The Community Reaches Out - A Letter from Jim McGuire

Jim McGuire & Todd Strader, 6 Grade Class, 1974 - 1975

Our home was always warm and welcoming. With both parents as teachers and four kids in the house - three of them boys- our house had one large open door policy. Well, the guys all came and went through the garage mostly.  All of our friends have been so supporting and have kindly shared Mother's impact on the community.  Many have written to the Judge as part of the pre-sentencing package that may influence the sentencing to be more commensurate with the crime.  

I’ve extracted a bit from the letter of one of Todd’s childhood friends. Jim has most recently reconnected with us Strader kids, and we have reacquainted via Facebook. Funny how the age gap of little brother and his friends is no longer relevant! Thanks Jim McGuire for the kind words and reflections from childhood to present;  Mother’s impact and significance from our home to her dedication to youth and Schlagle High School students; and the memories she helped create in all of us. 

In Jim’s words “her family reached way beyond blood or DNA. This lady was a beacon among many very good people in her own right. “

“her family reached way beyond blood or DNA.
This lady was a beacon among many
very good people in her own right.”

As with many of your notes Jim shared special moments, thoughts, and the confusion that remains caused by “this senseless crime.” Why he took time to write is clear in his correspondence to the Judge:

Mrs. Strader (and her family) were very likely robbed of no less than 15 to 20 years of shared time, love and enrichment. That’s 15 to 20 precious years of shared experiences, not the least of which was growing old gracefully and naturally. The cost to her family, friends and the greater community of Kansas City, Kansas was every bit as high as if a very active retired member of law enforcement or military or civic leadership had been recklessly killed that fateful day.

With permission we are sharing the first and last paragraph of Jim’s heartfelt letter.

Wyandotte County Court Probation Department Victim Impact Statement James McGuireRE: Case # 2014-CR-000818Defendant: Joshua Jay Brazeal Your Honor, I appreciate the opportunity to convey my perception of the impact this senseless crime has had on both me and our community.  While I was not a personal close friend of Geraldine Strader, I remember her quite clearly as a young child.  I attended Parker Elementary School from Kindergarten through sixth grade with her son Todd. I remember on occasion being in their house after school and the air of both discipline and kindness I felt from Todd's Mom.  “She was kind but you behaved in her house”.  As I grew older I knew her as our Librarian at Schlagle High School. Again, the same feelings of discipline and kindness come to mind.  She was always challenging us kids to aspire to something deeper.  Reach for something greater.  I lost touch with Todd over the years and had only reconnected via Facebook shortly before his Mother's death.  I had felt lucky to catch up with another "old friend" who had done well for himself and as well to learn of his sister and brother and their successes.  Now I would say that there was obviously something remarkable in the way they were raised given the caliber of adults they had become.

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"Joshua Jay Brazeal didn't have to steal that car.  But he chose to do so.  He didn't have to drive at recklessly high speeds in a densely populated neighborhood in order to evade (either real or perceived) police pursuit. But by his choice he did. And when he hit Geraldine Strader’s car so hard that it ejected her into the street, and then without knowing if he could help her, (or the young woman with him in the stolen car) he decided to flee on foot and seek medical help only for himself.  Though not premeditated, his intentionally reckless decisions are precisely why Geraldine Strader was brutally killed that day. It is why her close family, her larger family and the greater community of Kansas City, Kansas once again was victimized by senseless criminal action."

