Informed that Jana Dreyer claims to have received no apology letters, Butler responds with a conspiratorial chuckle: "You've got some information you just told me, and you told me what the source was. My advice is to check your sources."
Three years after the fact, even the D.A.'s office that had prosecuted on Jana's behalf felt comfortable impugning her credibility, even on a black-and-white matter as simple as whether she'd received a letter.
Matthew Kenjura
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And the fact, according to Eakin, is that Pflughaupt's letter, at least, has never been delivered.
"He was also to do a certain amount of community service work as part of his probation plea, which was going to be under the direction of the probation department over there, which I don't think has been completely accomplished either. So that case is still hanging fire just a little bit."
The case against Jana also seems to remain open in the mind of onetime Kenjura attorney DeGuerin, who says he has been off the case since Kenjura's plea of October 1996. Called for comment on the case and its aftermath, DeGuerin quickly offers his take:
"It's a damn shame that any of those guys got any kind of record at all from this thing. See, she's a sexual predator, in my opinion."
Later DeGuerin volunteers that since moving back to Houston, Jana had gone to work as a topless dancer, but when a manager discovered her age, she was fired. Asked for a source for this inflammatory information, DeGuerin says he can't remember, but insists: "It's good information."
"That's a new one," says Jana, compelled yet again to deny a sourceless rumor.
The boys, meanwhile, have all moved on to colleges in Texas.
In February of this year, Jana tried suicide a fourth, and she says final, time. She slashed her wrists again, badly enough to require cosmetic surgery to hide the scars. This time her mother had to break down a door to save her. Jana entered a rehab program and 12-stepped her way off cocaine, though she rolls her eyes still at the earnestness of 12-step programs. She says she's not drinking like she used to, that she doesn't need it the same way anymore.
"But I'm a teenager. This is my senior year. I'm not going to say I'm never going to drink again, because that's BS.
"I can say that I'm over everything, but even that's a lie itself. I still go through moments where I get really down. I get really depressed. But it's not a day-to-day pressure like it used to be in Brenham. I'm not confronted with this every day."
She's more concerned with the future now. She wants to attend college, keep playing goalie and eventually get a law degree. She's interested in international law and hopes to someday get into the mergers and acquisitions field with a firm with European offices. She'd like to live abroad. She says she will never practice criminal law, and never work for the government.
She still wishes she could have had her day in court.
"I wanted to sit there in the courtroom and look at them and tell my story. I felt like I had put up with all this shit for so long, at least give me my fair share at the end. Whether we lose or not, I think I should be able to at least have one day in court."
And she knows full well what she would have faced in that courtroom: the same accusation she has faced for three years outside of it. The accusation that she is a whore. Jana Dreyer knows what the word means.
"It means you're a liar. It means you wanted it. You were the one at fault. They don't believe you."
Meanwhile, Brenham, like Jana, is trying to get back to its quiet, normal life.
Superintendent Collier says, "Actually, it's a lot better. I really think the high school kids are a little better now than they were even three years ago. I think, for Brenham at least, there was some kind of a corner that was turned there, and whether it's that churches and parents became more aware and alert and started beginning to talk with their kids in a way they didn't talk with them beforeŠ probably all those things happened. Everybody's reaching out to try to build some kind of safety net, a cocoon around kids, almost. I think the kids are, just in that three years, setting a higher moral standard for themselves. I really think they are."
Charles Sebesta, whose own daughter is now five years removed from high school, agrees.
"I think it awakened a community as to some of the problems that exist. I don't think there's any question that it brought about a different level of awareness in the community."
Jana begs to differ.
"Brenham portrays this perfect image that there's good there, nothing wrong ever happens. It's all a joke. It's all a facade. It's just something for people on the outside to say, 'Oh, this is a good community.' But I think inside there's a lot of corruption. A lot of hypocrites.
