Justice Served

Glenn sharing his great ISCA illustration of the MAD guest speakers in 2009: L to R: Me, Mark Fredrickson, Glenn, Sam Viviano, Hermann Mejia

Two years ago this New Years Day, a talented, kind, and hard working caricaturist artist named Glenn Ferguson was attacked by a disgruntled co-worker named Freddie Torres, and brutally stabbed in the head with a pair of scissors at their workplace in Universal Studios Orlando. Glenn was lucky to survive, and was left with severe impairment in speech, motor skills, eyesight and other issues including PTSD. Torres was arrested onsite and has been in jail since that day.

Yesterday ended the long, drawn out legal process to sentence Torres to the punishment he deserves. After many delay tactics by Torres’ lawyers, he was finally put on trial back in August, and was found guilty of first-degree attempted murder. Yesterday was his sentencing. The judge sentenced Fredrick Torres to life in prison without parole. This Orlando Sentinel story covers the details. According to the judge, he thought he was facing a tough decision until Torres made the mistake, no doubt against the advice of his lawyers, to get up on the stand and open his mouth. His rant on the stand did make a difference…but not in his favor. A bizarre ending to a terrible story.

Glenn and his wife JoAnn can now move forward with their lives, knowing that Torres will never be loose to possibly threaten them again. They face a long battle to regain some form of normalcy with their lives, although Glenn may never draw again. I’ve known Glenn for almost 20 years, and he is one of the hardest working artists I’ve ever seen. If anyone can come back from the challenges thrown at them by this horrible act, he can. The best ending to this story would be seeing Glenn be able to do what he loved and was so good at–drawing caricatures.

I am a firm believer that the mettle of a person is truly shown not in how they handle prosperity, but how the deal with adversity. Life will deal you a bad hand now and then… how bad no one knows until they flip over the cards. What a person does when something really bad or hard happens says a lot about them. Glenn and JoAnn have shown their true natures in this ordeal… they are strong, fearless fighters. I’m glad this is behind them now, and they can fully turn that strength to Glenn’s fullest possible recovery.