I am baffled after comparing the similarities between the cases of Joshua Jay Brazeal and Christopher B. Stewart as to why the District Attorney is only asking for 41 months of a possible 154 month sentence for Mr. Brazeal.  I cannot reconcile the discrepancies in sentences.  There is only one difference I see at face value and I pray to God we are better than that kind of measure.  I also recognize there may be circumstances that are not public knowledge. But when I set all of these thoughts aside, I am left with the unambiguous thought that that three and one-half years’ sentence doesn’t seem nearly long enough to neither punish nor potentially rehabilitate anyone who has made such serious criminal choices and moral mistakes.  Mr. Brazeal needs sufficient time to contemplate the wrong choices he has made in their totality and how they led him to the place where he could recklessly kill and selfishly disregard an innocent person.  If he is addicted to methamphetamine or other strong drugs (as I have heard may be the case) 3 and one half years is barely enough time for him to get his head unscrewed from his addictions, let alone accept responsibility for his actions and contemplate how he must change himself to atone for, and never repeat  those narcissistic, addictive and criminal ways.  My concern is not with vengeance.  And from knowing Mrs. Strader’s children, I do not believe that vengeance would bring any peace.  My concern is that any plea agreement made with Mr. Brazeal to reduce the sentence is truly not in his nor society’s best interest.  I firmly believe that he will need every bit of 10 or 12 years to straighten out his thinking, given that he has probably spent about that long descending down the path that has brought him to this point.  It will take years just for him to honestly own up to himself for his predicament and quit blaming others.  And that’s just the first step on a long road.  I fear if he re-enters society too soon he will likely be his own next victim, and possibly will rob us of another innocent bystander like Geraldine Strader.  If we are to make some sense out of this senseless act, Joshua Jay Brazeal’s sentence must be the basis of a plan for both protection of the public, (until he can be trusted to make better choices) and ultimately for his redemption beyond his next arrest.

Sincerely, JMM 

Thanks so much Jim for your support.

The Children of Geraldine Strader

justice4strader@gmail.com 

KCK Justice - Wondering If Strader's Life Has the Same Value?

The question is "what is equitable?" I asked this to the Wyandotte County Assistant District Attorney, Shawn Boyd to no avail. There were lots of words but no answers. So I went seeking for answers and found two similar cases, both resulting in death, both caused from fleeing the police, both in Wyandotte Kansas County District Court in 2014. Both have impressive criminal records and convictions, neither have been rehabilitated (obviously). Yet, one pleas for 3.6 years, the other was sentenced to 22 years.

March 2015

Geraldine Strader was around the corner from
home when Joshua J. Brazeal crashed into her vehicle.

"A woman in her late 70s died Tuesday after a driver fleeing Kansas City, Kan., police hit her car. Police said that an officer tried to stop the driver of stolen black Cadillac Eldorado at 4:06 p.m. in the 1800 block of Central Avenue, but the driver fled." Brazeal ran on foot, later caught at a Kansas City, MO. hospital tending to his wounds.  Read More: http://www.kmbc.com/news/woman-dies-after-driver-fleeing-police-hits-car/27638570

Joshua Jay Brazeal

Sentencing 6 March 2015, Wyandotte County District Court, KCK. DA asking for only 41 months of 154 month sentence for this crime.

February 2014

Stewart received 22 years sentence.   

Christopher B. Stewart

Received 22 year sentence for this crime in Wyandotte County, Kansas City, Kansas.

"Graciela Olivas [62] was near her home when authorities say Christopher B. Stewart crashed into her vehicle about 6:45 p.m. Monday. Stewart ran on foot but was caught by the pursuing KCK police officers, authorities said." Read More:

 http://www.kctv5.com/story/24751428/suspect-held-after-innocent-motorist-killed-in-police-chase#ixzz3SjkEsmCK 


Justice4Strader@gmail.com

KCK- Justice From the Heart to the Judge - Letter from John Brandt

Kathleen and John Brandt with Mom, 1997

Wyandotte District Court Probation Department Victim Impact Statement

John Brandt

RE: Case # 2014-CR-000818

Defendant: Joshua Jay Brazeal

Your Honor,

I am writing this to convey some sense of the impact this tragedy has had on my life.  On our lives.  But if I am to state the impact of the untimely, unnecessary and violent death of my mother-in-law, “my mother”, then this task comes too soon.  How can I know the impact?  How do I calculate the impact on a community, on a family or on me?  How do I describe the full impact today, of something it took weeks to fully comprehend the finality of.  However, if I must speak today of the impact this crime has had on me, I would need some way to assess the impact of knowing that after being hit and ejected from her vehicle, my mother in law was left on the side of the road to die while others ran away.

