J.E. Reich
Appearances
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
The calls had ceased for a number of months. They started back up sometime in 2022. I remember my mom calling me and telling me that they started receiving these calls again. I immediately leapt to action. At that point, my mother and my stepfather had moved from Pittsburgh to the greater Miami area. My stepfather, it's also important to note, had been diagnosed with Parkinson's.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
is comprised of people that come from different backgrounds that have different perspectives and different approaches when it comes to especially hate crimes, a huge obstruction, and a frustrating one on so many levels, is that in the beginning, part of the reason why it was clear to me that local law enforcement didn't take it seriously is that their offices were incredibly homogenous.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
and, in turn, trying to destroy my stepfather, my mother, me. When my mother told me about these calls, those bald-faced threats, though to call them threats disservices their scope, their lethal harm, their guarantees of violence, my life fell apart again, but not all at once. As soon as I knew of the calls, I contacted the police and urged my mother to do the same.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
They were not well-versed in antisemitism, in homophobia, in trans identities. It was traumatic enough to explain what was happening, what had happened, but it was also incredibly demoralizing and demeaning to try to have to make my case over and over again, to have to explain why something like this was antisemitic.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
For a little over a week following that initial report, a 24-hour police detail was placed outside of my apartment. At one point, a police officer knocked on my door and told me he had seen a white van drive up and down my narrow street. I thought it was the caller. I thought it was her, the defendant.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
These calls were still going directly to his phone. He hadn't changed the number that was on purpose because we had no idea where she lived. At that point, we were still operating under the assumption she lived in the Pittsburgh area. The idea of going outside, walking around, it still felt like I was living in some sort of alternate reality.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
I thought I was going to die, that I would peek through the blinds and a bullet would enter my eye and ricochet through my brain, that this is how I leave the world, in fragments. That incident was a turning point. This was now my world. I feared going outside. My hands trembled if I stood near the front door. My breath rattled and my ribs felt made of lead.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
If you're a part of a marginalized community, I think there is a deep understanding that you walk through the world and already know that people are not going to take you at face value. I think part of the reason why this team did is because they had a deep understanding of that. And it's something that I'm incredibly grateful for.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
The real escalation lasted from October 2022 to March 2023 when she was eventually arrested. My mom had downloaded an app or software or something onto my stepdad's cell phone so that these calls could be recorded. So it wasn't just audio caught on his voicemail.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
The windows and blinds were perpetually closed, the air stale and listless inside. Even before this, I knew safety was never a guarantee. It isn't when you're part of a minority or a marginalized group. I'm a member of three. But now, the idea of safety had dissipated. It is yet to return. This is the thing. It never got better. Not really.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
There has to be some sort of baseline education for people that do enter law enforcement when it comes to hate crimes or when it comes to providing service to people that are a part of marginalized communities. I think fostering a sense of understanding and empathy needs to happen. There has to be something in place to help people truly understand what goes into protecting any community.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
This was to essentially build a cache of evidence that was forensically irrefutable, especially if the FBI could figure out where those calls were coming from. between October 2022 and March 2023. In the court documentation, they say that there were 238 recorded calls. That number only represents the calls that were recorded and that were admitted as evidence during discovery.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
That week or two of security, a police car blocked down the block, I knew I was more alone than ever, and it would be that way for the rest of my life. The next day and the day after that and onwards and ever was a simple square on a calendar in the exacting shape of pain. I stopped speaking to friends because the entirety of it all seemed so absurd.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
If there were more people in law enforcement, like the people that were comprised of the investigative team, I think the world would be a better place. And I think that maybe justice would feel more just. After the sentencing hearing where I gave my victim impact statement, I actually went to the ER before the sentencing hearing while we traveled down to Florida for it.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
That number is only a fraction of the calls that she made in total. meaning there were hundreds of others that she called and then hung up or called and then we missed.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
It seemed like fiction or a deranged cry for attention. Who could believe something that seemed so awful and unthinkable even to me who was living through it? My life became smaller. I lost my job shortly after I told my then-editor I'd have to step away to speak to investigators about what was happening.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
There's a possibility that these calls could have been in the thousands, especially if you include the calls that she made during phase one, which were eight or nine months prior to when we first recorded the first pair of episodes for Something Was Wrong. It also took me a really long time to realize that this itself was a form of stalking. It was hard to be able to talk to anybody about it.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
I experienced edema in both legs, which can be a sign of heart failure. As soon as I got back from Miami, I went to the hospital within 24 hours of me landing. They thought I was experiencing heart failure. It was really bad. I was in the hospital for three days or so. Having to deal with what was happening to my body that required immediate attention.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
And even though I relayed it plainly, sapped of emotion or subjectivity, I imagined they thought it was something I must have made up. A ruse rife with high drama. My life became smaller. I called the detectives assigned to the case with persistence, begging for updates. My calls were rarely returned. I tried to find a therapist to speak to, but the waitlists were months long.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
I fell out of touch with so many friends because how could I begin to describe or explain or narrate what had gone on? I also didn't want to trauma dump, especially because other people during the pandemic were going through their own traumas and their own hardships. Some people have lost loved ones. I didn't want to add to anybody else's pain as well.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
It didn't take my mind off of what had happened, but I had to go back into survival mode. It definitely delayed being able to process what I had gone through. We're not sure exactly what caused that symptom or what caused my ill health. Parts of my hair went gray. For those three months, I pretty much thought I was dying.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
