After reading the Oct. 1 article on Terry Tucker (“T.O. man says his childhood is to blame for his financial crimes”), I felt sick to my stomach. Having been one of their first victims in the late ’90s, to hear him talk about his lonely childhood and the abuse he endured is unbelievable.

What an insult to abuse victims.

I myself was abused for the first 28 years of my life. Instead of trying to screw everyone I can, I find the need to help everyone.

How dare he!

I knew Terry’s first wife. She was a friend of mine and so were his children; I assure you he never controlled any of them; if anything they controlled him. A few months after his first wife passed away, he and Cheri married. By the way, he’s not Mormon; he’s Catholic.

Terry rented office space from a real estate company in an office right across from me; that’s how I met him. When he first started bringing Cheri around, she was the butt of everyone’s jokes. We would all laugh and talk about how she had bigger balls than most men. All you had to do was look at her and know she was a manipulator.

So when Terry says he controlled her, I thought it was a joke.

What he did to us was minor compared to what he did to other people. Shortly after us, he stole every penny of his first wife’s elderly aunt’s money. Terry took over her aunt’s finances. To everyone’s disbelief, Terry spent all of her money.

They were going to kick her out of the nursing home because Terry didn’t pay the bill. The legal system makes me angry because he could have been stopped years ago.

After reading your article I became angry. To tell you the truth, on the day I thought they were going to be sentenced, I woke up and prayed for both of them that they have remorse of all the lives they destroyed.

Now I see they have no remorse, and hopefully the judge will give them the maximum sentence possible. Betty R. Andrews Thousand Oaks