I would also have to assess the impact of seeing my mother, her naked body crushed, wheeled into the emergency room while being given chest compressions. How do I quantify the impact of seeing her face, covered with gauze and blood, the brightness of her eyes, their mischievously good nature twinkle, already gone.  What impact might be imagined seeing the floor of the emergency room red with my mother’s blood?  There were shoe prints in our mothers blood.  

What impact can be imagined in seeing her daughter, my wife, stricken by that sight?  How should I appropriately assess the impact of watching my wife’s heart needlessly broken?  

How does one calculate the impact of standing in a hospital hallway with your family while they realize the last thread that maintains their mother's presence in this world must be cut?  Not only were we horrified by the devastation of the crash inflicted on her body, but we were forced to take an active role in ending the life of our mother.  How might that impact us?  

To say the thread is cut, or the plug is pulled isn’t accurate. There was nothing so merciful in the end that I witnessed.   It was a slow, excruciating unraveling of what bound my mother’s life to her body.  We stood vigil and watched as the meds that kept her heart beating, stopped working. Not all at once, my mother’s heart slowed and we waited.   Her blood pressure dropped a bit more and we watched, stealing time with her, grudging each moment that slipped away, while wishing an end to her suffering.   I held her swollen hand as my wife, leaned close, and stroked her mother's white hair, now edged in the burgundy of dried blood, coaxing her toward peace.  “It’s okay, Mom we love you, you can let go.”  What is the impact of being so torn?  How does one quantify such mental and emotional anguish?

For four hours we stayed with Mom in that room, holding her hand, talking to her, all the time, forced to take inventory of the cuts and tubes, bandages and bruising, the deep lacerations on her face that marred those muched loved contours. We stayed as they removed the intubation, as they cleaned up the blood. We stayed as family came in to the room, only to have their hearts broken, looking at their mother, their friend, their aunt’s, scuffed, swollen and broken body. Brutally killed by the carelessness of others.  These are the images I’m left with of my mother.  Not the many dinners and car trips and birthdays and Christmas and laughter but rather her broken body and the hurt and suffering of everyone I love.

What is the impact of missing the many phone conversations my wife and her mother had every day?  How many times has my wife heard silence instead of her mother’s voice? I have seen my wife, in a moment of excitement, pick up the phone to call her mother.  I know because I see the quiet, awkward way she returns the phone to cradle.  I see the disappointment as time after time, over and over she must relive the fact that her mother will no longer answer her calls.  What is the impact of holiday shopping and enduring the awkward silence and fighting back tears after saying, “Mom will love this.” To realize again, she is no more.  There is no mother to love anything anymore.

Yet If I’m to assess impact today, then here is some of what I have seen.  I’ve seen the dark, early hours of the morning when night after night, I awake to an empty bed and find my wife still up, unable to sleep.  I’ve felt her toss and turn when she does sleep only for her to awake and refuse to return to the nightmares that visit when she closes her eyes.  Visions of her mother, her best friend, being crushed by a car.  Being left to die alone on the side of the road.  Did she know she was dying?  Was she scared?  Was she in pain?  These are the questions that haunt us.  These are the thoughts that mar every memory of our mother.  

I’ve seen the impact in my wife's fear of driving alone.  Her tentativeness behind the wheel, the way she will sometimes avoid leaving the house during the day for any reason so that I will drive her on her errands in the evening.  I see her foot breaks reflexively as I drive.  I’ve seen weight fall off her as her interest in food has waned.  I’ve seen the impact of questioning the underpinnings of reality: how could something so horrible, so violent happen to someone who, inspite of any human fault, was a good and kind person.  I have felt the impact in all the corners of our lives that were once filled--filled to capacity with the love and strength and understanding and caring and kindness that was our mother.  Now these gifts exist as open wounds, reminders of what is no more, reminders of what should still be. Reminders of the emptiness that has supplanted our dearest friend.

Geraldine wasn't frail.  At 79 she was in better shape than some in their 50's and that allowed her to travel all over the city helping people.  But I doubt anyone would say they loved Geri because of what she did for them.  They loved her because of who she was.  She was service when it was needed, strength when there was weakness, knowledge for those who were willing to learn and laughter for those who were down.  She was a friend.  Not just to me, not just to the people who knew her, but to anyone who needed one.  I’m still receiving condolences as the news slowly spreads through the many communities impacted by Geraldine.  “Such a loss,” they say.  Indeed.  Such a terrible loss.  