My days were spent in my apartment, almost exclusively, and my life became smaller. My then-partner left me, and I couldn't blame them because I was a shuddering mess. I stopped reading, I stopped writing, and my life became smaller. I hardly moved from one room to another. I had panic attacks every day. My world became the size of the bed or the couch I barely left.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
There were also times where I can't say for certain, but I likely lost a contract job that I had because I had to say to my boss at the time, I couldn't even believe these words were coming out of my mouth, but it was right after the calls had begun.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
I was cognizant that the stress was affecting me, but I don't think I really understood how deeply it did until a month or so out of it. And this came back to the idea that everything had been my fault. Because if I hadn't written this essay, at the time, I thought that it was a way that I could heal, even as everything was happening.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
My life became the smallest of all. Then, after months, the calls seemingly stopped. I approached this new reality tentatively. Could it be over? Really? Was that all there is? In that all-too-brief interim, I envisioned a life I could go back to.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
And I had to say, I need to step aside to be able to speak with an investigator about anti-Semitic harassment related to a terrorist attack that occurred at the shul that I grew up in. So I won't be able to work at this time. Even while the words were coming out of my mouth, I was like, who's ever going to believe me? My world just became so small.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
But maybe I could give comfort to other people in my community, even if they were once removed or something like that. They could also feel like they weren't alone. It's funny because I ended up feeling completely alone. I wasn't happy. Nobody was happy. I didn't feel happy that somebody was going to prison. I didn't feel happy that I was there.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
The one I used to have, one released from fear and the burden of explaining everything that had happened before, in which I didn't shut myself off from everything and everyone. One in which I wasn't afraid to go outside. One in which I didn't hear the defendant's voice in my head, drawing out my name in a teasing terror.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
And even now, if you total it, this has been five years of my life. That's a substantial chunk of my life. I'm 36 years old now. How do I talk about anything that happened to me within the past five years without somehow touching on that? And I don't want to make people feel uncomfortable.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
One in which she would never deliver the buckshot or fatal stab she always, always promised. In that time, I met my current partner, who is with me here today in solidarity and strength, and most importantly, love. I secured a job in my field. For a time, I began to write again.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
I didn't feel happy that I had had to go through this in the first place. You can't erase the past. So it's just something that you have to live with. I think of her now, I'm not happy that she's in prison. I'm not happy that somebody has that kind of hatred. I'm not happy that she's representative of a pretty large demographic that just hates Jews because they hate Jews
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
I don't think it's fair that it's something that would make people feel uncomfortable in the sense of what this was, was a hate crime. This was stalking. This does happen. It happens every day. But at the same time, when you're just socializing, you don't really want to talk about this stuff. It's just really hard to figure out how to navigate. I always carry this with me.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
I found a therapist after months of waiting and had space to truly articulate the ways in which I'd been confined in a prison of someone else's making. I began to talk to others about it, to share my story. I thought I could achieve a semblance of safety, if not safety itself, but I was wrong. To describe this defendant's second wave of abuse would be a futile exercise.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
It's not like I can escape it in any way. At that point, the investigation was taken over by the Miami FBI field office. The agents who essentially investigated the case and were able to identify who this caller was were really, really wonderful. We did find out that she did not live and was not based in Pennsylvania or in Florida. She was actually based in California.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
And even my sense of security is still temporary. After the three-year supervised release is up, who knows what she's going to do? Who knows if she does it to somebody else? I hope that's not the case. I can't say whether she feels remorse. I'm not under the impression that she does. In the courtroom that day, I wasn't under the impression that anything in her statement really rang true.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
The impact of the hundreds of calls she made, of her own calculated volition, achieved the desired effect. If there's a week where I only have one panic attack, an episode in which it feels like my lungs collapse, that my chest seizes, that I think I'm going to die, if there's only one that week, that's a miracle.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
Maybe she'll grow and change. You shouldn't have to be in prison to grow and change. Our prison industrial complex isn't about rehabilitation or reparative care. It's punitive. She was sentenced to a federal correctional facility in California. It was important to me that she was not imprisoned in a facility that wasn't in her home state and wasn't somewhere close to her family.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
We still don't have solid proof as to how or why she came to become fixated on us or me. Because it was an open investigation, there was little that we could be told. They didn't say anything as to how she was able to call us and not have a traceable number. What was interesting is at the beginning, there was some sort of device that she used to sort of mask her voice to some extent.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
If there's a morning I wake up and, as I make my morning tea, don't wonder as to whether it's the last cup I'll ever make, it's a blessing. I am a person who, in this moment, feels as if I'll never experience the feeling of relief. I think back to the day in March 2023 that I was informed she was arrested and how the news left me empty and numb.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
They can visit her if they want to. The idea that she would be imprisoned in a place that would make it impossible for her family and close loved ones to visit seemed unbelievably cruel. Obviously, there's an extradition process. I'm not sure if she's been extradited to California yet. I think that she probably has.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
But towards the end, she stopped using that. So you could pretty much hear her voice clearly. They pretty much got identified her. And then I just remember in March of 2023, receiving a call. I think it was first from my mom and then from the FBI liaison, who was one of the agents, saying that she had been arrested. It was in the middle of my workday, and I took a 10-minute break.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
When I walk out of the courtroom today, I will hope for relief. I will hope for justice. But I am afraid that the defendant has left me bereft of anything but an innate sense of survival. I mourn what she's taken from me. I mourn the person I think I was supposed to be, who I could have been. I want to direct my comments here to the defendant.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
I'd have to look it up, which would be relatively easy, but it's difficult for me to do that for obvious reasons. I do get notifications for certain things. Within a month or two after the sentencing hearing, we received a notification about the restitution hearing in case I wanted to pursue that, which I did decide not to.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
