Rice letter

This letter was dated Feb. 23, 2008, and was from Paul and Cindy Rice to Midland County District Attorney Teresa Clingman and Assistant District Attorney David Watson.

Clingman said this letter was considered by her office to be a victim's impact statement. Rice family attorney Kathleen McCulloch said this is not a victims' impact statement but rather a letter from the family to the DA's office:

Re:  State of Texas vs. William H. Dodson

Dear Ms. Clingman and Mr. Watson:

First, we would like to extend our sincere gratitude for keeping us informed about the case against William Dodson, the time you both have spent helping us understand the issues and procedures in the case, and for being so supportive of us and our family in this difficult time.

We also appreciate your allowing us to voice our feelings concerning a possible plea bargain for Mr. Dodson. While we understand that you are wanting to prosecute Mr. Dodson and send him to prison for the maximum amount of time allowed by the law, our family believes that justice would be better served by putting Mr. Dodson on a deferred adjudication and probation rather than sending him to prison. We say this because we feel that our son's life has already been wasted, and we believe that the 500 hours of community service that you could recommend be imposed would make Mr. Dodson give back to the community and help others who are in need.

We don't see what good would come out of making him sit in prison since he is a physical therapist with the ability to help others.

As we understand it, if he were convicted and sent to prison, he would lose his license to practice physical therapy and lose his ability to help others, but under a deferred probation plea, he would still be pleading guilty to his crime and would have to abide by all the terms and conditions of his probation you would impose on him, but he would still be able to keep his license to help others, meet his financial obligations, and allow him to keep his business and keep his employees employed. The deferred probation would also give him a chance to determine his own fate, and if he failed to live up to the terms of the deferred probation, he would be sending himself to prison.

We know that you may be imposing other penalties, such as a fine, and you will determine the length of the deferred probation and some possible jail time. We want you to know that we will be in agreement with whatever additional conditions you deem are best since they are based upon your experience in these kinds of cases.

As we discussed in your office and as you know, the loss of our only son, Tripper, has been very hard on us and our family. We need closure so that we can try to heal. We believe that obtaining closure in this case will help us, and we believe that justice would be served by allowing the deferred adjudication and probation with the imposition of community service and other terms and conditions your office feels are necessary for justice to be served.

Again, thank you for considering our family's wishes and for your support.

Sincerely yours,

Paul and Cindy Rice

Pendleton, Ore.