Big Padre: Court Update

So, we went to court last week. Ramona, the aunt, had been acting weird. I went to go see her the day before. We saw her on the side of the street, I yelled to her to remind her of the trial and she mumbled and drove off. The next morning, Josh, Luke, and I got to her house to pick her up and she was pushing her motorcycle out of her house (that's where most people store them). She continued to look down and talk low. I was sure she was headed to work. She said she was coming. I asked, "are you mad?" No. "Okay, so you are coming?" Yes. "Okay, you aren't mad?" No. "Okay, why are you not looking in my eyes when you talk." Silence. Pushes motorcyle to the rode and orders me to go pick up Daniela's oldest sister.

When we got down the hill, sister was no where to be found. We left to head back to Naomi's where I left my folder with my passport and kids' papers. We left for La Vega.

My lawyer was about 40 minutes late. She is not actually apart of the trial. I have hired her to stand with me and translate what is going on in legal terms. She does speak up and sit behind the other lawyer to relay messages and clear up mistakes. There are always mistakes. For the 6? time they called Amantina to stand. She is the girls' mom. The one that was murdered. We waited several hours to be told that the psychologist never got the report delivered on time for the court date. The testimonies from the kids are not ready.

Ridiculous.

The judges also said the other 3 judges had to finish this case. I asked my lawyer why was this date picked if the original judges knew they had to finish this case. She had no idea. She said she wastes most of her days in court because it is so unorganized. We are rescheduled to Dec 16th. As we all walked out and walked down the hall. Ramona started talking loudly to my lawyer. As we hit the stairs, I just kept going. As her voice got loud, she shouted something using Daniela's name.

So something was wrong all along.

I headed back up the stairs to pay attention to what was going on. She was shouting that Daniela was giving too much information in her interview and that she was causing problems. Daniela was talking about Ramona's brother not helping his sister (Amanatina-Mom) after she was attacked. (Mom's brother would not come and help after she was laying almost dead, he said she deserved what she got, sadly.) Nothing Daniela stated was a lie in her interview. She felt it was important to share that info and I am fine with it. Ramona thought it would cause the courts to call more people in and drag the case on. She was pitting Daniela's brother against her, saying he knows what was said. Then, she was saying the neighbor knew what was said too because she was interviewed. It was a mess.

This family is such a headache. Dealing with grown adults that act like children.

We left after basically telling her she doesn't know what she is talking about.

Passport Update:
We should be headed back to Santo Domingo this week to sign a paper that will release the passports, they say. My lawyer said plan on spending the whole day there. Why? No clue. I asked if I could bring the passports home that day, she said she wasn't sure.

Land Update:
We might be signing for the land on MONDAY! How insane is that?? We have been waiting and waiting! The man we have been waiting on fly into the country last week and now the title can be signed over. Super excited!!

Friends from the States flew in last week. Oh how nice it was to sit around and laugh hysterically with friends. It made me realize how I miss many people in the States.