I have compassion, but I want you to understand the grief that lives in my bones, in my marrow. I wish you rehabilitation and to receive care for your mental health, but that does not cure antisemitism or bigotry. What cures bigotry is empathy. I want you to carry the words I say today and never forget them, and to find a sense of empathy from your own experiences as a marginalized person.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
And I just sat with it. I felt like I was a passive figure in my own life. I guess it's a form of disassociation. This was a recurring theme. I do know that she was let out on bond. So even though she had been arrested, she was still allowed to live free in the public. So there was a period of some time in which she was just able to live her life.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
It would mean essentially me getting $5 a month after she was released for prison. And I was like, I really don't need that. Any sort of monetary amount isn't really going to change anything for me. And I didn't want to be in any way, shape or form linked to her following her sentence. I think her attorney filed an appeal, which is pretty standard.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
I want you to understand that this is the grief you have caused, deliberately, with forethought, with something worse than malice. You stalked me. You stalked my mother and my stepfather. You called my stepfather hundreds of times and invoked my name in equal number. You threatened my life. You threatened my mother's life. You threatened my stepfather's life. You called me a hymie.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
When she was first arrested, I found out she had at least two machetes in her house. And I just kept thinking about how many times she had left messages. She had talked about cutting my head off. the idea that she really had that weaponry at the ready. And if she had wanted, she could have driven across the country and done exactly that. I think of those machetes a lot, actually.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
From what I last heard, it seems they just decided not to follow through. That might change, but if it does, I'll hear about it.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
You called me a kike. You relished the idea of beating my genitals black and blue. You fantasized about torturing my grandmothers and those who died at Tree of Life. You fantasized about shoving objects inside of my mother. You fantasized about shoving objects inside of me in exacting, horrifying detail. You fantasized about sexually assaulting me.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
And then she was arrested again over a domestic act of violence. She had thrown a heavy object at her partner. So she was arrested and then eventually extradited to Florida, where the court proceedings ultimately took place. That's when we entered the discovery phase. During that time, I was not allowed to put anything in writing about anything that had happened.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
You fantasized about beheading me upside my genitals, quote unquote. You fantasized about burning us all in ovens. You scattered your words, but your messages were clear. While this can't be proven in a court of law, the depths of your research are evident. You found my full name, not my byline, but my full actual name, and decided to make that knowledge a point of terror. You wanted me to know.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
Like if I wanted to write about the experience for some reason, I couldn't do that. I don't think I would have done that at that time anyway, just because everything was so raw and new. what was there to really write about. At least that's what I thought about at the time. I couldn't send an email mentioning anything about it. I couldn't say anything on social media.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
I stopped using social media for the most part. It was sort of like I was living on two respective planes of being. One in which I was living my life, completely disconnected from what was happening. And the other one where I was fully enmeshed in it. It paralyzed me and isolated me. It affected everything in my life.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
You tried to convince me you had the power to extinguish me. My personhood. My identity. My soul. My name. To take that from someone is an act of exacting calculated depravity. I am standing here today to tell the court that I am not an abstract. I am not a ghost. I am a person. My heart is beating in my ears. My name is not victim number three. My name is Jay. I am a trans person.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
I couldn't really talk about anything with anybody because I was terrified of somehow ruining the case. It wasn't until 2024 when things started to take off During that time, during discovery, she was assessed for competency. It horrified me, the idea that if she wasn't competent to stand trial but was made to stand trial anyway, that's inhumane.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
After the sentencing hearing, there were a number of stories that were published concerning it, some national slash international publications. What was very frustrating was the lack of follow through from those journalists who got things just wrong. It's obvious that they're just going on press releases,
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
I am a queer person. I am a Jew. I am here today, alive. My name is mine. And no one will ever take that away from me.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
So it was important to me and also my mom and my stepdad that she was given a full psychiatric assessment. She underwent one assessment initiated by the prosecution and then another one by the defense, which we were totally on board with just to be safe.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
There was an article published that was basically a regurgitation of maybe one or two press releases from the DOJ or from the Southern District of Florida. I have reached out to a number of those publications because I'm usually erased from the narrative completely. It's not like I want media attention per se, but I don't want to be erased completely.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
As far as I know, there were definitely undiagnosed mental health issues, which she received treatment for and is currently receiving treatment for. During that time, I was under a lot of stress myself. For the first half of 2024, my partner and I had lost a pet. I was dealing with some health issues.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
It takes me back there. It feels painful, but it feels like an act of reclamation. It's like setting a broken bone. With healing comes pain.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
In the three months leading up to what eventually was the sentencing hearing, I started to experience issues with my heart health. I would wake up in the morning. I could feel my heart beating in my chest. And I have like generalized anxiety disorders, so I understand symptoms related to that, but this was something entirely different. She did plead guilty.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
I'm also speaking as somebody who is a part of the media. I understand you're a freelancer and your beat is true crime. Part of that sometimes is regurgitating press releases. But what's unconscionable to me is if somebody who is a part of that story reaches out to you directly and asks for you to make a correction and get the facts straight.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
The majority of cases that are brought to court, the defendant does plead guilty. There are reasons as to why that happens. There was overwhelming, hard forensic evidence that did show that these calls were made from her residence. There were hundreds of recordings. It was very, very clear that she was guilty of the crimes that she was being charged with, one of which was a hate crime.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
Or maybe just to give somebody a voice, somebody who's deserving of being heard, somebody who went through this, to just ignore that. That's unethical to me. And that's happened. Like I have reached out and I said, you got this wrong. They didn't make a correction. I reached out to the reporter for that story. I had to verify that I wasn't some rando.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
