Decision delayed on jail time in elder abuse case
September 27, 2011
Freeborn County District Court Judge Steve Schwab has delayed a decision about whether to waive the third jail stint for the two young women convicted of abusing residents at Good Samaritan Society of Albert Lea.
During a hearing Tuesday, Schwab said there were two key components of the sentence for Brianna Broitzman, 22, and Ashton Larson, 21, that have not yet been completed. He would like to wait and see how things go with these two aspects before he makes an order.
The first component is what is called “restorative justice,” where the defendants meet with the victims’ families during a monitored mediation. The families are able to ask questions of the two young women and hopefully receive some closure and healing.
Schwab called this the most important aspect of the entire sentencing.
He said the state government shutdown and scheduling problems played a factor into why this wasn’t able to be completed earlier.
The second component regarded Broitzman and Larson’s letters of apology that had been written to the victims’ families at least three months ago but never mailed out.
This was because of a Freeborn County Court Services clerical error.
He was clear to point out neither Broitzman nor Larson were to blame for either of these two components. In fact, they have completed all conditions required of them that they had control over.
With these two concerns in mind, Schwab pushed back the report date for the third jail term for both women to Jan. 20, 2012. That should allow time for the missing components to be completed before he has to decide whether it is validated to waive this stint.
He said he will get a report from Court Services staff 30 days prior to that date with information about how the mediation session went. After seeing this, he will issue an order regarding the jail time.
“I think the judge did the right thing,” Freeborn County Attorney Craig Nelson said, calling it a “reasonable” decision.
Nelson said there are family members of the victims who want to meet with the defendants.
The question they — and many others — want to know is why the actions occurred.
Abridged
SOURCE: The Albert Lea Tribune
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