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- I was calling to find out,

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I believe it was Detetcive
Purvis that came out

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and spoke with Candy.

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I was wondering if you knew whether

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there had been any warrants
issued for. (beeps)

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Mhm.

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No, he knows where the shelter is here.

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He told her, I know where the shelter is,

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I know where to find you.

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You know, this is pretty serious.

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- Even though I choose to be
around him when I shouldn\'t,

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and I know that I shouldn\'t,

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but it\'s only because of
the fact that I\'m scared.

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And I feel like if I don\'t
do anything he asks of me,

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like come when he calls,

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or stop everything I\'m
doing just to be there,

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that he would hurt me.

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- So tell me, what just happened?

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- He texts me, saying
he\'s on his way to Claps.

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Car wash, here in Pittsburgh.

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- Here?

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All right, I\'m gonna call
Ed right now and tell him.

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Okay?

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- Okay.

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- You okay with that?

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- So so, I guess.

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I don\'t want to involve the law,

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but he just needs to leave me alone.

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- You understand that
that\'s not gonna happen

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unless law enforcement intervenes.

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- Yeah.

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- And makes it stop.

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- Hey buddy.

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I have a question for you.

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One of the residents at the shelter,

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her abuser keeps calling
her on her cell phone.

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She was gonna text him
back and say where are you,

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then call the Pittsburgh PD

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and say here\'s where he says he is.

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Is that some kind of entrapment?

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Not entrapment.

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- Now you do it Megan.

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How about texting him
back and say where you at.

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Okay, good.

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Let\'s see how long it takes.

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Here we go.

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- Just left Elizabeth\'s Pizza.

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- Hey, he just texted her

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and said he just left Elizabeth\'s Pizza.

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Do you wanna text him back and say,

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I will meet you at Claps in five minutes?

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- Okay.

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- She\'s texting him now.

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- Police everywhere.

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- He said police is everywhere.

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- Oh my God.

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Swarmed me, did you do this?

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- He just texted her and said,
swarmed me, did you do this,

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did they get him?

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- [Candy] License check.

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- Oh, he was in a license check.

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If they just did a fucking license check.

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- [Kit] It should be in the system.

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- On my way to Al\'s Diner.

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- He says, on my way to Al\'s Diner.

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You text, be there in five minutes.

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- Okay.

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- All right, bye.

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- Are they gonna go get him?

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- Yeah, he said just be
vigilant and keep documenting.

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(sobbing)

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It\'s not your fault.

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It\'s not your fault.

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His choices and the things that he did

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are what caused this.

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Okay?

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I did it, I made the call.

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I did it, okay?

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(cell phone rings)

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This is Ed.

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Hello?

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Hey.

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Right next door, not right
out from the shelter?

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- That\'s a half a block from here, less.

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- He thinks that\'s where he\'s at.

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Check to see where she is.

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Please, please, please.

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Woo, yes.

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Oh yeah.

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Oh thank you Ed.

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You sure they got him?

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Oh thank you.

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Thank you, thank you.

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Thank you.

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I hope they set his bond high enough

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to where he can\'t get out,

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\'cause he is gonna be one pissed-off.

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Thanks.

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(sobs) Yes.

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I\'m so happy, thank you.

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(claps)

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(sobbing)

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- It\'s okay.

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- (sobs) This is so hard.

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- Yes it is, it\'s very hard.

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- [Candy] I feel like it\'s my fault.

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- [Kit] It\'s not your fault.

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It is not your fault.

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You didn\'t make him who he is.

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If it wasn\'t you, it\'d be somebody else.

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- It\'s Charlotte Talks on
listener-funded 90.7 WFAE

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and 90.3 WFHE, I\'m Mike Collins.

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We\'re talking about domestic violence.

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Kit Gruelle is also a survivor.

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She has worked with California post,

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that state\'s effort to train
law enforcement officers

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to deal with domestic violence,

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and she is known nationally as an advocate

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and community educator on this topic.

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And you brought a stack of files here.

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- These are all restraining orders

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from one year in North Carolina.

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Now, these are not all
the restraining orders

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that were issued.

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There\'s probably 45 or 50 orders here,

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and every single one of the women

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who went to obtain these orders
of protection was murdered,

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in precisely the ways that
they said they were gonna be.

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So, I sometimes refer
to restraining orders

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as a last will and testament.

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Because battered women are the experts

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in what\'s happening in their relationship.

