Hi Sssynoel. Calatty is a criminal defense on these boards and does not represent victims of crimes or look out for their welfare or their interests. People like calatty help criminals continue to commit vulgar crimes against humanity world wide, and they also contribute to the pain and suffering of victims everywhere because their mission is to defend criminals and help set them free so they can commit crimes again.
Rape is a brutal crime -- one of the MOST brutal crimes there is. Your brother, if he had sex with you, has attempted to destroy you as a person, as a woman, as a sister, and as a child, and he has attempted to rip every fiber of your goodness from your existence. You should try to remember this and then focus on cooperating fully with the investigators and with the prosecuting attorney regarding your brother's crimes.
By cooperating, you are going to need to recall and reveal the details surrounding the rape(s) and expose this information to someone you don’t know and haven‘t come to trust yet. Your fears, confusion, guilt, shame, the trauma you‘ve experienced, the threats you have been placed under by your brother, the embarrassment, fear of public humilation -- all of that is understood and will be taken into consideration by the experts working on this case.
While you cannot be forced to testify, your testimony is CRUCIAL to the outcome. The investigators and the prosecutng attorney are your friends and are relying on good evidence, your statement, the statements of other victims of this crime, your testimony, and the testimony of others. Without your testimony, or if you (out of fear or in shame) change your testimony, your brother WILL walk free and will rape again.
Your brother's attorney, unlike the prosecuting attorney, is a cockroach and is hoping that you will not testify at all OR that you will change your testimony and say something in contrast to what you've already said. Just like your brother led you into believing the rape was OK, or that it didn‘t really occur, or that he doesn't deserve to be punished for what he did, his slimey attorney is going to attempt to do the same thing -- very strategically so -- by gaining your trust and then attempting to lead you into saying something you SHOULD NOT SAY. Do not trust your brother's attorney at any point in this process.
You stay strong, cooperate fully with investigators and the prosecutor, give any and all information that you know and can remember, listen to what they are telling you, and do not change your story when questioned by your brother's attorney. Be proud of yourself, regardless of the outcome, for being willing to do the hardest thing you will ever need to do in your life -- testify against a family member who raped you. You hang in there. And you testify, too. You can do it.
Here is a URL that might help you in preparing for it.
http://www.justicewomen.com/testifying_tips.html
hmmbrdzz
