[MUSIC PLAYING]
I kind of remembered my mom telling me a story of how
she has a friend from work.
Her husband is very abusive.
I was like is-- could this be her husband.
Could this be the guy that my mom had told me about?
So I remember looking him up on Facebook.
And sure enough, his face was right there.
His name is Steven Mauck.
I'm in a whirlwind.
I'm like, oh, my daughter is harmed.
My daughter is violated, and I know who did it.
She couldn't sleep.
She was definitely in fear of her safety.
She's just very much traumatized.
After a significant trauma like this,
you know, everything is impacted.
It just shakes the foundation of your whole-- your whole life
really.
[POLICE RADIO]
I didn't know what to do.
I just remember laying in bed thinking,
like, this is gonna destroy my business,
and I don't want this business anymore.
I don't want it.
It hurt me.
It hurt me, something that I've been growing.
I just had the worst thing happen
to me because of this business.
I kept thinking my business hurt me.
The cookie and cake baking community which she had been
a part of, they responded with a deluge of support and kindness.
My phone blew up.
People were just-- it quickly, quickly went viral
throughout my-- the cookie community and the cake
community, and people were just so kind and understanding
and very loving.
This comes down to pretty much one person's decision
to do harm to someone else, but there were so many people who
decided to help and to do what they could
and to support her that were kind of trying to balance
the scales a little bit.
And I think for Justina that made a difference.
She was very traumatized.
It's like any little thing was triggering to her,
and she couldn't shower.
I helped her take a bath because she
couldn't turn the shower on.
I was alive, but I didn't feel alive.
I was there, but I didn't feel like I was there.
I was just in a very horrible mindset mind state,
and I didn't trust anyone.
The only thing that my therapist told me is we
can ease it as much as we can and get you to live with this.
And that's what I'm trying to do right now.
I chose life.
When I was calm with that man, I chose life.
I realize that now, and I'm still choosing life.
He said that the sex between himself and Justina
was consensual, and his defense attorney
in opening arguments said this would be a story of he
said she said.
I wanted justice.
I wanted him to pay for not only what he did to me but any woman
he had done it to.
He needs to get off the street so he cannot
hurt another woman again.
He messed with a wrong woman.
He messed with the wrong person.
I believe he was stalking me, using obviously my business
because he used my email, my business email
and fabricated this whole story to get to me.
One of the things that I helped her work
through with that was, yes, you're
gonna come face to face with the perpetrator,
but this is in a court of law where
the last time you encountered this person face to face,
he had all the power.
And in this instance, you're gonna have all the power.
The hardest thing besides that night
was to get him convicted behind bars.
He's guilty.
The verdict is guilty.
We're all crying, but it's guilty.
He's going to prison.