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And we need, society,
we need to treat them

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like the experts that they are.

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When she says, he\'s going to kill me,

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or he\'s going to kill my family,

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or he\'s going to kill my
cousin if he can\'t get to me,

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we have got to step on
the brakes and slow down

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and take that whole thing seriously.

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And then when there\'s a
restraining order violation,

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our judicial officials have to understand

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that he is showing contempt
for the court system,

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and he truly is a risk to her
and to the community at large.

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- If you\'re not being hit,

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if you\'re not being
threatened with a knife

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or some kind of a weapon,

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if it\'s just words, if it\'s intimidation,

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if it is belittling,
how do you recognize it,

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how do others recognize it,

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how do you then get others
to help you stop it?

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- When I do the hostage
negotiations class,

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this is one of the things that I bring up

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with the negotiators.

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My late husband was a
freak about food intake.

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He was trying to gain muscle weight,

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so he wanted a lot of protein calories.

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And so, every night before he went out,

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he wanted a bowl of ice cream,

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and on the ice cream he wanted peanuts,

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because peanuts are so high in protein.

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So when I went to the grocery store,

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I had to buy salted peanuts,
put them in a colander,

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rinse \'em off and pat \'em dry,

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and put the rinsed off
peanuts on the ice cream.

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And while he was eating his ice cream,

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if he came across salt on the
peanuts, he would beat me up,

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because he said I didn\'t
do a good enough job

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washing the peanuts.

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So when I go out and do
the negotiations class,

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I say to these cops,

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what happens when you show up on the scene

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and you get her out there in
the back of the patrol car,

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and she\'s saying to you over
and over and over again,

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I should have done a better
job washing the peanuts.

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When women say stuff like that,

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it\'s not because they\'re crazy.

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It\'s because of the way
they\'re really living.

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(solemn guitar music)

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Our criminal justice system requires

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that she be beaten enough
to satisfy the system.

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And by the time it gets to that point,

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she\'s already been so worn down,

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psychologically and
physically and emotionally,

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that\'s when it\'s really time for advocates

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to really step up and begin to treat her

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like she has some value.

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Because she\'s been told now,
systemically, that she doesn\'t.

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The courts have told her
that she doesn\'t have value,

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and her partner\'s told her
that she doesn\'t have value,

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perhaps family and friends have done that

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through their actions with her.

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And all of that strips away from her.

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So I think another this
that advocates do is

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instead of stripping away,
we try to build back up.

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You know, a lot of times
battered women leave.

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Four, five, six, seven, eight times.

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And people start to get tired of it.

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They see a woman leave an
abuser and then go back.

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It\'s complicated.

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Leaving an abuser is not
an event, it\'s a process.

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And this is where advocates come in.

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It\'s not our job to say to her,
we\'re gonna be your advocate

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when you leave the first time,

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when you leave the second time,

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when you leave the third time,

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but on that fourth time,

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we\'re not working with you any more.

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That\'s not how it goes.

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If we\'re going to be effective advocates,

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we\'re going to recognize that
each woman\'s case is unique

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and each woman\'s case is special.

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Anybody have any experiences

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with the boyfriend or the husband?

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You\'ve had that experience?

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- It went on for nine years.

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I left and went back three times.

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I won\'t this time.

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This last time, he almost killed
me in front of my daughter.

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And now, I have had 23 seizures,

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and my daughter has
seen every one of them,

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and she takes care of me.

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- What happened to you shouldn\'t
happen to anybody ever.

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- I know that.

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That\'s why I\'m here.

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- What do your parents
have to say about it?

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- Why didn\'t you just leave?

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- Did he ever threaten to kill you?

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- Yeah, lots of times.

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My mom called the police officers,

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and one of the officers
said that he knew my husband

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and that he knew he was a violent person,

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but he wasn\'t violent
enough to kill someone.

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They can\'t file charges for
the abuse that I went through

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because it happened in another state.

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So I\'m left to just live with it.

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- It\'s very hard in Deanna\'s case

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to see a women get so hideously beaten

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and then essentially to
have the local courts say,

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well we\'re sorry that happened to you,

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but we\'re just gonna let it go.

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We just can\'t let this go.

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Something has to be done.

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I do this work because,

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because I survived a really
violent relationship.

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You know, Jack punched me really
hard in the face one time,

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punched me like I was a man.

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And it was the whole thing
with doing flips off the porch

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and seeing stars and birdies,
and I remember thinking,

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wow, it\'s really like the cartoons.

