Why Must Innocents Suffer?
My name is Russell Wiemers, and I loved Jessica Haller. I am her father. Jessica was close to my heart because she knew how to wiggle her way into it. Jessica came into my life when I met and married her mother. She was just a year old. It took a little while for our relationship to develop. But as it did I grew more and more in love with her.
I will never forget the night I lost her. I hope I never have to experience anything like it again. I was in San Diego visiting my son and his wife. I had an urgent message to call my sister. She said, “Russ, your family has been in an accident, and Jessica was killed.” My heart just dropped, and I was in shock.
“They were going to Sandpoint to a dance recital. A car was in their lane and hit them head-on. Jessica was killed instantly.” It took 12 hours for me to get home.
When I first saw my wife, Debbie, I broke down and cried. She looked so bad. She was in a neck brace and her hands were all cut up. She had cut them from hitting the windshield to get out. Her hip had been broken, as well as her collarbone and several ribs. She said: “Isn’t it sad?” She never even cried. She was all drugged up.
It was not an accident that killed my 18-year-old daughter and destroyed my family. It was a drunken driver.
The next few days I had to take care of several things. The hardest thing was when I had to make arrangements for Jessica’s cremation. I had to identify the body. I had to take her clothes and personal belongings, including her bloody earrings. I had to pick up the ashes. All this while my family lay broken up in the hospital.
My daughter Jessica was the best. She was the most beautiful girl in the world. She was a virgin. She had dreams and she was a hard worker.
She made us laugh. She made us proud. She graduated early from Lakeland High School. I will always love her.
No sentence for the drunken driver could be enough because it won’t bring her back. As Jessica’s father I am relieved this is past us. However, what has been accomplished? Was justice truly served in this case? Timothy Cooper, I am sure, is very sorry this happened.
However, there are a lot of Timothy Coopers out there. Will they quit drinking and driving based on the sentence handed down last week? I doubt it. We live in a culture that perpetuates this destructive behavior by slapping the hands of the criminals who continue to disregard the law and the rights of others.
My family and especially my daughter Jessica have been deprived of their fundamental human rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The sentences given to drunken drivers should be so severe that no one would dare take a chance and drive drunk. Judy Cooper said that we will all be judged in the end and that we all make mistakes in life. However, some people’s blood guilt is reaching up to the heavens, and for these the judgment will be adverse and severe. In the meantime, how many innocent people will have to die so others can pursue their own vices?