My responsibility was in delivering my victim impact statement. It was important to me that the right sentence was given. It was also to my mother and my stepfather because they had also been so severely impacted over the years by what the caller had done.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
But the lack of follow through is what really bothers me. Because part of the responsibility as a journalist is to report ethically and get the facts straight. one of the articles, they said that my stepdad went on the record that he didn't want to talk about it. My stepdad didn't get a call. That was completely made up.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
It almost made me feel better to think about it in those terms, to think that I was not just doing this for me, but for somebody else, so that it would strengthen my reserve. I have generalized anxiety disorder. So the last thing that I wanted to happen was to have a panic attack in the middle of the courtroom and be unable to do what I needed to do.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
Part of the reason why I wanted to do this follow-up is because I think it's important to set the record straight and to be able to tell my story because it can have an impact in some way, shape, or form. trans Jews exist, this kind of shit happens to us. That is completely tied to my transness and my queerness.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
Because it wasn't just what I wanted to do, but what I absolutely needed to do. My partner and I flew in on a weekend night before the sentencing hearing the next morning. We landed around midnight, so we were obviously really tired. We checked into a hotel, woke up the next day, got ready. It was incredibly hot for that time of year, even for Miami standards.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
After the victim impact statements concluded, the prosecution had put together this horrible montage of the worst things that the caller had said in the myriad messages that she had left. I think it went on for between five to eight minutes. I had to sit in the courtroom while she was there and listen to her words echo throughout the chamber. At one point, I put my hands over my ears.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
I don't want details about her fantasizing about sexually assaulting me to necessarily be on record, but I also don't want my story to be erased. If I had to go through this, what happened to me and how I dealt with it matters. It's emblematic of horrible, bigoted attitudes from a contingent of this country and how they inflict pain and suffering and fear in other people for simply existing.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
If you're somebody who is trans or is gender nonconforming, you might understand this. Especially in Florida, it was really, really important that I presented as well as I could. I was meticulous about the outfit that I wore, just because especially in a state like Florida that is anti-LGBTQ and has codified anti-LGBTQ legislation, It was just very important that I looked meticulous.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
I didn't even realize I had done it. I remember my partner's hand on my thigh. That was my focal point until it was over. What was also very jarring, but at the same time fascinating, was hearing the defense give a statement. The entire purpose of his statement was the defense team believed that she should receive a lesser sentence.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
So if I had to go through this, at least I want to make it matter. I don't want to be erased. And I don't want other people who go through anything similar to this to be erased either. I want them to be able to know that it's possible to survive and it's possible to be hurt. And I want other people to understand what we go through and to hear our stories.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
I just like almost treated my clothing as a suit of armor. If I looked confident, then that would help fortify me rather in terms of the tasks that I had to do that day. I remember driving with my partner in a rented car to downtown Miami. Parking is horrible in downtown Miami. So we had come up with a game plan about where we would park, what we would do, how far it would be.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
I kind of knew what his argument was going to be and what his statement would entail because I had received documentation from our attorneys regarding their argument. The foundation of his argument was a hodgepodge of her mental health, which correlation does not equal causation. I understand still why that was important for her attorney to bring up.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
Because maybe in the end, that can build a sense of empathy or a sense of compassion. Maybe it can one day build bridges and create a larger community of just people being people and people understanding people. I don't believe in closure. Closure isn't a thing I'm ever going to find.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
It's more of like a way to carry this with me in a way that is safe for me and my mental health and my physical health. I'm trying to find my way, not necessarily back to who I was before this began, but try to coalesce and try to piece together the person who I am now and the person who I was before this happened. I kind of mourn the person that I could have been if this hadn't happened to me.
Something Was Wrong
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We had to leave relatively early. I feel like it might have been two hours before the hearing would begin. I remember calling my mother after we had parked and meeting up with her and going to a Starbucks right near the courthouse. I remember reading over my victim impact statement and just looking around the Starbucks, thinking how strange it was that
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I know he was just doing his job, but he really towed the line. And at points, it did veer into excuse territory. What was also fascinating was that some of the claims that he made were factually false. I don't think it was on purpose and I don't think he was trying to pull the wool over anybody's eyes. He talked about a condition that she dealt with and the way he framed it.
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On the whole, I have a good life. I have a partner who is so supportive and who I love. We have three cats and a dog together that we love. We live in Boston. We live in a beautiful apartment. Now I feel so much healthier. I feel better. I can do things like walk without feeling like I can't breathe. I have a sense of security that I didn't have before, at least temporarily.
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People were just going about their day and in the midst of all these incredibly ordinary activities and how we were carrying this invisible weight that nobody could really see. I remember going into the bathroom and staring at the mirror, breathing deeply, intermittently closing my eyes and then looking back in the mirror again, just because I couldn't believe what I was about to do.
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The gist is horrible migraines can contribute to a deterioration of your mental health in a certain capacity, but it does not make you an anti-Semitic asshole. There was one point where he cited a medical incident that her mother had undergone. He framed it as something that's a chronic condition, when in actuality, it isn't.
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We all left our cell phones in our cars. We weren't allowed to take them into the courthouse. I just had a bag that I always carry with my victim impact statement in it. There's a necklace that I always wear that my mother gave to me on my b'nai mitzvah. She had received it on her bat mitzvah. So it's sort of like a family heirloom in the making.
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I'm happy with my life, but God, the pain and the anguish that I had to deal with to get here. I'm finally starting to work on my book again. It took that away from me because I felt like I didn't have a voice anymore for a really long time. I take it day by day. I try not to think about a bigger picture. I try to find happiness in small moments.
