Chapter 17 - Justice Served
At the sentencing hearing a month later, the judge did not hold back. Victoria Sterling was sentenced to twenty years in a federal penitentiary, without the possibility of early parole for at least fifteen years.
Furthermore, the judge ordered the immediate liquidation of the Sterling Foundation’s assets. The millions of dollars Victoria had extorted from the state and private insurance companies were to be placed into a restitution fund for the victims and their families, ensuring they could afford the genuine psychiatric care and therapy they actually needed.
The massive glass and concrete building that once housed the Sterling Behavioral Center was permanently seized by the county. Within weeks, construction crews were stripping the signage from the facade. The fortress had fallen.
