Last Dance, Last Chance

and his law firm: Lipsitz, Green, Fahringer, Roll, Salisbury & Cambria…for the understanding and support they gave me. Not a day went by that I didn’t have a phone conversation with Denis. He was my strength during the trial. He fought for my kids and me until the truth finally prevailed.
    Many heartfelt thanks to my neighbor, Rose Gardner, and her family…and to my dear friend, Allan Steinberg, who have been there for us since Day One.
    My sincere thanks to Dr. Michael C. Snyderman, Dr. Jahangir Koleini, and Dr. M. Raise Samie, all affiliated with South Buffalo Mercy Hospital. To my nurses—especially Teena Wise, Jackie Keller, Lima, Darrein, Marcia, Lucy, Donna, Debby, and Chris, who took such good care of me in my fight to live. To all the physical and occupational therapists, especially Ken and Joanne, who taught me to relearn the everyday things we all take for granted. And I will never forget Jerome, my bodyguard, who protected me! To the rest of the staff at Mercy Hospital. I will never forget you.
    And thank you to Frank Clark, District Attorney of Erie County; Frank Sedita, Deputy District Attorney; Carol Bridge, Assistant District Attorney; Sharon Simon, Assistant Coordinator of the Victim/Witness Program of the Erie County D.A.’s Office; and Charles Craven and Patrick Finnerty, Confidential Criminal Investigators, Erie County D.A.’s Office. They all worked so hard on my behalf, and I will always be grateful to them.
    And to all my family and friends who loved and supported my kids and me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!”
    It hasn’t been long since I researched this book, and all the players are still in the same jobs they were in January. Debbie hopes to regain her health enough so that one day she can find a job.
    Ralph was the top student in his school at year’s end, 2002, and Lauren is doing very well in school and in gymnastic competitions. Most weekends, Debbie drives her to either a meet or a practice.
    Despite Judge Rossetti’s hopes, Lena Pignataro has not reconciled with her son’s family.
    Dan Smith grieved for Sarah for a long time, and then he met someone he knew she would approve of. He has remarried, and he and his second wife, Kari, are raising Dan’s children and theirs, although all four are their children, now. Dan’s regret is that he asked for mercy for Anthony Pignataro before his first sentencing in Sarah’s death. “I didn’t want to see another young family ripped apart when their children were young, so I asked that he not be given a long sentence,” he says, somewhat ruefully. “I thought Debbie and their children would be better off if they had their father come home to them. I was wrong, and in a way I blame myself that Debbie got poisoned. I never thought he would hurt his own family.”
    Barb Grafton, Sarah’s mother, is the “Grandma” of all of Dan’s children, and she visits often and spends holidays with them. “She’s a special part of our family,” Dan says.
    Sharon Simon remains a close friend to Debbie, and she still works with victims and their families. In the spring of 2002, she was as busy as ever with some of the highest-profile cases ever to be adjudicated in Erie County. Sharon always seems to do more than her job description calls for.
    Sharon had one young male client who barely survived being shot. His brain damage left him just at the edge of death, but he was determined to survive and learn to walk again. Although his mother suffered from emphysema and had to be on an oxygen tank, she took two buses and a subway every day to visit her son.
    “But she’s got a three-hour oxygen tank,” Sharon said, “and it took her an hour and a half each way. So I started giving her rides on weekends and Christmas. This woman is lovely. She’s five years older than I am, but she calls me ‘Miss Simon.’
    That made Sharon feel embarrassed, and when the woman told her, “I’m gonna pray for you,” Sharon’s reaction was to “go mutter, mutter to myself, but then I took it back.
    “I said, ‘Miss Naomi, if your prayers got your son this far, I’ll be grateful for them.’”
    There are days in victim/witness advocacy when only prayer will get people through.
    There are days in any police department and every district attorney’s office when the same holds true. The lay public has no idea of how hard those people work to bring justice to crime victims.
    But in Buffalo, New York, as Christmas arrives in 2002, there are