Oct. 26, 2009
Dear Friends,
It has been over a month since my last update and really that is good! I am very excited to tell you that the civil case regarding the Burns family is closed. Aletheia is no longer in state’s custody but now completely in her parent’s custody. Judge Steetle signed the order on Tuesday of this week, so from what I understand – no more FST meetings, no more DSF visits, no more court hearings (in the civil side of things). Unfortunately the criminal case is still open so Nate and Beth are still facing trial next year for the charge of endangering the life of a child. The prosecution can still drop the charges at any time and our prayer is that he does drop the charges soon.
Thank you for praying for me about my deposition. God’s grace was there and I’m so thankful. The deposition itself lasted close to 2 hours and I remained another 20 minutes or so longer talking with the Burn’s lawyer and the prosecutor. There were only two times that I felt very uncomfortable but I did my best to answer honestly.
The prosecutor said on more than one occasion that he thought this whole thing (the arrests, etc) could have been avoided if only Beth would have let the officer and DSF worker into the home and answered questions, I didn’t really respond to him but my thoughts were, that she didn’t have to and shouldn’t have to let people into her home if they don’t need to be there and she has that right to refuse esp. because they didn’t have a warrant (another point is that he must not really believe Aletheia was in danger if it all could have been avoided by answering questions)! Anyway, I think he believes the ends justify the means because he also said that in the long run, no matter the outcome, that Aletheia and her parents are better off because of all this and they will be together as a family regardless. I’m really not sure why he thinks they are better off now (perhaps because she looks fat, I don’t know) but I wonder how he can say some of that when both Nate and Beth are facing lawyer fees, possible wrecking being involved in children’s ministries, and even prison time if convicted (which I have a hard time believing any jury could be convinced they were endangering the life of their daughter). Mr. Mark Williams at the moment is continuing prosecuting the case. Pray for this man, maybe through this whole ordeal he could be introduced to Christ, because after meeting him I strongly doubt he knows our Lord.
This is a long e-mail but just one more bit of news regarding my husband’s case. We have still not received state’s evidence though all the proper papers (motion of discovery) have been filed in the proper time frames. Our lawyer at the first of Oct. filed a “motion to compel”, basically asking the judge to order the prosecution to give state’s evidence and the judge ordered the prosecution to give the evidence by Mon, Oct. 19. If we still are not given the evidence I think our lawyer can approach the judge, asking him to dismiss the case. If the evidence is given to us, our lawyer can finally start preparing our defense. Again, the prosecution can drop the case at any time and we think that sure would be easiest but we know God has all authority and we don’t always know His plans!!!
God bless you and again thank you for praying for us!
Vee Rodgerson
Filed under: Political
