111185C  State  v  Aaron Joseph Cote

 My name is Josh Rains, I am Brandon’s brother.

 I feel cheated, angry, used, conned, hurt, embarrassed, ashamed, and defeated about Aaron Joseph Cote’s sexual abuse of my brother. At the time the abuse occurred, he successfully conned me and my brother into believing that he was a friend. I had been kicked out of my parent’s house for using drugs and was caught using with my brother. Aaron Cote allowed me to see my brother in order to continue our drug use together so that we would be further alienated from our parents. On one occasion, Aaron even asked me if there was a way he could get drugs, which I now see as an attempt to gain my trust.

 There were other ways he mirrored our behavior in order to seem like he was “cool” or one of us. For instance, he would watch pornography with my brother; he would also tell us that he was “Going Commando,” a reference to not wearing underwear. These are just a couple of examples of inappropriate behavior; there were many more occasions where I felt uncomfortable with Aaron Cote’s actions.

Aaron Joseph Cote’s sexual abuse of my brother has been very damaging to me and my family. This was the second time my brother was sexually abused, and I didn’t protect him. It was hard for me to accept the first time that it had happened when I was only nine years old. This time, however, I was nineteen, and I didn’t even see it happening. I was in such denial and wanted to not believe that this member of a church, that swore vows to God, would be capable of such disgusting evil.

After getting sober, I tried to rebuild a health relationship with my brother. This wasn’t possible because of not only the trauma of the abuse but also the resurfacing issues during the civil trial. My brother was like a lost soul. Empty and trying to find something to live for - to have a purpose. I can’t imagine the hatred my brother had at God. It was very hard to have to stand back and watch him destroy himself. He would lie to himself so much he believed in a delusional world that he had created. I believe that he thought that he was not worthy of good things. He had become suicidal, aggressive, and very stressed. It isn’t until now that he is finally getting himself together. And it isn’t until now that he has started to trust the church again and allow God into his life.

 There is one thing I would like to read to you, Aaron Joseph Cote, and that is Deuteronomy 22:25-27:

²⁵ But if out in the country a man happens to meet a girl pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die.

²⁶ Do nothing to the girl; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders his neighbor,

²⁷ for the man found the girl out in the country, and though the betrothed girl screamed, there was no-one to rescue her.

This act is an act of murdering one’s soul.

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