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And for four days I stayed on a couch

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with a blanket pulled up over my face

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because I didn\'t want the boys to see me

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\'cause I looked so bad.

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But then, I couldn\'t eat,

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and I was having a hard
time even swallowing stuff,

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so I knew that I needed
to get it looked at.

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And Jack drove me down to see my OBGYN.

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And he walked in the room
and looked at my face

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and immediately looked away.

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And I just remember feeling a
whole new layer of isolation,

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because my doctor wouldn\'t
look me in the eye

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and say, what happened to you?

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- All right, so I got one on my face

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where you slapped at me.

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Okay, so we were going at it.

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- Let\'s think about this.

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- You scare me.

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- All right, that\'ll work.

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Okay, you want me to do this again?

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- You need some more, yeah.

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- All right.

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- [Man] I ain\'t cheatin\' on you.

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- Well what was that phone number?

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- Well who cares what
the phone number was,

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you ain\'t got no business
going through my phone.

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- I don\'t care, stop it, stop it!

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(bangs)

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- It\'s just some girl.

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- [Kit] Who is that person?

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- Shut up, just shut up!

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What?

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- [Officer] How are you doing today, sir?

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- [Man] I\'m all right.

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- Is it all right if I take a look inside?

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Mind if we talk to y\'all separately?

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- No it\'s fine, you can
talk to us together.

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- Okay sir, can I talk to you outside?

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- Yeah.

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- How you doing there?

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- Did you see the way he looked at me?

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- My name\'s Officer Morton.

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- Did you see the way
he just looked at me?

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- Yes, ma\'am.

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What seems to be going on?

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- She starts flipping out, she\'s bipolar.

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I mean, she\'s got her issues,
and when she gets that way,

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she gets really physical and
everything, she scratched me.

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- He grabbed me by the throat.

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- Do you have any marks or anything?

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- I don\'t know if I do
or not, I don\'t know.

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- Have you considered staying
somewhere over the night,

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seeing if it\'ll cool down?

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- What\'s going on?

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- Nothing, I just finished up
mine, getting his statement.

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So maybe let\'s play it safe,

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we\'ll just split them up for the night.

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Come back in the morning,

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see if we can\'t make
heads or tails of this.

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Who\'s lying, who\'s not.

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- Okay, we\'re done.

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It\'s all just bullshit.

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(laughing)

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- As far as the whole, splitting them up

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or taking one to jail, what
should have been the call?

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- You\'ve got injuries on her neck.

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Hers are more serious than mine.

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Mine look like they
could be defensive marks.

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You\'re probably walking away
from here with me in cuffs,

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at that point.

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- Since we couldn\'t establish
the primary aggressor,

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we figured we\'d err on the side of caution

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and just split you up for the night.

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- How do you feel like they did?

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- I think you did fine.

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One thing, when he was
walking out the door.

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Didn\'t I say to you, did
you see how he looked at me?

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But like, he could, or she could.

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- That was not so subtle.

17:34.846 --> 17:36.264
- You know, one or the other can.

17:36.264 --> 17:38.099
- [Officer] I saw you glance back.

17:38.099 --> 17:40.232
- It was about a five-second stare

17:40.232 --> 17:43.208
before I walked out the door,
basically giving her notice.

17:43.208 --> 17:44.744
- What does he want to do?

17:44.744 --> 17:46.322
What does this abuser want to do?

17:46.322 --> 17:48.881
He wants to maintain
control over the situation.

17:48.881 --> 17:51.184
So he\'s going to have a
variety of different tactics

17:51.184 --> 17:52.528
that he\'s gonna use.

17:52.528 --> 17:54.342
Some won\'t be obvious at all.

17:54.342 --> 17:56.432
Some will be things like the look,

17:56.432 --> 17:59.216
or maybe the way he closes
the door a little bit harder,

17:59.216 --> 18:00.282
things like that.

18:00.282 --> 18:03.376
These are things that she\'ll
key off of, he\'ll key off of,

18:03.376 --> 18:06.831
but, you know, I just ask
y\'all to keep your eyes

18:06.831 --> 18:09.904
and ears open, because there
could be behaviors like that

18:09.904 --> 18:12.487
that will shut her down.

18:15.981 --> 18:20.702
(pensive guitar music)

18:37.154 --> 18:39.106
- (laughs) Hey.

18:42.590 --> 18:43.423
- Hello.

18:43.423 --> 18:44.397
- Hello!

