What's in Helen's pasta?

Printed in the Queens Chronicle:

"The following is an open letter to Borough President Helen Marshall:

Guarionex Montas, our beautiful 13-year-old son, was brutally killed while playing in his school playground. Our grief is beyond words; our pain unbearable and our hearts are torn beyond healing. Guachy was a sweet, innocent, loving child. A good son, a good brother, a good student and a good citizen. He was a lamb making his way in a world filled with lions. Then one tragic day, he became prey.

How do we describe the agony as he lay dying in our arms, his skull smashed by willful blows? How can we heal his brother’s soul after having witnessed the slaying of his little brother? How do we still the cries of his baby brother and sister or dry the tears of his grandmother who lost the sweet boy who always said yes? What do we do for his cousins, aunts, uncles, friends and the thousands who came to see him buried?

While it is little consolation indeed, all we have left is the hope that we find justice. Not the justice of vengeance, for the call to vengeance darkens the soul, but simply the justice of truth. That the truth be known of who our son was, of how he lived and how he died. We are at least entitled to that.

To those who would abuse their office to publicly prejudge the facts, impeding the proper and full functioning of the justice system, we say stop.To those who would use our personal tragedy as an opportunity to divide communities, one from the other, we say stop.

We respectfully call upon you to disavow your earlier statements that publicly pre-judged the outcome of this case. We urge you to do whatever is within your power to see that the judicial system fully hears this case, free of outside influence. We ask you to use the public platform of your office to urge the jury of public opinion to keep its mind open until all the facts are known.

You have said that you stood up simply to support your neighbor. We respectfully remind you that as borough president, all of Queens is your neighborhood. Was our beloved child not your neighbor too?"

Lourdes Cepeda
East Elmhurst

Borough President Accused Of Favoritism

Aiding & Abetting?

Marshall accused of bias