Thank you for that question. Yes, it has had a tremendous effect on me as well as on Laura and Tennille.
When something of this nature and this severity occurs, something that's so deeply sensitive to all of us, you are left with a feeling of not being able to trust the people you should. Just a brief example would be that if somebody hurts you or commits a crime against you, you can't go to the officials to report that because you can't trust them and trust that the information you're giving them is going to give you good results. That's it. It's a feeling of....
We are relying on you. We need you to be there and to advocate for the people in this society. You are our elected officials. We are the ones who are supposed to rely on you, and you are supposed to be accountable to us. If we can't count on what you're telling us to be true, accurate and in our best interest, then where does that leave us as advocates for our friend Kristen?
It has been our life mission to fight for justice for these girls and to make sure that punishment is received, so this leaves us with a feeling of helplessness. Where do you go? How do we achieve what we're going to achieve if we can't trust the people who are in charge and the ones who are supposed to be protecting us?