Judge Salas's Heartbreaking Statement Following Murder Of Her Son
She calls for increases privacy protections for federal judges.
Screen cap via YouTube
Only a few weeks removed from a violent attack that killed her son, Daniel Anderl, 20, and injured her husband, criminal defense attorney Mark Anderl, 63, federal judge Esther Salas has broken her silence. In a nine minute video, Judge Salas reveals heartbreaking information about the day Daniel was murdered.
Salas says that on the day Roy Den Hollander allegedly posed as a FedEx driver and opened fire on her home, she and Daniel were chatting and cleaning up after a get together in honor of his 20th birthday. Salas says Daniel’s last words were, “Mom, let’s keep talking. I love talking to you, Mom.”
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Salas says she believes that her family was targeted because of her role as a federal judge. Salas ruled against Den Hollander, who died by suicide shortly after the attack, in a case challenging the male-only draft.
Salas also calls for “national dialogue” to “safeguard the privacy of federal judges,” as Den Hollander was able to obtain personal information on the judge prior to the attack:
“We are forced to live in fear for our lives because personal information, like our home addresses, can be easily obtained by anyone seeking to do us or our families harm,” Salas said. “Currently, federal judges’ addresses and other information is readily available on the Internet. In addition, there are companies that will sell your personal details that can be leveraged for nefarious purposes.”
And she puts none too fine a point on it, saying, “This is a matter of life and death. And we can’t just sit back and wait for another tragedy to strike.”
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Watch the full statement below.
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).
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