotten conflicting information about what, exactly, caused her to be put in jail. The newspaper reported that she actually walked in on him assaulting my niece. She herself has told my mother that she only walked in on my niece climbing into the bed with him. Personally, we believe that if nothing else, she was probably passed out drunk or high while he assaulted the kids nearby--one of them has said that this all happened while mommy was "asleep."

My sister's arraignment was today, and though my mother attended and waited for four hours, they never brought my sister out, so she does not know the results of the arraignment. From the information I've found online (which has not yet been updated), she entered a plea of not guilty back on the 23rd.

Her being in jail is actually a problem if she wants to fight the charges. She's spoken to her public defender only one time, and is not able to contact him on her own--it's up to him to stop by and speak to her. Being a public defender, you can imagine how that goes.

She's currently begging my mother to hire an attorney. And my mother, in turn, is casually trying to pressure me into helping her pay for it (or pay for it all), due to the fact that my father does not allow her access to their finances.

As for the children, their father is still refusing to allow my mother to see them. His wife keeps saying that they will set up a visitation and then never returning calls. My mother has been asking them to let her take them back to school shopping so that she can see them, and they won't even let her do that. Things are not looking good for the future.

This is where the issue comes in with my sister. If she is found guilty of these charges, she will lose all custody of the children and they will go to their father. In the state of Florida, grandparents have no rights whatsoever. The only thing my mother could do would be to hire a lawyer and petition the court for visitation, and 99 times out of 100, that does not happen. If we hire a lawyer and she is somehow found not guilty, she will retain custody and they will be returned to her. But considering everything she has put those children through, the question now is if she ever should get the children back. Honestly, this one thing... it's just the cherry on top. Plenty of other horrible things have happened that I don't even want to get into.

So... as you can see things are still going on. Still being dealt with. I'm still stressed, still not sleeping right. I've gotten to the point that I can only sleep for about 20 minutes at a time, and only out of sheer exhaustion. Most nights I lay in bed for hours, partially dozing off but never really sleeping, before giving up and finding something to do. At least I'm getting some work done. But I had to miss two deadlines lately because even though I'm working, it's distracted work. I spend a lot of time watching tv so that I can just focus on something else.

But there's a bright side coming up. We're going on a short cruise soon. I was able to convince my parents to go with us (which was a huge, drama-inducing chore that resulted in a lot of hurt feelings because nothing with my family is ever easy), and we even decided to take my mother in law with us as well. It more than doubled the cost for us (and my inner cheap bastard is still reeling from it, especially since we still have to pay for things like clothes/bathing suit for her and getting her hair done), but I'm sure it will be worth it, what with her losing her house and all. Everyone right now deserves a bit of a good thing. I'm not doing nearly as much for my parents, but I bought them a fruit+cheese+wine basket for their room and offered to pay for some of their drinks and such while on the cruise.

I'm hoping all of this turns out well. My parents have a tendency to kind of make things... go sour. I always look forward to seeing them and then get disappointed at the end of it and regret ever trying with them. I sincerely hope that does not happen this time, and that we can just spend one weekend being happy together.

I'm sorry for the rambling in this journal. I didn't sleep last night again, so my thoughts are kind of crazy. But thank you to everyone who gave me some words of comfort, encouragement, or kindness to help me through all of this. I'm hoping that I can steadily get my life back in order and carry on soon.