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Again, I don't think he was trying to mislead or manipulate anyone in the courtroom. I think he actually didn't realize that it wasn't a chronic condition. It felt a little insulting to pretend these things would cause somebody to enact such catastrophic harm on not just one person, but multiple people.
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I've worn it almost every day since I got it when I was 13. And I remember taking it off and then putting it back on again and just clenching it in my fist. At one point, I opened my hand and I saw the imprint of that mezuzah on my palm. And I kept flexing my palm the entire time, thinking of those words etched in a place that's deeper than skin.
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I try to not beat myself down for somehow not being automatically healed and not magically undergoing an immediate restoration to the person I was before.
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There was a data set that he had cobbled together, a little over a dozen cases, but we weren't given any context as to what those cases were. In the documents we received, there weren't even footnotes with which cases these were. They also spanned a number of states.
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It's those little triumphs, like sitting in my study and finally writing a whole paragraph or a whole page for a short story I'm writing or my memoir that I'm working on, which of course in its own way is me being able to finally definitively tell my story, which also takes time and patience.
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Mezuzah contains one of the most important prayer in Hebrew liturgy. It's a declaration of Jews as a people and also a declaration of monotheism. So who we are and what we believe. I remember going up the elevator in the courthouse, which is actually a very, very beautiful building. I think it's designed to be airy and also to feel as if you're on a ship in the middle of the ocean.
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Obviously, I'm not diminishing how horrible those kinds of cases can be, but if they're only just tenuously connected and we don't understand the context of each of those individual cases, you can't really say, and they only received a 12-month sentence with time served. It was a weird reach.
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for writing a sentence and not thinking it's awful and becoming angry again at the years that this person took away from me because she sapped me of so much of myself that I couldn't write a sentence for myself. It's a hard process, but you take those little moments and they start to become building blocks. And you can see that foundation taking form. I finally have a foundation again.
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He also invoked the Parkland shooting and what happened to the family or the parents of one of the kids who died. Basically, a guy had created a website that was meant to target the parents and family of one of the victims. He sent a number of messages via email to her parents and targeted them. So I could see how it was somewhat similar. The shooting at Parkland happened on February 14th, 2018.
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There's this one part that almost looks like the inverse of a masthead. It's sort of like a column that's etched throughout the building. And if you look down, you can see the bottom floor. It's a place of cascading light, which is such an interesting juxtaposition to the dark reasons that bring people to it.
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It's not a perfect process, but what's perfect anyway?
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What I mourn the most and what I'm trying to grapple my way back to is I stopped writing. Writing was always something that was such a core part of me. It took that away from me because I felt like I didn't have a voice anymore for a really long time. The first real thing that I wrote of some significance or substance, at least to me, was the victim impact statement.
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And then the Tree of Life shooting happened on October 27th of the same year. It was hard to listen to that. The judge heard both statements from the prosecution and statements from the defense, then declared a recess, which wasn't super long. And this was a lovely act of kindness. As a transmasculine, non-binary person, I wanted to go to the bathroom.
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The printout, the one that I have in front of me is the one that I actually read in court. I'm here in court today, here in front of you, to make my existence absolute. On paper, I'm victim number three. But I am not an abstract. I am not an idea.
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During the recess, I was really worried about what bathroom to use. I don't pass as cis, which is not something that I particularly want for myself anyway. But it can make my life harder in certain ways. Like doing something as simple and gross and embarrassing in private as going to the bathroom. I just want to like pee and wash my hands and leave.
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That's all I can hope for. Thank you guys for giving me a platform to be able to speak about this so candidly and to help people be heard. You're truly making a difference in the world. It's Tikkun Olam. It's repairing the world.
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So in a state like Florida, I really have to worry about how I go about doing something as simple and stupid as that. I asked the FBI agent who had been my main point of contact where the bathroom was. She's obviously been to this courthouse multiple times. She directed me as to where they were. And she said, I want you to know we're in a federal building. So you use whatever bathroom you want.
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You're going to be OK if somebody tries to mess with you. You come to me directly and I'll deal with it. But I just want to make sure that you feel as safe and comfortable as you possibly can while you're here, especially today. I have so much anxiety about doing something as human as going to the bathroom. It should be something that frankly is nobody's business.
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Like, I don't want to know what you do in the bathroom either. But it was such a reassuring and wonderful moment.
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They really do. After the recess concluded, we filed back into the courtroom and the caller was given a chance to give her own statement to the court. She looked so ordinary because she had loomed so large in my imagination.
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In her prepared statement, she gave an apology to my mom and my stepdad and called them by name and did not mention me. The statement was only a few sentences long. I was situated in one of the front rows in the courtroom. I was to the right. She was on the left side of the room. I never got to really see her face. She never looked back towards our side of the room.
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After the recess concluded, we filed back into the courtroom. One other thing that happened after we had given our victim impact statements, and I believe before finally sentencing her, the caller was given a chance to give her own statement to the court. It was short and sweet. It was very clear that she was on some pretty heavy medication. She seemed sort of drowsy, sedated.
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My name is J.E. Reich. I'm an editor and a journalist. I'm also a fiction writer and nonfiction writer. I currently live in Boston with my partner, our cats, and a very fiendish dog. I was on Something Was Wrong season six for a two part episode where I discussed my experience with the Tree of Life synagogue shooting of 2018. It was and still is the biggest massacre of Jews on U.S. soil in U.S.
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The investigation was taken over by the Miami FBI field office. March 2023, she was eventually arrested. She pled guilty. My partner and I flew in before the sentencing hearing. On the floor of the courtroom where the proceedings would take place was where I was able to meet the FBI agents who led the case, including the one FBI agent who was my main liaison throughout the entire thing.