When I moved to Kansas City, Geraldine, a veteran teacher, became not only my mother-in-law, but my mentor.  With her experience navigating the licensing requirements and experience in classroom management, I was well prepared for the rigors of being a new teacher.  She was a respected advisor and confident for me and in later years the voice of wisdom and reason as my career progressed.  We shared a love for reading and we would talk about books together as well as gift them to each other.  But through all of the many roles she played in my life, the one I held most dear was as my friend.  Someone who would listen, someone who would laugh, someone who believed the best about me.

I will mark the impact of this tragedy in every birthday that passes and every holiday card, written in her perfectly slanted, fastidious cursive strokes that will remain unsent.   I will mark the impact when she is not there to sit by the fire eating gumbo and s’mores.  I will mark the impact when there is a calendar with an empty spot on her birthday, no reservation to be made, no birthday gift to be purchased.  I will mark the impact in evenings when I return from work and her car isn’t parked in front of our house.  I will mark each day this spring when Geri won't stop by to sit on the front porch and drink tea then stay for dinner.  We will mark our hours by the absence of our mother.  We will mark the days with thoughts of what might have been.  We will mark the evenings with words unspoken and we will mark the ensuing years struggling to make sense of the senseless brutality and utter needlessness of her death.

So I return to this difficult task of assessing impact.  We who love Geraldine Strader,  have been given the severest of lifetime sentences in which to feel the impact of a car that was mercilessly, needlessly and carelessly driven through the heart of our family.

It is therefore, in my opinion, unconscionable that the District Attorney has asked for a mere forty-one months of a possible one-hundred and fifty-four month sentence.  By not charging this repeat offender with the full range of laws that were violated in the acts that directly lead to the death of my mother-in-law and by allowing the few charges brought to be plead down to a minimal sentence, the message is being sent that innocent lives do not matter and that Wyandotte County is more concerned with the welfare of recalcitrant criminals than upstanding citizens who actively contribute and dedicate their lives to make their community a better place for everyone.

Sincerely,

John Brandt

justice4strader@gmail.com

KCK Justice - Let Wyandotte County District Court Know You Care

Thanks Community for caring and wanting your voices to be heard.  Here is the information for writing to the Wyandotte County District Court/Judge as part of the pre-sentencing package of Joshua Brazeal.  

Letters are due 3 March 2015. Sentencing is 6 March 3:45. (Check here often for date/time changes).

All Letters Must Include (at Top):

Wyandotte District Court Probation Department Victim Impact Statement

YOUR NAME                       

RE: Case#: 2014-CR-000818

Defendant: Joshua Jay Brazeal

Remember to Sign and Date your letter. 

This is a public file so do not include your address or contact information, just signature and date.  

Address Envelope to:

Court Services - Probation

812 No. 7th St, 4th Floor (Medrano)

Kansas City, KS 66101-9905

Guidelines:

Remember the Strader family is not named in this criminal lawsuit.  But our voices as a community and dissatisfaction of the leniency of this case may be heard by the Court. The District Attorney (as part of a plea bargain) has asked for 41 months of a 154 month sentence.

Your correspondence can be one sentence or a book.:

• How did you know Geraldine Strader?
• How did she impact your life? (as a teacher, community advocate, volunteer, her smile, whatever you want to say)
• If applicable: For you, what was the emotional impact of this crime?
• In your opinion, should the defendant serve a jail or prison term, or receive probation? The District Attorney and plea bargain asks for 41 months of a 154 months sentence. Do you agree/disagree with this?
• Additions, concerns, and comments

Here’s a link with a few do’s and don’t’s that may help when writing. 

http://victimsupportservices.org/help-for-victims/victim-impact-statements/

We want the Judge to hear our opinion. Plus the Asst. District Attorney, Shawn Boyd, will probably be there looking quite coy. 

The Strader Family

stradercom@aol.com