The End

Two troubling things happened this week. Ok three.

First – someone commented on my blog that I need to ‘Finish the story’. I’m assuming they wanted to know the verdict. Jace was found Not Guilty by a jury of his peers. We are told, by a juror, that the initial jury count was 8 guilty, 4 not. Within the next hour the jury had agreed that they could all get behind the Not Guilty by reason of entrapment verdict. They then spent the next 5 hours debating if they needed the ‘by reason of entrapment’. In the end, On Friday September 8th, in a courtroom in Vancouver Washington, Jace was declared Not Guilty without the entrapment condition. That is a very high bar. Looking it up online it appears to be the verdict in less than 2% of cases that go to trial.

Jace won the jackpot. That which every other sting victim I’ve met during the last 6.5 years advocating against these stings could easily debate they also are worthy of, and I would agree with them all. The police have no valid reason to perform proactive stings in the manner they do. It is obviously greed, narcissism, exploitation, and perversion. Perversion of the American way, perversion of guilty until proven innocent, perversion of human sexuality, and perversion of LE’s duty to help someone besides themselves.

But the truth is, sadly, there is no finish to the story. While Jace was indeed acquitted, there has been no justice. The officers lied on the stand. At least one juror asked the judge if that was legal. The officers were not reprimanded or held accountable for ruining Jace’s life. He was imprisoned for 19 months. He was sentenced to lifetime parole and registration. Dishonestly and with malice.

Secondly, a good friend of mine, who has been a co advocate for most of my journey, told me I was no longer a part of the fight. Jace has been ‘cleared’, what does it matter to me what happens now? I wish she would have slapped me instead.

And lastly I had to reach out to a journalist to publish Jace verdict. Jace was arrested on Friday Frb 17th of 2017. Monday was a holiday that year, so I could not get my son out of jail until that Tuesday. Within those four days, my son’s name was plastered over the news. He lost both his jobs. We paid four thousand dollars to get him released and our lives were forever changed.

Again when my son won his appeal, the news media reported on it within the week – stating that the state of Washington was deciding if they would recharge him.

Three weeks after Jace won his trial, and ‘freedom’ – not a single reporter, other than our friend Mike from the Times, has even spoken to us. No articles. No mentions. No interviews. No investigation into what transpired. No questions about how something so ‘slam dunk’ in the state of WA could have turned into an acquittal.

I’ve been asked, repeatedly, how I feel. I feel the same truthfully. Maybe even a little worse. You would think, or hope, that joy would flood back into our lives like rain in a desert when winning a case like this. Gotta tell you, it doesn’t. There is no vindication. The damage is done, was done long ago. I’m not asking you to be sorry for me. But don’t for a second think I care less, that I don’t understand the need to stop the stings, or that I’m happily starting my life over.

I am not ‘lucky’. None of us are.