Oh, Chery, what good news about your friend&#39;s baby&#33;&#33;&#33;  I know the waiting must have been so hard for them.<br /><br />I got this email today which was nice for me:<br /><br /><i>Carmen:<br /><br />Defendant was found guilty on all counts yesterday including the rape of the Japanese girl. Thanks for all your help and hard work.<br /><br />jms<br /><br />J. Michael Swart<br />Assistant District Attorney</i>&lt;strong&gt;<br /><br />This was an especially violent cold hit case from 1999 - defendant was tried on this - and another equally violent cold hit case from the year before - I took care of the Japanese victim who was vacationing here in San Francisco.  <br /><br />Until passage of the DNA legislation, these kits were never run ( thank you, Debbie Smith - and Rob - if you ever have a chance to see &quot;A Life Interrupted&quot; on Lifetime Television about Debbie Smith, see it - she was the wife of a police detective in Williamsburg, VA who was raped and, ultimately, went from being a homemaker to a fighter for women&#39;s rights - she fought in Congress to get legislation passed to get cold hit cases run - her assailant was found this way - he was in jail for another offense as was the man who raped the two San Francisco victims ).  <br /><br />At the time, I never dreamed a suspect would be found.  The victim did not speak English at all and I felt so badly for her, a guest in our city.  The defendant stole her passport, money and airline ticket.  <br /><br />Sometimes, thankfully, there is justice.<br /><br />Perhaps this is why I have grown so close to many of my dear Japanese colleagues in recent years - my small way of trying to make up for this horrible affront to one of their citizens.  I did not have the chance to speak to the victim at the trial but I did say hello to her when she was flown in for the preliminary hearing.  <br /><br />Neither of us recognized each other - of course, with her facial trauma at that time, she did not look the<br />same.  Her nose was broken in the assault and both eyes were swollen and black and blue and she was covered in abrasions.  <br /><br />In twenty years of doing this work, I would venture to say less than 25% of my cases have been successfully prosecuted, if that many.  It&#39;s nice to see two convictions in a month - one case nine years old, the child case at least three years old.  <br /><br />I don&#39;t think I have any court cases pending now but, with cold hits, things seem to pop up when you don&#39;t expect them.<br /><br />I just try to forget all of them and think about good things, like cruising, and travel, until it&#39;s necessary to do otherwise.<br />