The system of witness protection comes under scrutiny in this film. Shown on HBO recently, this feature has a movie-of-the-week type of quality, in which a real incident is dramatized as a full length picture. As directed by Timothy Bond, the picture doesn't pack much of a punch of the screen treatment by James Kearns.
One of the most disturbing aspects of this story is how a courageous woman who goes along with the program by agreeing to testify against the man who she saw killing a D.A investigating a drug lord in Los Angeles, is treated by the same system that wants her to tell what she saw. Carol Peterson is at first, reluctant to cooperate, then when she learns about the characters that will be after her to try to silence her into cooperating with the justice, she realizes she is dealing with professional killers. By putting herself, and her two teen-aged children, in the hands of, what she thinks, is the right agency that will protect her, she really takes a big chance. Not only that, she loses her identity, job, and well being in her community for an uncertain life, at best.
It's a sad state of affairs when this family, that has been used to a certain living status, is reduced to practically eke out a life because of the way the financial help is denied to her by the government. Since she can't work, and her kids are reduced to have no friends, Carol Peterson, and her family, pay a high price indeed.
On the positive side, she comes forward and points the finger at the man who has followed her and has tried to kill her in order to prevent her from testifying against him.
One of the most disturbing aspects of this story is how a courageous woman who goes along with the program by agreeing to testify against the man who she saw killing a D.A investigating a drug lord in Los Angeles, is treated by the same system that wants her to tell what she saw. Carol Peterson is at first, reluctant to cooperate, then when she learns about the characters that will be after her to try to silence her into cooperating with the justice, she realizes she is dealing with professional killers. By putting herself, and her two teen-aged children, in the hands of, what she thinks, is the right agency that will protect her, she really takes a big chance. Not only that, she loses her identity, job, and well being in her community for an uncertain life, at best.
It's a sad state of affairs when this family, that has been used to a certain living status, is reduced to practically eke out a life because of the way the financial help is denied to her by the government. Since she can't work, and her kids are reduced to have no friends, Carol Peterson, and her family, pay a high price indeed.
On the positive side, she comes forward and points the finger at the man who has followed her and has tried to kill her in order to prevent her from testifying against him.