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She would laugh at random moments. It was just unsettling. In her prepared statement, she gave an apology to my mom and my stepdad and called them by name and did not mention me. The statement was only a few sentences long. It was something like, I apologize to, insert name of my stepdad and insert name of my mom here, for the harm that I've caused.
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And we're talking years at this point, who had been so lovely and empathetic and also balance that perfectly with professionalism. She was and continues to be a very calming presence. I met her and the prosecutor and the assistant prosecutor for the first time in person. I looked up who they were. So I sort of had an idea of what they looked like.
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history. Six months later, there was Poway in California around San Diego. You never hear about that anymore. People barely remember Tree of Life anymore. To say it's unsettling is a disservice. It's frightening. It's terrifying. The immediacy of a call to action is all the more imperative.
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And then maybe one or two more conclusive sentences. Despite the fact that she was medicated, it would not have taken more than a few seconds to just add my name to that. She had heard my name enough times in that courtroom, but she did not acknowledge me once. I don't know if there's much meaning behind that.
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in terms of telling these stories and making sure that people don't forget them and aren't desensitized to them. There are real people who experience it and who will experience the ramifications and the after effects for the rest of their lives. I should overtly state that I'm anti-occupation. I'm for Palestinian rights. I also believe in a two-state solution.
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It would have only helped her case to mention my name, especially after that victim impact statement, which obviously made an impact. I assume that the judge probably picked up on it. Other people in the courtroom noticed it too. Other people commented on it. It wasn't even that she looked small. It was almost that she looked so ordinary because she had loomed so large in my imagination.
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But of course, when you meet somebody in person, it's different than just seeing a photograph on a webpage. There were a number of people who attended the hearing. I was surprised about how many people there were. I want to say it was a couple dozen people, probably more. There were only a handful of people, if that, on the defendant's side of the room, including her defense attorney.
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I do not call myself a Zionist because I think the word is what I now consider pretty colonialist I have friends who are Jews who do believe in Israel in general but are against Netanyahu's government, which has become its own sort of nationalist exercise. So I do want to be overt and upfront about that.
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I kept thinking about the fact that I would likely not see her whole face, which ended up being the case. I was situated in one of the front rows in the courtroom. I was to the right. She was on the left side of the room. I never got to really see her face. I think the best I got was like a three-quarter profile. She never looked back towards our side of the room.
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There were enough people on our side of the room that some people who were there for us had to sit on the defense's side of the room. At least a couple were from the ADL who were instrumental in elevating this case to the FBI's attention. After all the legwork that I did and my mom did, they really brought it to their attention.
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the caller is a woman of color, which adds so many complexities and layers. I know that that sounds like it'd be something divorced from white nationalism or white supremacism, but it actually isn't because that is what white supremacy in this country is designed to do. It is designed to create infighting amongst minorities and marginalized peoples
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I have my own thoughts and feelings about the ADL, but I am grateful that they were instrumental in that.
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Yeah, which is an organization. One of their main purposes is to essentially elevate cases like ours, bring attention to those cases to the public. So the district attorney for the Southern District of Florida was actually also present during the hearing, which I was very surprised about.
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Exactly. The shooting happened on October 27th, 2018. It was two years and some change afterwards. When we recorded those episodes, we were in the middle of a high pandemic. And in Pittsburgh, we were also feeling the ramifications of the murder of George Floyd and A few months prior to the shootings, there was the death of Antoine Rose II.
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so that we essentially off each other and do the dirty work for them. So when something like this happens, that is white supremacy working. I think in America, we think of oppression and racism not as something that exists in multitudinously gray zones. There are Jews of color that exist not just by choice, but also by birth. And that's the case worldwide.
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This case had a certain level of prominence within that district, but I had no idea that the actual district attorney would be there. It was also just weird to adhere to social niceties. I never thought that I'd have to be like, hi, how are you doing before I had to give a victim impact statement. It contributed to the surrealness of it all. My mom had sent her victim impact statement to me.
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He was a young adult who was murdered by a police officer who I believe was acquitted.
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Being Jewish is a religion, but it's more of an ethno-religion and a culture. There are, of course, subcultures within Judaism as a whole. Jews are not monolith. I cannot speak for Jews nationwide. I'm Ashkenazi, which means that my ancestors came from European Jewry. The idea of Jews as white in the US especially is a very new concept. Considering Jews as white is something post-World War II.
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I love my mom and she is a good writer too, but it was filled with a lot of anger, justifiably so. I knew that if the last words that the judge would hear were filled with that kind of anger and rage, I was worried that it would lose its effectiveness in terms of what we wanted, which was a fair and just sentencing. So I asked specifically if I could read my victim impact statement last.
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And that was also part of a movement where Jews were able to achieve a little bit of like upward mobility where social stratification regarding class was a little bit eased up. Like during the civil rights movement, Abraham Joshua Heschel was, as a Jew, very instrumental in activating the Jewish community because of a Jewish understanding of what oppression is.
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I knew that I'd be able to be a little more even keeled, that even though on paper I might not be considered a primary victim, I wanted the judge and those that were there to understand this targeted campaign that she had engineered for nearly five years. and the ways in which it made my life smaller, and how it nearly destroyed the person that I am and the person that I can be.
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Thank you. On Something Was Wrong, I discussed the aftermath, which included a stalker targeting me, my mother, and my stepfather, who had threatened my life, fantasized and spoke at length about how she would do it in multiple ways, like cutting my head off. Of course, she invoked a lot of Holocaust imagery, which lasted for a number of years.
