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Domestic abuse and stalking laws need serious reform

By Staff | Dec 17, 2008

Editor:

On Nov. 29, approximately between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m., my ex boyfriend threw me down on the bed and had me pinned down. I tried to get him off of me and scratched his face in the process. I was in fear for my life since he had threatened to kill me several times. I finally got him off of me and ran into the bathroom. He locked me in and I couldn’t get out. I banged on the door and kicked it several times before I finally was able to get it open. I then grabbed my purse and ran outside to escape.

The police were out there and asked me what happened to his face. I said I didn’t know as I didn’t realize I put scratches on his face, that he had locked me in the bathroom and I was trying to get away from him.

They searched my purse and found three generic vicodin that wasn’t prescribed to me. I had scoliosis in June 1978 and have two Herrington steel rods in my back. I can’t afford health insurance so somebody gave them to me for my back pain. I don’t have a criminal record and haven’t been in trouble before. I was arrested for battery strike and possession of a controlled substance without a perscription.

I was to have no contact with my ex boyfriend. I dind’t have any contact with him even though he continued to text message me and leave messages on my cell phone harassing me.

On Dec. 7, he called my mother and told her he was going to desroy both of our lives. He then kept text messaging me and leaving voice mails on my cell phone calling me ugly names. The last message, he said, “If you don’t call me in finve minutes, all of your poems are going to be burnt into a pile of ashes.” Right after that, my apartment went up in flames. I am in fear of my life, so I took an injunction out on him. The police say the threats that were made are not proof that he burnt my apartment down even though he was seen by a neighbor mintues after it caught on fire, speeding down the street on his bicycle. I pray that justice will be served before more people are hurt or killed. When are the domestic laws going to change bfore any more lives are ended in tragic death?



Barbara Johnson

Fort Myers Beach