Betrayal - S2: Bonus Ep 3 – Far from Over

Episode Date: August 9, 2023

The Betrayal team checks in with Ashley after she receives disappointing news.   If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal Team, email us at [e-mail].   To report a case of child sexual exploitation, call The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's CyberTipline at 1-800-THE-LOST  If you or someone you know is worried about their sexual thoughts and feelings towards children, reach out to stopitnow.org  In the UK reach out to stopitnow.org.uk See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

911 what's your emergency? It's a nightmare we could never have imagined. In a killer, we were still on the loose. In the 1980s, we were in high school losing friends, teachers, and community members. We weren't safe anywhere. Would we be next? It was getting harder and harder to live in Mompine.

Listen to the Murder Years on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The True Crime Podcast Sacred Scandal returns for a second season to investigate a led sexual abuse at Mexico's La Luz del Mundo Mega Church. Journalist Robert Garza explores survivor stories of pure evil experiences at the hands of a self-proclaimed apostle who is now behind bars. I remember as a little girl being groomed to be his concubine, that's how I was raised. It is not wrong if you take your clothes off for the apostle.

Listen to Sacred Scandal on the IHR radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Topics featured in this episode may be disturbing to some listeners. Please take care while listening. I'm Andrea Gunning. This is Betrayal Season two, bonus episode three. We're back with the bonus episode. We were not expecting to produce right now, not for another month at least.

Ashley texted us with an urgent update and we wanted to share it with you. My producer, Carrie Hartman, took the call. So Ash, tell me what news you just received and how it came to you. I received an email letting me know that Jason was being released. You know, one of the big issues in this podcast has been about how much incarceration, gall time is given to perpetrators. And it seems to me that this is falling short of the sentence that he was given.

Yes, so Jason was sentenced to a year, but with time served, so he'd already served 34 days, I think. So they automatically took that off of his year sentence. And then I don't know for sure, but it seems like he got some type of good behavior reduction in his sentence as well. So it's close to 2 and a half months sooner than a year. How is your family dealing with that? And is he going to be in your community again? I mean, we all knew he was only spending a year. How is your family dealing with that? And is he gonna be in your community again? I mean, we all knew he was only spending a year in there,

but I think the actuality of it, and he's gonna live less than two miles from me and the children. That's really what scares me. I think we're all just anxious. I know when Jason was out the first time, the hardest part for both you and for Aveda was when she would see him somewhere in public.

It would cause terrible anxiety for her. If you walked her through, had to handle that, if it happens now? No. I haven't even made space for that. I just had a thought of seeing him at our grocery store or something. I think I would turn around and walk out

and act like I didn't see him. And that will be a good conversation to have with Ave because she is gaining back so much of her confidence. It's been so amazing these last two or three months to watch her be confident and stick up for herself. You know she's in such a good place right now. I almost feel like she's not going to let it pierce her vibe. She's happy. She's getting ready to start her senior year in high school. She's hanging out with friends again and, you know, doing all those

normal things that a 17-year-old should be doing. And so I just really hope that when the time comes that she sees them, because I think it's inevitable, I hope she has the confidence to look at them straight in the eye and flip them off. You know, something that lets him know that he has no power over her anymore. Is there anything you can do to help with your own anxiety in the short term? I'm having some family and a close friend of mine come stay with us for the next week or two just because I don't know what his mindset is. I probably never really did know this side of him and I don't know what his limitations are. I try

not to live in the future, but hypothetically we go to court, family court, and they tell him he has no supervised visits with our youngest, just because I don't know what to expect. Jason has had such a poor me attitude about all of this. I've lost my family, I lost my career, I lost my home. Now the only thing that has him tied to our life as our youngest daughter and I just don't know what he's capable of. I mean, I don't think he'd want to do anything to jeopardize his freedom, but there's crazy people all over the place.

What should Jason do? What can he do to make you feel comfortable that you are safe and that your kids are safe and that he will respect your boundaries. I want him to go away. I want him to move out of the state. His mother lives in another state. I think it's what's best for him. I mean, he still has to live a life.

He's still fairly young. And hopefully that life doesn't include meeting somebody with children. I want to pretend that he actually died because he did. The Jason we knew doesn't exist. You and Jason share one daughter, your young best to his 10 now. What do you expect in terms of visitation? If I had my way, I would terminate parental rights, but based off of conversations that I've had with my lawyer, I know that that's not an option.

Because I'm still so angry and really passionate about everything, I thought it was best to hire somebody that can take a stance from like a neutral position to decide what was best for our youngest daughter. He'll make recommendations to the family court on what he thinks is appropriate as far as visitation if any. When do you think you'll feel really safe again? Never.

Maybe when our youngest is, you know, on her own, and she's an adult, and she can make her own adult decisions. You know, so she chooses to have a relationship with him at that time then. You know, she's an adult, but I just don't feel safe. I don't think really anybody should. On Sunday, August 6, the victim notification network, also called Vine, texted Ashley with a message. Jason Litten was released on 8-6-23.

The release reason is, sentence served. In an emergency, call 911. And after working with Ashley for over a year, Jason is out. If you would like to reach out to the betrayal team, email us at PetrilePod at gmail.com. That's betrayal pod at gmail.com. Petrile is a production of glass podcasts, a division of glass entertainment group and partnership with IHAR Podcasts. The show was executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason, hosted and produced

by me, Andrea Gunning, Written and Produced by Carrie Hartman, also produced by Ben Fetterman, Associate Producer, Kristen Melcuri, our IHAR team's Allie Perry and Jessica Crinecheck, audio editing and mixing by Matt Alvecchio, a trails theme composed by Oliver Baines, music library provided by my music, and for more podcasts from I Heart, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. 911, what's your emergency? It's a nightmare we could never have imagined.

In the 1980s, we were in high school, losing friends, teachers, and community members. We weren't safe anywhere. Would we be next? It was getting harder and harder to live in Mompine. Listen to the Murder Years on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The True Crime Podcast Sacred Scandal returns for a second season to investigate a led sexual abuse at Mexico's La Luz del Mundo Mega Church, journalist Robert Garza explores survivor

stories of pure evil experiences at the hands of a self-proclaimed apostle who is now behind bars. Analyst Robert G or wherever you get your podcasts.