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As Jews, we need to fight for the rights of others who also live under oppression, especially if we are in a place of privilege at any certain point in history to be able to lift others up.
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What was incredibly hard about hearing her victim impact statement was that my mom quoted a number of the threats that the caller had levied against me. She quoted word for word the awful things that the caller had said, the threats that she had made against me. My mom also quoted them with the exact same cadence that she did.
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80 to 90% of the calls were directed at me, even though they were made at my stepdad's phone. They almost always began with her using my first name, which is not the name I use for my byline. So she did do some investigating to figure out what that was. What we think happened was she read that Vanity Fair essay. They had reached out to me to write that the day after the shooting.
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So when I found out that the caller is a Black woman, of course, that changed a lot of things for me in terms of how I interacted with my feelings, because I could only imagine the hardships that she had been through. But I also am not trying to take her autonomy away from her because she made the choices that she made.
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So it was incredibly jarring not just to have to relive those moments while sitting in the courtroom, but also hear them in my mother's voice. That wasn't something that she intended, but it's something that still echoes in my head. During this entire months-long discovery phase, I was told that I could give a victim impact statement. I very much wanted to.
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I think the thing that I grappled with the most is as a Jewish person, but also as a queer person who has experienced homophobia, as a trans person who's experienced transphobia, it's still hard for me to wrap my head around how she had no sense of empathy. Obviously, I can't speak to what it's like to live as a Black person in America.
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I think it was published two days afterwards. We think she read that essay and then figured out my stepfather's office phone number from when he worked at Tree of Life and then was able to attain his cell phone number from his answering machine from Tree of Life because for months and months, the bills were still paid. Things in the building worked.
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What I mourn the most and what I'm trying to grapple my way back to is I stopped writing. Writing was always something that was such a core part of me. I'm trying to piece by piece start to write again. The first real thing that I wrote of some significance or substance, at least to me, was the victim impact statement.
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But I understand what it's like to walk through the world as a trans person who doesn't really pass. Like, I get misgendered all the time. I do have a sense of what it's like to walk through the world and worry about my safety because of how I look. Transphobia is on the rise in terms of our laws, in terms of banning life-saving medical care for trans people, all of it.
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And we're here today to give an update on that, which includes some sort of Justice I remember I felt very safe and secure during the initial recording of those episodes. And before those episodes were released, the podcast blew up. When we were recording, I had an idea of what the reach would be. That was wild. I had been on podcasts before, but it was stuff about like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
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And it's still hard for me to reconcile those things.
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which is still amazing. Those were comedy podcasts. I wasn't sharing these types of things about myself. When I tell stories about myself, it tends to be through writing. There is some level of control that I have in the sense of a traditional writer-editor relationship. When I pitch a personal essay or something like that, obviously this is a different kind of medium.
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I don't even think of it as empathy. I just think of it as just being a person. It doesn't change the anger. I don't hate her, but I can't forgive her. I'll never forgive her because she stalked me. And it took me a really long time to be able to understand that. Part of the process includes the judge laying out their thought process, which creates, in a weird way, very great narrative tension.
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It was a very positive experience for me and to be able to get my story out that way in a way that I had never done before.
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Because you really are on tenterhooks waiting to see what the actual conclusion is. What I really admire about the judge was that it was very clear that he had listened very closely to my victim impact statement. He stated that it was only after he had heard my statement that he realized how thoroughly thought out and methodical the caller had been.
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She had already known my name when she made the first call to Tree of Life. She left a voicemail on my stepdad's old answering machine in his old office before then immediately calling my stepdad's phone number, which pointed to that there was a premeditation to it all. It was something that she had thoroughly researched.
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She knew exactly how she could not only frighten us, but frighten us to the utmost extent. And the judge laid that out before he sentenced her. In a way, I felt that I had done what I needed to do to protect the safety of my mom and my stepdad and protect myself.
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I hope this is also okay to share. Amy, I listened to your episodes. I remember your story and I remember your mother's name always Hadassah because Esther who becomes Queen Esther, her name was Hadassah. And I feel okay sharing this. I'm a transmasculine non-binary person. So my Hebrew name from birth was Estelle. which means star in Hebrew, but her name was Hadassah, and then she became Esther.
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But in a way, it almost felt like, why had it taken this long for somebody to finally believe and like state out loud something that was so thoroughly clear from the very beginning? the judge well. He issued the sentence.
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So I always felt like a connection in that kind of a way. When we initially recorded those episodes, my memory is pretty clear in the day of, and then the two or three days following, my memory is just blank. I have no memory of the weeks after that. I do remember receiving a number of lovely messages from people that I knew who I hadn't heard from in a really long time.
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When you're reading a victim impact statement, most of it, if not all of it, you need to direct to the court. The printout that I have in front of me is the one that I actually read in court. I'm here in court today, here in front of you, to make my existence absolute. On paper, I'm victim number three, but I am not an abstract. I'm not an idea.
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He also took into account the undercurrent of homophobia and transphobia that were evident in the many, many calls that she made, in the many, many, many threats against me, which nobody really had. That was incredibly impactful, especially in a Florida courtroom.
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I think of it as being human, taking into consideration the many, many factors of this case, especially because the caller is a woman of color, which adds so many complexities and layers. It's not as clear cut as a white supremacist targeting a Jewish family. He took her mental health into account and showed compassion for her. Everybody deserves health care in this country.
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I'm a proud Jew, a proud queer person, and a proud transmasculine and non-binary person. I bleed. I cry. I have a name. And I am here today to prove, despite the defendant's best attempts, that she has not erased me. When the calls started, my bones were already riddled with grief. There were days it seemed I could hardly stand.
