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i just sent this as a special notice to my yahoo group, bekah:

well, it's been awhile...i've been lazy about this group, not transcribed much of bekah's writing in recent months and all of my own writing been going to my blog:

http://barbtries.blogspot.com

if any one is still reading: if you get a blog i'll read it. it's a cool way to vent, keep up on things, and keep in touch with people. so far all my blogging buddies but one are people i've never met in real life. but it would be cool if i could just tune in to about all of my loved ones and see how they be that day. how they really be.

so. it's 9:30 the night after halloween [someone tell joe rooks happy birthday for me], and i got the paperwork from MADD to begin volunteering for them.

the first thing i pull out of the envelope is a anti-drunk driving brochure. it includes a breakdown of the possible penalties if you cause injury or death while intoxicated, and next to both felony hit and run and manslaughter, it is noted, "...may be charged as a strike."

i am so pissed i feel as if i could explode, but instead [and that is the other really good thing about blogging], i'll write it down. lies lies lies

nicholas rini looked at us knowing we depended upon him to achieve justice for our murdered girl, and lied directly to our faces. the lies:


"She'll be going away on 80 percent time." Ben, Denise, and I all heard him say this. I left the spin session on 11-28-01 [where we were informed of the plea bargain and enlisted as partners in that travesty by our silence] knowing that rambo would serve 3.2 years for murdering bekah.

in fact i left that meeting devastated that rambo would serve ONLY 3.2 years. it meant she got away with murder. and i was there, in that room, and did not save my girl nor garner her justice. that was a low point in my life, that day.

a couple months later i learned from my cousin that it was fifty percent time. he got the information directly from nicholas rini. i called my other cousin, a probation officer for the state, who assured me that no state prisoner in CA goes away for more than 55 percent of the time sentenced.

it was not until the date of the sentencing that nicholas rini confirmed that rambo would do only 50 percent of her four-year sentence. Then out came another bald-faced lie:

"I didn't tell you she would go away for 80 percent of her time."

right, i pulled the number straight out of the air. the same number ben pulled out of the air, and denise pulled out of the air. we were all experiencing the same hallucination when nicholas rini lied to us and said that rambo would do 80 percent of her time.

Ben and i discussed the bargain. i was devastated; i think he was, too. he said, "i just want to make sure she pleads guilty." we had not thought to ask about that during the spin session.

[well how could we even think when we'd just been told that our daughter's murderer would get off with a much lesser conviction and an obscenely short prison sentence?]

so i called nicholas rini with that question, using ben's words. "We want to know that she will cop to her guilt even if it's not the crime we know she did."

and nicholas rini said, "I can't do anything about how she pleads. whether it's guilty or no contest, she will be convicted. legally it's the same plea."

lies. He could OBJECT to the no contest plea [not to mention the bullshit rambo's lawyer read into the record prior to the recording of that plea, making certain that the record reflected his client's denial of ANY BLAME OR FAULT IN BEKAH'S DEATH]. He could argue to the judge, "you've seen the evidence your honor. for the sake of justice the people request that you refuse the no contest plea in this case."

we did not know that until after the pleading, when another criminal whose case was covered in the Daily Breeze was forced to plead guilty after the DA objected to the no contest plea. Because when we ASKED, Nicholas Rini lied. Straight-faced as if he was telling the truth.

on 02-15-02 Rambo was sentenced and taken away. for only two years, not 3.2 as we were told by nicholas rini and not for the rest of her life as we believed justice demanded. I wanted to make certain that, at least, if after her release she killed someone else the way she did Bekah she would get 25 years to life for a third strike crime. So i asked nicholas rini.

he pretended he did not know, went away to look at paperwork, came back to me and lied, straight-faced directly to my face:

"These crimes don't count as strikes because they are vehicular in nature."

lies. lies. lies. you hate to hear them from the other side, but part of you knows they will happen. but from your side? the good guy, the man i designated "Bekah's defender" rather than "Rambo's prosecutor," who ultimately turned out to be "Rambo's defender," leaving bekah's memory chopped liver and justice in the dust?

i want to send this to newspapers. nicholas rini. i will put it on my blog and post it here and who knows where else? and i ask, whoever reads this, please advise me. help me know the right thing to do even if you believe it is nothing. and if you are thinking barbara's got to let that go! - tell me how.

thank you and love to you all
bekah's mom barbara
- posted by barbara @ 11/01/2002 10:08:00 PM