18:46.301 --> 18:48.723
How do you feel about telling
people about what happened,

18:48.723 --> 18:49.906
in your case?

18:49.906 --> 18:51.826
- It doesn\'t bother me too much.

18:51.826 --> 18:52.781
- Mhm.

18:52.781 --> 18:54.914
- I feel like it helps.

18:56.898 --> 18:58.786
- So let\'s start at the beginning.

18:58.786 --> 19:01.258
What was he like when
y\'all first started dating?

19:01.258 --> 19:03.703
- For the first two months,

19:03.703 --> 19:08.500
he was really sweet and nice.

19:10.729 --> 19:15.707
And then, began to question
what I had done in the past

19:15.707 --> 19:18.782
and wanted to know who my friends were

19:18.782 --> 19:21.939
and what I\'d done with them.

19:21.939 --> 19:25.058
So, then it started from there.

19:26.269 --> 19:27.944
- And this is Robbie?

19:27.944 --> 19:30.450
- Yes, and that\'s
Martina\'s first Halloween.

19:34.375 --> 19:38.439
On Halloween, he told me
that I had to go with him

19:38.439 --> 19:40.807
on him trucking trip,

19:40.807 --> 19:44.135
and I told him no, that I had to work.

19:44.135 --> 19:47.708
And he said I was gonna go.

19:47.708 --> 19:51.676
That he wasn\'t gonna leave
me there, to cheat on him.

19:51.676 --> 19:54.438
So he made me go.

19:57.041 --> 19:59.430
When we got in Tennessee

19:59.430 --> 20:03.547
is when he started beating me.

20:03.547 --> 20:07.077
He, Martina, she\'d ask him over and over,

20:07.077 --> 20:10.693
why are doing it, why
are you hurting my momma?

20:10.693 --> 20:13.573
And he would tell her,
she doesn\'t love you

20:13.573 --> 20:15.312
and she doesn\'t love me.

20:15.312 --> 20:17.221
It\'s okay to hurt mommy.

20:19.791 --> 20:22.660
And he would hit me with the flashlight.

20:22.660 --> 20:26.906
He hit me in the head, on
the shoulders, the elbows.

20:26.906 --> 20:30.116
He would hit my knees so hard

20:30.116 --> 20:33.252
that I could hardly bend my legs.

20:33.252 --> 20:36.708
He would, while he was beating me,

20:36.708 --> 20:40.793
there was a little mirror, about that big,

20:40.793 --> 20:43.299
on the side of the truck.

20:43.299 --> 20:45.624
And he would hit me

20:45.624 --> 20:47.555
and then he would get me by the hair

20:47.555 --> 20:50.403
and pull me up and make
me look in that mirror

20:50.403 --> 20:53.730
and ask me if it was worth it.

20:53.730 --> 20:55.490
We stopped at one truck stop

20:55.490 --> 20:57.144
to get him some meatballs,

20:57.144 --> 20:59.970
and Martina said she wanted some,

20:59.970 --> 21:03.991
and he said, no, you can\'t have some

21:03.991 --> 21:06.700
until your mommy tells me the truth.

21:06.700 --> 21:08.887
And he said, and you can tell your mommy

21:08.887 --> 21:11.532
to tell me the truth if you want some.

21:11.532 --> 21:14.807
And so she started crying
because she was really hungry

21:14.807 --> 21:18.636
and she told me to tell
her daddy the truth,

21:18.636 --> 21:21.430
and I told her that I had.

21:21.430 --> 21:24.555
And she was screaming and begging me,

21:24.555 --> 21:26.443
please tell daddy the truth.

21:26.443 --> 21:28.278
And that was so hard.

21:29.994 --> 21:32.501
Robbie got one of \'em out of the pack

21:32.501 --> 21:35.733
and he looked at Martina
and he held it in her face

21:35.733 --> 21:38.506
and he said, look, this
is gonna be so good,

21:38.506 --> 21:40.308
and he took a bite of it and was going,

21:40.308 --> 21:43.796
mm, Martina this is so
good, and just think,

21:43.796 --> 21:46.996
if your mommy had told me the
truth you coulda had some.

21:46.996 --> 21:49.161
It was just all I could take.

21:49.161 --> 21:51.081
And I grabbed the flashlight

21:51.081 --> 21:53.690
and I was just gonna beat him.

21:53.690 --> 21:56.889
I couldn\'t stand it, and I
was just bound and determined

21:56.889 --> 21:58.863
I was going to beat him.

