Indira Lopez -Ruiz, a rape and molestation victim who's lost a child, was angry.
Standing outside the Miami courthouse Wednesday just as prosecutors prepared to announce their guilty verdict in the Jessica Lunsford/John Couey case, the beautiful young woman scowled. She carried a sign with a picture of a Precious Moments child figurine, which read: "Give Me Justice."
"I can't believe it takes the death of a little Caucasian girl to change the laws," she said, referring to local and California measures on sex offenders. "There's so much more.
Lopez Ruiz, age 22, tells a horrible story. As a child in Honduras, she was molested. Then four years ago, she signed up for the Air Force in Bradenton. A fellow soldier, she says, got her pregnant, then five months later drove her to a doctor and coerced her into getting an abortion. When she protested, she claims, the doctor gassed her as her former boyfriend held her down.
In November 2005, she was two months pregnant when she was robbed and sexually attacked. She lost the baby.
Now a college student living in Sunny Isles Beach, she decided to stand outside the courthouse with a picture she had copied to make a point. "All kids deserve justice," she says. "Not just a few." --Chuck Strouse
