I found it interesting and funny to learn that within 2 hours of the hearing earlier this week, the police detective in the case sent a uniformed officer to my twin brother's house to get his phone number. He also gave the detective's phone number to my brother. My dad told the prosecutor at the hearing he would get his cell phone out of his car and bring the numbers back to him but the prosecutor gave him his card and told him to just call him later. But based on what we learned, the detective got a butt chewing for not making contact. I guess the task of contacting the family was delegated to him.
So my brother called him, as requested, and I'm not sure what the conversation the only thing I heard was that he wanted to see if the victims have been showing signs of abuse. They have not. But the prosecutor has not called him yet.
After work the day of the hearing I was told by my mom that Penelope had complained about a woman who asked her uncomfortable questions. I had no clue what she was talking about because no one asked her anything other than how was her summer going and if she liked the class teacher. But in therapy she brought it up again and they figured out it was the competency evaluator. But she wasn't at the hearing. Interestingly enough, her attorney asked if about the evaluation and the evaluator and Penelope couldn't remember the evaluation even after Papaw reminded her that it was when he went with her in and what had happened. But she remembers the evaluator now but in a different context. Penelope is saying that the evaluator asked her how many times the boy raped her. She was angry with the woman for asking that question because she is a total stranger to her. The therapist tried to get Penelope to open up more about her abuse but she wasn't having it this week. I'm not surprised, with everything that has happened.
I did find out that she said when she disclosed the rape in the bathroom in the middle of the night that when she went back to her friend's room, she was crying and her friend woke up the parents and they were told what happened. But we don't know what they did, if anything. If George was told or not. George has been evasive about information regarding this family - even a little hostile. He doesn't deny that she couldn't have been abused but can't remember anything about their names or where they lived exactly. Despite the fact he had an older brother live with him for a year, volunteered at the firestation with the dad (how Penelope met her friend) and were friends with them for at least 5 years. When I pushed for him to contact people out in the area that could get their name and location he bucked and said "That's the police's job." Hello!? Are you kidding. That was about six months ago.
Now with these new revelations, the issue of their identity has come up again. Yesterday my dad went over to George's house to drop off something for him and he told him how the hearing and therapy went. My dad said that George was all pissed off about the whole therapy thing. He claims that that Penelope's attachment therapists told him that they were not going to try to get Penelope to talk about her trauma. That it's best if she doesn't talk about it and that they will discourage her from talking about it. She needs to just forget about it. LIE LIE LIE LIE. He said he wants a 2nd opinion (so he is on that kick again). He wants her to go to a different therapist or doctor that isn't her attachment therapists.
So my thought is "Why is he saying this??" "What's his agenda now?" He has got to still be trying to hide something. Either something he has done, or something someone else has done that he has covered up. I try not to be an alarmist, or paranoid, but I do worry about things.. but things I worry about tend to come true. This family out in the countryside of Indiana that hurt Penelope.. that George met and knew pretty much his entire time living out there... why would he protect them? George also belonged to the KKK out there (as we learned later and I've discussed in the original post). Maybe he's protecting one of their members. I can't think of any other stupid reason to protect them unless he himself hurt her too and it would come out when discussing her abuse from them. I've told both my parents that I think he did something. I said "Let's think about this. You have a little girl who is sexualized. You have a perverted adult, yes her father but still, who loses his wife and has his daughter take her place in his bed from the get go until I take her. You have a young girl who is confused about her love for her father because of sexual abuse. It would only be a very small bridge to cross for him to abuse her too. They couldn't deny the possibility but don't want to think he did something. UGH I HATE HIM! My dad did say that if we find out that George knew something or did anything he was going to kill him. Especially after Penelope disclosing that the parents were told when it happened. There is something more to this. Something worse than what has already been disclosed. I just feel it. It keeps me up at night.
The other night I had a long conversation with my twin brother - that he initiated - about what he is considering telling the prosecutor when he calls. He obviously had to discuss this with his wife. She is just as much a part of this as he is. He is definitely stuck in the middle of a mess. He said it would be so much simpler if it wasn't family. He is dealing with so much guilt. He feels guilty for not hurting if not at least yelling at Penelope when it happened. He always thought if someone hurt his kids, he'd kill them, but he didn't do anything but send her away. He feels guilty for allowing it to happen. He kept listening for fighting and would hear them playing peaceful, but then he checked once and it was quiet but he was "too lazy" to go upstairs and see why it was quiet. He feels it probably happened then. He also feels guilt that he doesn't fell as much conviction to have her punished like his wife does. He feels he should. Like its saying he doesn't care or love them as much. But he feels that since he didn't hurt her then, he needs to hurt her now. He also knows how much I've given up and sacrificed for her and how she is essentually killing me, and mom and dad. He said that he feels like he should be at the hearings, should want to be at the hearings but doesn't make a point to. He feels like he should be more on top of this then he is and he doesn't know why.
I do know that he is going through a lot outside of this, being unemployed. His unemployment was denied. His wife has been on him to find A job. He is trying. He feels like she is holding him directly responsible for the slow movement of the unemployment claim being contested. She went and got a second job through a friend. The burden of that - him not working and his wife working two jobs. Then all this. I can't imagine things are happy at home.
I told him mom and dad both said that they know that his wife has a strong opinion about Penelope and they know she is the one he has to live with. He sounded releaved and said "I'm glad they can appreciate that. They won't hold that against me." I said "Now, I didn't say that. I can think of one person who probably will (Mom)." After some thought, I don't know if I wouldn't be able to hold it against him either. I told him "I just wish that you could talk to different people that could give you all the facts. Not just the legal stuff, like what are the options of punishment, but also why it happened and all the other pieces." I just feel like if they could focus on the fact that she wouldn't have hurt there kids if she herself wasn't abused. They could redirect their focus of blame. He did bring up the boy who raped her. I told him I still don't know who it is, but I want to pursue him. I just don't want to do it too soon where Penelope has more to disclose and we make her talk about it with strangers and it causes her to close up. She retracted what she had told me during the forensic interview that the detective set up. He completely understood and wants to make sure the truth and the whole truth comes out. Because we both suspect George in this one way or the other.
Honestly, I am trying to have him refocus his blame on George. That's where I truely think it should be. George and Harriet. But her physical and sexual abuse is alllll George. His wife on the other hand, I don't know. I did ask him what she wanted. He said she wants Penelope treated as if she is not family. I then asked him if this situation was reversed and it was her neice Susie, who has her own mental illness from neglect and possible abuse. He said that he said the same thing to her, and she said she'd feel the same way. I doubt that. She is very close to her parents and her parents do just as much for Susie as my dad and I do for Penelope. I've had long conversations with my sister-in-law's mom and we have similar stories. I do feel that my sister-in-law is truely disregarding my brother's family because 1) after what Penelope did, it's easy to hate her 2) She never has liked my mom or my dad so it's easy to dismiss there wishes 3) no one likes George so that's easy and 4) that leaves me. So what. No big loss.
He is stuck in a bad place and I feel for him and I so wish he wasn't in this spot just as much as I wish this never happened. I do feel like I'm losing him as my brother. I can see him trying to distance himself from me.
No comments:
Post a Comment