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People who I went to high school with, people who also grew up in Squirrel Hill, which is the neighborhood where Tree of Life was situated. And I tried to respond, thank you so much. I'm happy that this helped you in some way.
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I braced myself for a deluge of hate mail just because I'm a writer, I'm a journalist, and I am a veteran at this point of those types of messages that are anti-Semitic, homophobic, or transphobic in nature. Sometimes it's all three. What I was very surprised about was how few negative messages I received in response to the episode.
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It had been a scant few months since the Tree of Life synagogue shooting on October 27th, 2018, the worst anti-Semitic massacre on American soil. This was my synagogue. I knew the victims. They were the parents and grandparents of middle school friends, the familiar faces that greeted me at shul. Later, I heard stories from survivors.
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So it is a travesty that she didn't get that. And I was glad that he said that too. It was reflective of what me and my mother and my stepfather as victims believe.
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One, a family friend, told me that after he had hidden in a bathroom and waited until the wild and brittle sound of gunfire ceased, he stepped out into a bright space and saw Cecil Rosenthal adrift in a pool of blood. My stepfather and mother would most likely have been there, if not for certain mitigating circumstances.
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Most of them were just like, I thought it was nice until you brought up politics. I'm like, well, obviously you've never been a person whose entire existence has been politicized since the day you were born. The overwhelming majority of messages were incredibly kind and incredibly touching. While I was relieved, still, there was this recurring sense of numbness and disassociation.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
My stepfather running an errand for his mother, if my mother hadn't been scheduled to work. If not for that, they would have died too. As a writer and as a journalist, I knew how to process my sharp, immediate grief by speaking to family, to friends, to activists at rallies, to mourners at vigils, reporting all I saw and heard in the desperate attempt to make sense out of something nonsensical.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
It brought me back to a place, and this ties back to when that initial Vanity Fair essay came out. I just felt numb. It brought me back to that place of trauma, and I never used that word lightly. At the point where we recorded, technically it was an open FBI investigation, but it was pretty much dormant. The calls at that point had trickled off.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
I remember with acuity the way my shoes hit the pavement, as if the fury of that act could leave a lasting imprint that archaeologists would discover centuries from now, who would understand my vibrant pain by the mere measurement of my footsteps.
Something Was Wrong
(1/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
When these calls were happening, I of course assumed that this caller was a white supremacist. I had an idea of maybe who the caller was, but it was pure speculation. I couldn't really back it up with anything. I'm glad that I did that because I was very much wrong.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
After that work was done, after the cameras left, after it was understood that the synagogue once called Tree of Life would never be Tree of Life ever again, I fell into a fugue. I think I slept, but I can't remember. Law swaddled me in the morning and choked me at night. And then the calls came. I tell you this all today, in court, to put you in my shoes.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
To give you insight into how bent and nearly broken I already was before the defendant entered our lives. My life. And from where I stand, the four years she spent keeping us in a prison of her own making was nothing less than an act of torture. Whatever her defense argues, what she did or did not know, I will say here and now, she knew that we were victims of terror, survivors of loss.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
She knew enough. When I picked up my mother's call on that day in February, here is what she told me. My stepfather had received an alarming number of phone calls and voicemails. My stepfather and my mother listened to these voicemails. There were two commonalities.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
These voicemails espoused violent anti-Semitism, acute and unwavering, and these voicemails addressed me, first and foremost, by my first name. Not by my byline, J.E. Reich, but by my first name, J. Per the timeline of the public record, I can only surmise that the defendant read work of mine that had been published in the immediate aftermath of the Tree of Life shooting.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
I remember sitting there and thinking, is he actually going to rule in favor of the defense? Is he going to give her a lesser sentence? The one that they had proposed was 12 months with time served, which would have meant that she could have been out within a month or two if they factored in good behavior. Because she had already served, I think, around eight, maybe nine months.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
What I know is that the essay that Vanity Fair asked me to write, the article which was published on October 29th, 2018, identified my stepfather not by name, but by his past role as the executive director of Tree of Life, a role which he held for well over two decades. The defendant knew my name, my first name, before she left her first messages. In my purview, there is a clear through line.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
Yeah, she could have been out pretty quickly. The judge delivered his sentence. In the end, she was given 32 months with time served. So that's a few years with three years of supervised release, meaning that after she's released, if she tries to contact us, she'll be arrested and imprisoned. It's like a violation of parole.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
She did her research. She knew who I was. She took steps in order to destroy one of the only things I can truly claim, my name. Here is an image that haunts me. The defendant left messages on my stepfather's old answering machine in his office, nearly identical to those on his personal cell phone. Messages that were all directed towards me.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
After the hearing was over, the FBI liaison, who again was my main point of contact, took my partner and I aside and said that she wanted to introduce us to some people. Those people were the team that were the movers and shakers of the investigation. They were so happy to see me and excited to meet me. They said lovely, wonderful things.
Something Was Wrong
(2/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
I picture his old office at Tree of Life, months after the shooting, the building abandoned and riddled with bullet holes, enveloped in dust. The defendant's voice from the answering machine echoing past the room, through the halls, a malevolent ghost drawing out my name and punctuating it with Jaime, with kike, desecrating what was once a home and killing the dead over and over and over again.
Something Was Wrong
(3/3) WCN Presents: [J.E.] S6 Updates
What really struck me was that it was a pretty diverse team. in terms of race, in terms of gender, country of origin. I think that also really contributed to the sense of empathy that I felt from when the case was finally picked up by the FBI. I think it's really, really important that law enforcement on every level