John Putnam's Journal
December 29, 2003
(10/2/03 28-year-old Robert Napier Corrigan III was arrested on yesterday in Frio county and booked in the Llano county jail, charged with failure to stop and render aid. He posted $100,000 bond and was released Thursday afternoon. Corrigan is reportedly a real estate agent in San Antonio. He was arrested without incident while dove hunting. One law enforcement officer said of the arrest, 'It was almost as if he were expecting us.')
(Oct. 13, 2003 The following news release is from the office of District Attorney Sam Oatman. Oct. 8, 2003, the Llano County Grand Jury handed down an Indictment against Robert N. Corrigan III, charging him with Failure to Render Assistance, a Texas Parks and Wildlife felony, which carries a possible penalty of from 2-10 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and a possible fine of from $2,000 to $10,000.Corrigan is still out on a $100,000 bond which was made after his arrest. Arraignment before the 33rd Judicial District Court will be the next step and that date has not been set. District Attorney Sam Oatman stated, "All evidence involving this accident was presented to the Grand Jury. Their decision to indict involved only failure to return to the accident scene. The case is still under investigation concerning what actually caused the collision and whether Corrigan or anyone else was criminally responsible. If any new evidence is found or evidence we already have can be developed further, it could result in an additional felony charge, provided such evidence is enough for a Grand Jury Indictment." This news release serves as the extent of comment about this case at this time.)
(edited).....Since the Grand Jury hearing, we have been to a couple of pre-trial hearings and some depositions have been taken. We are still waiting to find out more. It appears that Kosurek and Corrigan are hiding something and we don't know what it is yet. What ever it is has cost Laura her life and it is so important that they feel the need to over lie about it. Even when it looks like they are clearly busted. There is something else going on. I have been notified that I will be given an opportunity at trial to give a victim impact statement. Since this is where I am in the journal, I am going to work on it here. Defendant, Be advised that at this particular time in my life, I have no desire to make a "victim impact" statement to you. I hold a very dark and awful place in my life and my spirit for you. However, I was given an opportunity to give a speech at Laura's funeral last year and did not take it. I regret that now. So here I am forced to contemplate what I would say to you. I am forcing myself to come up with something that will somehow make you and all those associated with you understand how bad you have hurt our family. Forced to come up with some little statement that will make you feel at all responsible for what you have done. I don't think that is possible. For myself personally, I have managed to define this past year as dealing with two distinctly separate ordeals. The first ordeal is losing my sister. It would be nice to have spent the last year coping with her loss in a peaceful manner. Somehow it does not feel right to come up here and tell you how much I miss her and how you ruined our lives and about how I am sad that I will never see the children she would have had and the pain it causes knowing that they are gone too. That is personal and will remain so. Those painful emotions are private and none of your business because you did not know her. See, the first ordeal began with a phone call on May 26th, 2003. How can I call myself the victim in this first ordeal. The victim is in an urn on my parents mantle. We have yet to lay her to rest. She doesn't get to make a statement and I would not attempt to make one for her. The first ordeal was an accident. A boat accidentally ran over my sister and killed her. I have come to realize over the past year that accidents happen to people. I know this because of the support we have been given by those around us who care about us. We are all here today thanks to you and those associated with you. The second ordeal is why we are here. The second ordeal has to do with your behavior and unwillingness to accept responsibility. The charge is failing to stop. And to this day, after all that has been discovered about that night, you have still failed to stop. Since I am a victim of you failing to stop, that is why I am here. The fact that you have made our family suffer and endure this investigation this past year in this manner. Instead of laying her to rest, we have had to do this. Because of you and those associated with you, this is what we have been doing this year. It is bad enough that you knowingly left the scene that night. Left us to wonder who on earth out there ran over Laura and just left her there. A couple of days after the accident, my brother and I were sitting on water. We had spent the morning searching for her body. We discussed how we wondered if the boat driver was still there at the lake, somewhere. Was that person perhaps even watching us? Since we did not know who it was, everyone was a suspect. I sometimes think that life would have almost been easier if we would have never found you. Do you know why? Because I never would have expected anyone to be so terribly disrespectful even after being caught. Once the boat was found, we finally felt like there would be some closure on the way for us. Why would I not think that? Naivety on my part assumed that since the boat was found, the driver would naturally come forward and take responsibility for the accident. More wrong I could not have been. Instead we waited three and a half more months before you were arrested. All that time we had no idea what was going on. We woke up every single day wondering what was going on. Because of you and those associated with you, this is how we lived our lives. I could not understand why. All we needed was someone to come forward, take some responsibility and let us move on. Instead we are doing this. Once you were arrested, naivety once again visited me. Again I assumed that you would now come forward and take responsibility for the accident and my family would be able to put some of this pain away. Again we were disappointed. Because of you and those associated with you, we had to keep going. Not because of the accident are we here. We are here because of your behavior after the accident. Because of your behavior and the behavior of those associated with you, our family has spent the past year in a constant state of stress and pain. My biggest concern regarding this second ordeal is that you and those associated with you are going to walk out of here without taking any responsibility for what you have done to my family. If you would have just stopped that night, we would not be doing this. If you would have just come forward even in the following days, we would not be doing this. If you would have come forward at any point ever, we would not be doing this. If you would have ever just taken responsibility, we would not be doing this. Laura is gone and we will deal with that pain for the rest of our lives. Your decision to slap us in the face afterward has brought us a whole different kind of pain. That is what this is about for me. If you would have just taken responsibility for this a long time ago, you would have spared us a lot of pain. Instead, your actions are telling me and my family that you are not going to take this seriously. That unwillingness to cooperate on you part tells me that you do not think my sister's life was important nor do you think that our family's feelings are important. That was a big mistake on your part. Some day, you had better come to realize that. I guess we can all learn one lesson from Laura, live life to the fullest because you never know when someone is going to kill you.
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