FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A concerned mother is working to ensure the man who, police said, groped her 10-year-old daughter at Pembroke Lakes Mall stays behind bars, and her efforts have finally paid off.
On Wednesday, the Broward County State Attorney’s Office filed a motion in the case of 42-year-old Julian Lambert.
The alleged victim’s mother, who identified herself as Sandra, spoke with 7News back on Aug. 11. She said she was angry at what she considered an exceedingly low bond given to the suspect, Julian Lambert.
“I’m trying to keep her safe, and if this is not injustice, tell me what is,” she said.
Pembroke Pines Police said Lambert touched the woman’s daughter on her backside while his pants were down.
A Broward County Circuit judge set his bond at just $8,500.
Since then, Sandra has been her daughter’s advocate and her own investigator. She reached out to the police department, the state attorney’s office and even law schools to try and understand the law and what went wrong.
“You guys are telling me he has a bond, and the law is saying [he is not supposed to] have a bond,” said Sandra, who asked not to show her face on camera. “There was a glitch in the system, and a mistake happened, and I’m not here to point fingers. I’m here to get monsters off the street.”
Her persistence has paid off. In the motion filed Wednesday, the state attorney’s office said they erroneously recommended a bond of $25,000.
The judge set the bond at $8,500, but the motion states the charge of “lewd and lascivious molestation of a child under 12 is a life felony, which carries a no bond hold. As such, the defendant was not entitled to have a bond.”
Consequently, Lambert will now go back before a judge.
“To see the district attorney’s office go above and beyond now to get justice for my daughter is remarkable,” said Sandra.
Sandra said she feels vindicated by the latest development in Lambert’s case, and so does her daughter.
“She’s not going to look over her shoulder because there’s justice,” said Sandra. “I asked her, ‘If you could ask Lambert anything, what would you ask him.’ She says, ‘Why me? Why do people like you exist? What went wrong in your life? What broke you to want to break me?'”
Sandra said she has a message for other parents.
“You don’t give up. Stay persistent, don’t take no for an answer. Your child doesn’t have a voice; you are your child’s voice,” she said, “and fear gives you strength. It gives you the strength to say, ‘I’m not going to live like this. I’m not going to keep my daughter locked away in this apartment. I’m not going to home-school her, do you understand?’ She’s going to go out, and she’s going to play, and I’m going to watch her enjoy the sun.”
The state attorney’s motion also states Lambert is a habitual offender with armed robbery and burglary charges in his record, something that has not been brought up before.
The hearing for Lambert’s bond to be reset is set to take place sometime next week.
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