Bipolar disorder, whether type one or two, certainly affects someone's judgment, Miller testified, detailing how even after Silvia was diagnosed with the disorder, she refused to believe it, insisting that she suffered from ADD instead. This stubbornness extended to treatment, he said, recommending that Silvia receive mood-stabilizing medication and be monitored to make sure she stayed on it.
Cherner walked Miller through past manifestations of Silvia's illness, including two mental-health holds when she was kept under observation -- once after she threatened suicide around the time of her divorce. But at no time had she been determined to be a significant-enough threat to herself or others to require long-term psychiatric care.
The Johnson house, in the 6300 block of Holman
Court in Arvada, was party central.
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While Silvia continued to weep, prosecutor Scott Storey presented the victims' side -- and statements from some of their parents.
"She took away my best friend," one father boomed, his hands shaking. "My hunting buddy, my fishing buddy. They're trying to paint her as some half-crazed but good woman, but what does that do for me? My son is gone because of her."
Other parents referred to her as "perverted" and "narcissistic."
Thomas Vander Veen, brother of lead investigator Robert Vander Veen and an Arvada police officer who works at Arvada West High School, took the stand to discuss the devastating effect that Silvia's egregious behavior had on the community, particularly the Arvada West community, where several students involved in the scandal have dropped out. Robert Vander Veen then pointed to certain troubling statements that Silvia had made throughout the case, including her admission that she had tried several affairs but was hoping to rekindle her marriage with Jeffrey, and so preferred sleeping with underage boys at her house because she didn't have to get emotionally attached.
"She is not the first to do this, and she certainly won't be the last," he said, then added that a stern sentence -- and coverage of that sentence -- might serve as a deterrent for crimes like this in the future.
Cherner asked the detective if he thought that all the media attention given to this case should affect the judgment. No, Vander Veen responded; the nature of the crime should determine the outcome. "She is not 15," he said. "She's 41."
Silvia's mother spoke tearfully in broken English about what a good girl Silvia had been all her life; a friend talked about what great care Silvia had given him when he was seriously ill, and how much he could see that she was ready and willing to change.
Storey asked that Silvia Johnson be sentenced to a significant stretch with the Department of Corrections. Although he said he was sympathetic to any mental-health problem, her illness did not excuse what she had done, nor explain why she had shown no remorse throughout the proceedings. "It does not make her any less of a danger," he concluded.
"Her disease has no on-and-off switch," Cherner responded. "It's a hereditary disease…the clouds don't part just because she wants them to." The combination of the collapse of her marriage, the suicide of a neighbor that led to Silvia's own suicide threat, the death of her father in 2003 and severe bipolar disorder had all caused the walls to cave in on Silvia Johnson's world.
Silvia followed her attorney's remarks with a brief, half-audible statement, barely discernable through her sobs."I have learned my lesson," she said. "I know I have hurt my family, my community. I know I have a serious medical condition. I know I have to take the medicine; I just haven't had the opportunity. I'm sorry."
And then it was Judge Weir's turn. Calling the case both "devastating" and "tragic," he noted that "a crime is like dropping a rock in a still pond; the ripples reach out and affect so many people in the community." Alternately calling Silvia "the epitome of selfishness" and "irresponsible," he remarked that she had shown no concern for law or community. And he scolded her for the destructive climate of "sex, alcohol and methamphetamines" that she so recklessly allowed to exist, drawing particular attention to the destructive effects of methamphetamines that he sees in his court on a daily basis.
"For a mother to encourage her daughter to do methamphetamines is incomprehensible," Weir said. "It is a crime of the highest order."
"A cool mom provides a safe environment for her children and their friends," he told Silvia. "You provided drugs. A cool mom provides advice and guidance. You provided beer and hard liquor. A cool mom provides love. You provided sex."
And then he sentenced her to thirty years in prison.
