This one is hard to choke down...

My darling, lovable, fantastic and saintly sister, and more directly her husband Dean, are going through what can only be described as hell on earth right now. It's complicated, but I'll try to give the short version and I'm pretty sure I have all the details correct.

As most of my friends know, Dean was a fighter pilot for the Marines, and a very "gung-ho", patriotic serviceman...he loved every minute of his job. I'd never met a more patriotic guy than Dean. Christy and Dean moved all over the place due to his service and repeatedly had to move their family, deal with hurricanes, etc., due to where they were stationed. In serving he lost a bit of hearing due to the extremely loud and long durations of his exposure to the jets he flew. Towards the end of his time with the Marines, he noticed some hearing loss and made a claim with the Marines. They denied him at the time, and he accepted the denial, but still felt he was due something. After he was honorably discharged and started working for Southwest Airlines, and moved to Louisville, KY he again made a claim through the DAV. It sat, tied up with red tape at the DAV for a long time.

A neighbor at the time was chatting with him and it came up that he worked within the DAV. Dean brought up the stalled claim and the neighbor offered to do what he could for him. The neighbor then came back later with payment. He eventually came back to ask for a donation to the DAV to help other veterans in need of help. He felt it was strange, but gladly gave some, wanting to help out. Ol' neighbor came back again, asking for more. Dean though this was very strange and started getting worried, not knowing if this whole process was what the neighbor was claiming it was. He later finds out after being questioned at this house by law enforcement and being shocked by the questions he was asked that "good Mr. Neighbor" was "altering documents and conspiring with his confederate at the VA to get the claim expedited and approved based on fraudulent information for his own financial gain." (*this quote is from his counter-suit.)

The neighbor got nailed, and pled guilty along with some others he ran the scheme with (and, shockingly was allowed to CONTINUE WORKING AT THE DAV!), and he promised to work with the Feds by "ratting" out the rest of his crooked co-horts. (This creep was also arrested, after he'd been nailed for this scheme, for something else unrelated!) He, among many others, have confessed to being guilty...but Dean has maintained his innocence (because he was framed, obviously), even though he could face up to 15 years in prison if he is found guilty by the jury. The trial started today, but sadly this has been hanging over Dean and Christy's head for over a year because the trial has been pushed back around 3 or 4 times due to the prosecution!!! The prosecution, being the Federal Government, has already been dishonest, held evidence from the defense, broken rules and evidently does not have to play by the rules.

Tell me, if you were accused of doing something you didn't, but also knew you would do some serious jail time if you fought it and lost, AND that you were going up against the Federal Government, would you still plead innocent? I'm so proud of Dean. I think he has done what was right, and he would be lying to claim any different. I hope I would do the same if I were in his shoes...and what sad shoes to be in.

My family, and most especially my sister, has been blown away by this whole unbelievable scenario. Dean and Christy couldn't be a more patriotic, humble and honest couple. Of all people for anything like this to happen to...

Needless to say, we have been praying for them and hope that it all ends well. The prosecution will get three days and the defense will get Monday through Wednesday of next week. I'm going down to Louisville on Wednesday for support. To think that their youngest daughter, who they had such a hard time conceiving, and also ended up being very premature, and the heartbreak of all that, will be almost out of high school if he is convicted and had to serve the whole sentence! It just makes me ill to think of those two girls not having their Daddy there, when their both such Daddy's girls and he's so good to them, not to mention his INNOCENCE!

Any thoughts, prayers or support for Dean and Christy are much appreciated.