21:58.863 --> 22:01.390
And when he saw me grab the flashlight,

22:01.390 --> 22:03.182
he dropped the meatballs.

22:04.965 --> 22:09.423
And when he did, I grabbed the meatballs

22:09.423 --> 22:11.960
and let him beat me with the flashlight

22:11.960 --> 22:14.586
while I fed the meatballs to her.

22:14.586 --> 22:17.530
And I didn\'t care how hard he hit me

22:17.530 --> 22:20.879
as long as she got those meatballs.

22:20.879 --> 22:22.735
I didn\'t care.

22:22.735 --> 22:25.774
The whole time that I fed
those meatballs to her,

22:25.774 --> 22:28.195
he hit me with that flashlight.

22:29.735 --> 22:32.754
And I could feel my knees swelling.

22:32.754 --> 22:35.217
It was so hard to hold on to \'em,

22:35.217 --> 22:38.012
but I was bound and determined
that I was going to,

22:38.012 --> 22:39.410
and I did.

22:40.504 --> 22:42.850
I wasn\'t gonna let my baby starve

22:42.850 --> 22:44.583
because of him.

22:46.007 --> 22:49.698
- He wasn\'t arrested until, when was it,

22:49.698 --> 22:53.036
November 9th?

22:53.036 --> 22:54.807
The charges were just like,

22:54.807 --> 22:56.364
assault on a female.

22:56.364 --> 22:57.473
You know, I just felt like,

22:57.473 --> 22:59.031
why wasn\'t there attempted murder?

22:59.031 --> 23:01.185
Deanna and I had met with that DA,

23:01.185 --> 23:03.692
I think a week or two before that,

23:03.692 --> 23:07.531
and he had told us that she
didn\'t have a very strong case

23:07.531 --> 23:10.219
because most of her stuff
happened out of state.

23:10.219 --> 23:12.683
The DA said that the grand
jury would ask Deanna

23:12.683 --> 23:15.467
why she left, what was her reason

23:15.467 --> 23:17.813
for leaving the county with him.

23:17.813 --> 23:20.181
Because at first, it was willing,

23:20.181 --> 23:22.762
they would say she left willingly.

23:22.762 --> 23:25.034
It was after she left North Carolina

23:25.034 --> 23:26.656
that the beatings started.

23:26.656 --> 23:30.677
So they would just
completely turn back on her.

23:30.677 --> 23:33.876
And basically, he was gonna get off

23:33.876 --> 23:37.230
on the state level for
what had happened to her.

23:49.705 --> 23:52.030
- I\'ve seen cases like
this over and over again,

23:52.030 --> 23:53.491
where women are severely beaten,

23:53.491 --> 23:55.166
sometimes shot, sometimes stabbed,

23:55.166 --> 23:58.045
and the offender is charged
with assault on a female

23:58.045 --> 24:00.115
or assault with a deadly weapon,

24:00.115 --> 24:03.176
both charges charged as misdemeanors.

24:03.176 --> 24:05.425
But we have a law on the books

24:05.425 --> 24:10.269
that says that if you
steal a bale of pine straw,

24:10.269 --> 24:11.709
that\'s a felony.

24:11.709 --> 24:13.244
Despite the fact that we like to think

24:13.244 --> 24:15.839
that those laws are outdated,

24:18.692 --> 24:20.580
the belief systems behind those laws

24:20.580 --> 24:23.087
are still very much a part of
the way things get played out

24:23.087 --> 24:25.193
in court every day, across the country.

24:44.472 --> 24:46.232
- So, it\'s kind of busy today.

24:46.232 --> 24:48.717
- It is, this is an extremely busy day.

24:48.717 --> 24:50.488
- They\'re bringing the guy over from jail?

24:50.488 --> 24:51.874
- That\'s this one.

24:51.874 --> 24:53.922
- Is that for a restraining
order violation?

24:53.922 --> 24:56.407
- He was arrested for the same incident

24:56.407 --> 24:57.869
that she took out the DVB for.

24:57.869 --> 24:58.914
- Oh, uh huh.

25:16.942 --> 25:18.606
- So I\'m just trying to explain to her

25:18.606 --> 25:20.280
what may happen today.

25:20.280 --> 25:22.488
- What do you want to have happen?

25:22.488 --> 25:25.561
- Um, I just want him to stay
away from me, that\'s all.

