You need to know that I am sharing this writing not for sympathy or to make you feel sorry for me. I am sharing these letters because they are my writing. I sometimes struggle to find things to write about, so I came up with these. The following is a victim impact statement letter that I wrote and sent to the judge, hoping to do my part. I also changed the names to protect the innocent and the cantankerous criminal.
Your honor:
My name is Scott Cremeans, and I am a disabled veteran with multiple sclerosis diagnosed in October 2001. Except for my Marine Corps years, I lived in Ohio all my life, yet because of MS, my friends disappeared like an ice cube on a July sidewalk. Due to my MS, I have had a plethora of physical challenges, yet I still quickly made friends and became a particularly positive person. Moving to Florida has been great for my psyche, and the Floridian people have been amazing. I use a wheelchair, which can hamper having fun, but they still have treated me very well.
I am writing this letter to you with a heavy heart, as I dislike disparaging, disrespecting, or devaluing my fellow man. We all have difficult moments that may cause us to act inappropriately, irresponsibly, or ignorantly, negatively affecting others. Unfortunately, I ask that you not release Gilligan from jail too soon. He is manipulative, violent, a general menace to society, and has gone too far. To maximize manipulation, he told me several times he was on the organ waiting list, which his mother said Gilligan was not, as he drinks excessively. Let me give you a few examples of why Mr. Gilligan is bad and needs therapy, counseling, and anything else to change his attitude.
While in a restaurant with Devin, Marianne, and Gilligan, unprovoked, Gilligan began vociferously assaulting Devin and me. Gilligan was so loud that a shift manager told us he needed to quiet down because they could hear us on the other side. Even though I was attempting to de-escalate the situation, Gilligan physically assaulted me by trying to choke me. Another time, Gilligan barged into my house uninvited and aggressively pushed me aside to talk with my guest, Devin. The common question is, do I fear for my life? I am sorry, but boot camp beat the fear out of me long ago. I am not in fear of my life, but I am fearful of the plethora of others that Gilligan can injure.
Scott Cremeans
They told me later that Gilligan’s mother was telling people that her son was not a criminal and that he would not hurt a fly. Of course, this was after Gilligan battered his mother and father, according to the police report, and the police showed up and took Gilligan to jail. In my book, if you attack people like the disabled, older adults, or your parents, you become a criminal, and the police will take you to jail, just like what happened to Gilligan. Only time will tell if I see any retaliation for my honesty in this blog, even though I used no real names except for my own.
If you are man enough to do the crime, then you are man enough to do your time.
Scott Cremeans lives in Central Florida. He is a US Marine diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2001 at 27. Scott has successfully managed his MS symptoms independently with his faith, friends, and funnies. You can read more about his MS journey by visiting his blog, http://www.mymsramblings.com, where he muses about life in the slow lane with his literary wit.
Scott's MS Life 