When I grow up I want to be Helen Mirren. Yes, I watched the final mini-series. Well, except for the first hour of last night's installment. I could kick myself for forgetting it was on! I've watched the Prime Suspect series since I first became aware of them. That was sometime around 1997 or 98. I agree they are all dark (and all brilliant). But I thought the darkest was the one with a bad-guy character called "The Street." Storyline was something about a teenage boy being murdered and then his sister was tortured and mentally abused by the suspect. I believe this was also the series where Jane made major choices in her personal life which only added to the impact. I also loved her in a two-part miniseries called Painted Lady on Masterpiece Theatre circa 1998. Wow, what an actress. IMHO the only actress who rivals her in talent is Dame Judi Dench. As Time Goes By airs locally every Saturday night at 7:30 on our local PBS station. I've seen every episode at least three times and I *still* tune in. :o) Anyway, I too am a huge Helen Mirren fan. If she doesn't win the Oscar for The Queen I suggest we all chip in for a trophy and send it to her! Karen

Sadly, he can probably get off more easily than any of us would like to think. I don't know, but the realist in me says find a way to move. You can't depend on the neighbor's being incarcerated to go forward with a normal life. It sounds like your neighbor's "crew" still assembles despite his absence. If he and his friends disappear, is there potential for a replacement problem group taking up "residence" in your immediate vicinity. Could you have friends over for an impromptu summer bbq? It seems as though you can't plan anything outdoors so long as your neighbor's son & his friends are around. I can see this getting worse first before/rather than better. Things are definitely not in your favor with regard to the current real estate market, or for that matter, the economy in general. However, when it gets to the point that your kids can't safely go outside to play on a nice day, and you are living in daily fear, is it really worth your sanity and that of everyone in your family? I am a fighter as well as a total optimist. Before reading about your situation, I would have adamantly defended my right to live in my home. I would not allow the behavior of another make me move from a home I created. However, under your circumstance, I would definitely consider all options, moving being one of them. Is there a reasonable possibility that your neighborhood will get progressively worse, or is this an isolated thing within a 10 block radius of your home? If I were to take a walk in your neighborhood, would the gang presence be obvious to me? What is the the town like overall? It may be a strategic move to get out of this neighborhood now before it becomes reputed for its higher potential for crime? Also, I can't remember if you mentioned having any pets. If you do, they need protection from this situation as well. I wish I felt more optimistic about this getting better for your family. You and your DH are the only two people who can gauge what your home life will be going forward if you do stay in your current home. Also, I don't know the ages of your children and how "at risk" they are being next door to this kid and his friends.

Ashley, that is an interesting idea, but BM can and will take DH to court for contempt. This whole mess started when she took DH to court for contempt of violating a court order that said, in whole, visitation "as agreed upon" and for modification of custody at the same time (which is supposed to be an entirely separate proceeding in our state). She filed in forma pauperis or something (apparently that is when you go in and explain that you have no money because you decided to quit going to work, and then they waive your filing fees), showed up without an attorney, and proceeded to lie through her teeth. It was a complete farce; the judge paid almost no attention to anything said and didn't even look at provided documentation, and decided to apparently take it upon himself to handle the whole thing and so just changed it to a "temporary" court order (splitting the difference between what DH wanted and what BM wanted) until mediation - which apparently was never actually sent to the mediators anyway! Which makes sense because the judge apparently had no right to send it to mediation from a contempt hearing. (Our attorney referred to it as "one of those third world counties", and wants to get it moved to where we live and have lived for years.) Anyway. Bottom line is filing for contempt would cost BM nothing, not even time missed from work because she doesn't work. DH is almost certainly not going to risk it; if he did, when she filed for contempt there's no telling what the judge might decide. And, of course, BM has violated every order that's existed until this one. The only thing that that county seems to care about is withholding visitation; the reason the court order went to the limited visitations in the first place was after she'd failed to return SS from one. I like the thinking, though. It's got to be a matter of time until BM loses interest again. Unfortunately right now she seems to be under the impression that when (if) her BF is paroled from prison that they're going to get married and then she is going to get primary custody, because then she'll be able to provide a stable family life, and then of course they'll get child support based on both my income and DH's. Seriously. DH thinks that is why she's been sticking with visitations this time, because she's preparing for the next modification hearing, the one where she's going to explain why SS should live with her. Come to think of it, after a judge listens to her explaining why SS would be better off in that environment than he is now, maybe then they'll agree to supervised visitation! (I can't be the only one here that wonders how my seemingly nice husband ended up with someone who seems to have come straight off of Jerry Springer. Hormones must be a very powerful thing... but still!)

It's also very odd that this guy is always wrongfully convicted. Not when it's many of the same people involved. They set him up for the wrongful sexual assault conviction, it seems based on the fact he was a bad apple, there was a huge law suit pending when he was charged with murder (which brought the whole thing to an abrupt end.)The sheriff and da were well aware of the other suspect (who's dna was eventually matched to the crime), but did nothing to prevent the wrongful conviction, in fact others in the sheriff's dept were also aware, so I think he had a very strong case that this was not just a mistake on their part, they actively avoided investigating the person who turned out to be the true offender. I think there was more behind a reason to frame him though for the murder and there were other things they didn't want to come out. If Avery won his lawsuit, I think it would have opened the gates for all of those sexual assault victims who were attacked after Avery was locked up to also have good grounds to sue due to the misconduct. The sexual assault victim in the case became openly critical of the sheriff's dept at this time too, once she realized they put away the wrong person, she was personally told by the sheriff to ignore the information she received about the other suspect in her case before Avery was even found guilty of her sexual assault. There is something very wrong in this sheriff's dept imo. They seem to be fine with coverups and a code of silence when it suits them when they should be holding themselves to high standards. I get the temptation to think he was a lowlife who tortured a cat, so lock him up anyway, but once you give LE a pass on ethics, protocol, conduct, they can target anyone. Not all wrongfully convicted are going to be as squeaky clean as Ryan Ferguson, but the law should be above those types of judgements when convicting people. Lastly he wasn't always wrongfully convicted, he was convicted for what he did to the cat and went to prison for it, I don't think anyone would say that was wrong at all but particularly in a murder trial, a person should expect a fair process even if they are guilty then no one will turn around 10 yrs later and question anything.