25:25.561 --> 25:27.760
He gets out today, so I just
want him to stay away from me.

25:27.760 --> 25:29.135
- Did he get picked up on Friday?

25:29.135 --> 25:31.261
- No, he got picked up week before last.

25:31.261 --> 25:32.327
March 1st.

25:32.327 --> 25:34.044
- Does he have a long history?

25:34.044 --> 25:35.026
- Oh yeah.

25:35.026 --> 25:36.092
He\'s a felon.

25:36.092 --> 25:39.249
This is his third offense,
assault on a female.

25:39.249 --> 25:41.265
- With you or with other women?

25:41.265 --> 25:42.385
- Other women.

25:42.385 --> 25:44.794
- And just with her case, there were three

25:44.794 --> 25:46.180
or four felony charges?

25:46.180 --> 25:48.007
- Three felonies.

25:48.007 --> 25:49.639
- Do you have family close by?

25:49.639 --> 25:50.472
- Yeah.

25:50.472 --> 25:52.402
- So you feel, when
you\'re at home you feel

25:52.402 --> 25:53.842
like you\'re pretty safe?

25:53.842 --> 25:55.388
- No. (laugh)

25:55.388 --> 26:00.388
- Her worry is more who he knows to ask.

26:00.497 --> 26:03.964
- \'Cause his cousin lives
less than a mile from me.

26:03.964 --> 26:05.446
- Who\'s the judge now, Wallace?

26:05.446 --> 26:07.857
- No, she hasn\'t had a
chance to talk to him yet.

26:07.857 --> 26:09.926
- Make sure that he knows all this stuff,

26:09.926 --> 26:13.307
because the restraining
order\'s supposed to say

26:13.307 --> 26:15.461
no third-party contact, too.

26:15.461 --> 26:17.989
So they\'ll, you know.

26:17.989 --> 26:20.805
I mean, this sounds fairly serious.

26:20.805 --> 26:23.984
Don\'t be afraid to say anything.

26:23.984 --> 26:28.984
You know, it\'s not your
job to fix broken men.

26:29.583 --> 26:31.386
- Oh, tell me about it.

26:31.386 --> 26:33.796
(laughing)

26:33.796 --> 26:36.969
- A lot of us think that
it is, but it\'s not.

26:40.497 --> 26:41.771
(sniffles)

26:43.259 --> 26:45.211
I\'m sorry.

26:45.211 --> 26:47.440
- I\'m thinking.

26:47.440 --> 26:48.347
- It\'s nice to meet you.

26:48.347 --> 26:49.567
- Thank you, you too.

26:53.644 --> 26:56.129
- [Judge] All right, we\'re here
today to address the matter

26:56.129 --> 26:59.617
of a civil restraining
order that would bar you

26:59.617 --> 27:01.109
from having any contact.

27:01.109 --> 27:02.293
What would you like to do?

27:02.293 --> 27:05.723
Would you like a moment
to talk to Miss Kenbrue?

27:05.723 --> 27:06.676
- Yes sir.

27:06.676 --> 27:07.957
- [Judge] All right, thank you.

27:07.957 --> 27:08.885
Yes ma\'am?

27:08.885 --> 27:10.554
- It was a concern of Miss Morgan\'s

27:10.554 --> 27:13.800
that third-party, no
third-party contact be allowed

27:13.800 --> 27:15.517
and that be entered.

27:15.517 --> 27:17.938
- [Judge] That would be
the condition of a DVPM.

28:07.279 --> 28:09.270
- Yes ma\'am.

28:09.270 --> 28:10.155
What\'s up?

28:10.155 --> 28:13.333
- So, I want to talk with you
a little bit about this case

28:13.333 --> 28:17.489
up in Ashe County involving
a woman who was kidnapped.

28:17.489 --> 28:19.416
Pretty severe beating.

28:19.416 --> 28:21.560
- And when you say,
kidnapped, do you mean?

28:21.560 --> 28:22.466
- Kidnapped.

28:22.466 --> 28:23.672
- Okay, held against her will.

28:23.672 --> 28:25.389
- Held against her will,
she and her daughter.

28:25.389 --> 28:26.222
- Transported.

28:26.222 --> 28:29.562
- She and her daughter
taken out of the state

28:31.351 --> 28:34.005
and driven all the way to
California, and halfway back,

28:34.005 --> 28:35.882
and the truck was stopped in Oklahoma.

28:35.882 --> 28:37.397
This was an 18-wheeler.

