My Voice Mattered in Criminal Court

TRIGGER WARNING: Sexual assault details  In this episode, Shielagh picks up where she left off—with the crushing weight of what Hyde Park Baptist Church stole from her. She open by unpacking one of their most insidious tactics: willful ignorance. Church leaders kept themselves intentionally uninformed about the actions of their attorneys so they could later claim plausible deniability. It was strategic, manipulative, and deeply dishonest. They wanted the benefit of a ruthless legal strategy without the accountability for its cruelty. The lies were calculated, and the church community was manipulated by design.

Then, she returns to the courtroom—Weaver’s sentencing. After months of pandemic delays, she finally had the chance to speak. The courtroom was limited, but her support system was not. Her family and friends gathered outside in teal, the color of sexual assault awareness, and showed up in full force. Their solidarity meant everything.

Shielagh shares behind-the-scenes details of that day,  and reflects on the heartbreaking pattern of being told she was "too much" for asking questions—something that happened again and again with the professionals supposedly advocating for survivors. Survivors aren’t meant to shrink. They are meant to stand tall, ask hard questions, and demand truth.

She closes this episode with her full victim impact statement and selected portions of the court transcript, offering commentary as she goes. Despite all the institutional failure, Judge Letitia Verdin listened. She heard. She was moved. And she delivered a sentence that exceeded expectations, including a crucial restriction on Weaver’s access to minors.

Yes, the church did everything it could to silence and discredit —but they couldn’t stop the judge from believing. And that mattered. Listener Discretion Advised: This episode contains discussions of child sexual abuse, institutional betrayal, and trauma. Time period covered: April 2021, brief discussion of events that occurred April 2001