28:37.397 --> 28:38.506
- Okay.

28:38.506 --> 28:40.246
- And he beat her for
four and a half days.

28:40.246 --> 28:42.506
- What kind of injuries did she have?

28:45.376 --> 28:46.958
Holy crap.

28:46.958 --> 28:49.092
- So, this is the injuries.

28:49.092 --> 28:50.371
- What\'d he use?

28:50.371 --> 28:53.390
- His fists, a Maglite flashlight,

28:53.390 --> 28:55.128
uh, he bit her.

28:59.086 --> 29:00.877
- Any internal injuries?

29:02.253 --> 29:05.357
Is it all tissue injury,
soft tissue injury?

29:05.357 --> 29:07.757
- Well, he also strangled her.

29:07.757 --> 29:08.590
- Okay.

29:08.590 --> 29:10.050
Do we have any medical
doctor that\'s gonna say,

29:10.050 --> 29:11.682
these are serious injuries.

29:11.682 --> 29:13.206
- Uh.

29:13.206 --> 29:15.904
- \'Cause you know in state court,

29:15.904 --> 29:18.562
that\'s the tough part.

29:18.562 --> 29:20.834
It\'s when we\'re talking
about soft tissue injuries

29:20.834 --> 29:23.085
when you don\'t have damage to the spleen,

29:23.085 --> 29:27.244
internal injuries, or cuts
that require stitches.

29:27.244 --> 29:31.212
Concussions can be serious injury.

29:31.212 --> 29:34.743
- The local prosecutor called
this a misdemeanor assault.

29:34.743 --> 29:36.460
- Okay, no.

29:36.460 --> 29:37.302
- Yes.

29:37.302 --> 29:38.135
- Okay, no.

29:38.135 --> 29:40.182
I would push felony charges,

29:40.182 --> 29:42.177
probably for kidnapping.

29:42.177 --> 29:45.750
If it\'s a Maglite, a
Maglite\'s a deadly weapon.

29:45.750 --> 29:49.731
Assault with a deadly weapon
inflicting serious injury.

29:49.731 --> 29:53.144
It\'s all about getting a medical
doctor to say on the stand,

29:53.144 --> 29:54.947
yes, this is serious injury.

29:54.947 --> 29:57.325
Is it serious bodily injury?

29:57.325 --> 29:58.158
Sure.

29:58.158 --> 30:02.264
Is it protracted pain and
suffering that she has suffered?

30:02.264 --> 30:03.821
Yeah, I think so.

30:03.821 --> 30:07.767
But even if we succeed on all levels,

30:07.767 --> 30:09.623
what I\'m telling you Kit,

30:09.623 --> 30:13.250
is that you may not be satisfied
with the amount of time

30:13.250 --> 30:15.735
that they\'re gonna get at the state level.

30:15.735 --> 30:17.943
- If he was convicted only
of misdemeanor assault

30:17.943 --> 30:20.609
on a female, even with doing this,

30:20.609 --> 30:22.796
what would he be looking
at as far as time?

30:22.796 --> 30:25.185
- The most he could receive
is 150 days in jail.

30:25.185 --> 30:26.742
- 150 days in jail for this?

30:26.742 --> 30:27.734
- That\'s it.

30:27.734 --> 30:29.270
So that\'s what I\'m saying.

30:29.270 --> 30:32.641
You have a clear case where
he\'s transporting a woman

30:32.641 --> 30:35.286
across state lines for
the purpose of terrorizing

30:35.286 --> 30:36.651
and assaulting her.

30:36.651 --> 30:39.968
That is a federal case all over.

30:39.968 --> 30:42.155
And so what we need to
do, or what you need to do

30:42.155 --> 30:44.924
since it\'s not, you know, in my county,

30:44.924 --> 30:49.056
is really push and talk
to the federal prosecutor

30:49.056 --> 30:51.114
in that area, in that district,

30:51.114 --> 30:52.924
which would be the western district.

30:52.924 --> 30:54.651
And say, this is a case.

30:54.651 --> 30:56.390
Get them interested in it.

30:56.390 --> 30:58.950
I think they will be.

30:58.950 --> 30:59.957
- Yeah.

31:17.783 --> 31:21.465
- That\'s basically where
everything started that night.

31:21.465 --> 31:23.091
Robbie just

31:26.116 --> 31:28.686
pulled up to the hospital

31:28.686 --> 31:31.662
and parked in one of
the lower parking lots.

31:31.662 --> 31:35.544
He said if I screamed, the
security guards couldn\'t hear me.

31:35.544 --> 31:39.891
And that\'s where he started his abuse.

31:48.857 --> 31:53.857
I separated from him
because he was hitting me.

31:55.437 --> 31:56.594
And then,

31:58.039 --> 32:02.992
he convinced me, along with
others, that he had changed.

32:05.005 --> 32:07.234
And I wanted to believe it.

32:09.129 --> 32:11.710
For my sake, for Martina\'s sake.

32:11.710 --> 32:14.217
I wanted Martina to have a daddy.

32:14.217 --> 32:16.009
She missed him.

32:16.009 --> 32:18.675
Let him back into our lives,

32:18.675 --> 32:22.594
and it was the biggest
mistake I ever made.

32:24.531 --> 32:27.571
My parents are scared for me, really.

32:27.571 --> 32:31.176
I feel they\'re scared for
me to be with anybody.

32:31.176 --> 32:32.983
They don\'t,

32:34.333 --> 32:38.450
they\'re just too overprotective now.

32:38.450 --> 32:41.394
They were then, but now it\'s worse.

32:41.394 --> 32:45.394
They\'re afraid Robbie\'s
family\'s gonna hurt me.

32:47.122 --> 32:48.598
But I don\'t,

32:50.993 --> 32:53.876
I don\'t like feeling like

32:56.388 --> 32:57.961
I\'m pitied.

33:16.963 --> 33:19.630
- Since you are the
nation\'s foremost expert

33:19.630 --> 33:21.741
on strangulation assaults,

33:21.741 --> 33:25.229
this looks to me like she was
pretty seriously assaulted.

33:27.042 --> 33:31.501
- Okay, so, give me a 30-second overview

33:31.501 --> 33:34.967
beginning with the fact that
she is still living, correct?

33:34.967 --> 33:36.034
- She\'s still alive.

33:36.034 --> 33:39.351
She and her daughter were
kidnapped by her husband.

33:39.351 --> 33:43.553
He beat her, from North
Carolina to California.

33:43.553 --> 33:46.177
The truck was stopped in Oklahoma.

33:46.177 --> 33:49.767
Now, he was not arrested
by the Oklahoma police.

33:49.767 --> 33:51.882
They just told him that
he had to find his own way

33:51.882 --> 33:54.370
back to North Carolina, and that was it.

33:54.370 --> 33:57.717
I mean, when you look
at Deanna\'s photographs,

33:57.717 --> 34:01.687
as a strangulation
expert, what do you see?

34:03.010 --> 34:04.305
- All right.

34:08.396 --> 34:09.830
(sighs)

34:12.023 --> 34:13.595
Well it\'s bad.

34:15.158 --> 34:16.472
It\'s bad.

34:16.472 --> 34:19.670
One has to immediately go to the petechiae

34:19.670 --> 34:23.040
around her left eye,
and to a certain extent

34:23.040 --> 34:24.779
around her right eye.

34:24.779 --> 34:27.382
The white part of her eye,
the sclera, looks bloody

34:27.382 --> 34:29.260
towards the middle part.

34:29.260 --> 34:30.796
And that even looks more

34:30.796 --> 34:32.907
like a subconjunctival hemorrhage.

34:32.907 --> 34:35.382
So that\'s the tiny little capillaries

34:35.382 --> 34:38.486
in the white part of your
eye actually bursting

34:38.486 --> 34:42.962
from the chokehold itself.

34:42.962 --> 34:46.215
Any emergency physician would be thinking

34:46.215 --> 34:48.487
that she had been strangled.

34:48.487 --> 34:52.338
And that\'s in addition
to the other elements.

34:53.530 --> 34:56.960
- Now, one of the things
that she has said to me,

34:56.960 --> 35:01.557
is that she had a seizure
disorder that was in check

35:01.557 --> 35:04.693
until she was assaulted like this.

35:04.693 --> 35:07.527
- If you are cutting
off all the blood supply

35:07.527 --> 35:09.618
to the brain, which is one of the reasons

35:09.618 --> 35:11.367
you pass out when you\'re strangled,

35:11.367 --> 35:13.479
if you have a seizure disorder,

35:13.479 --> 35:17.820
it\'s going to start evidencing
its pathology again.

35:22.836 --> 35:25.598
There should be a lot less here

35:25.598 --> 35:28.755
that would have even been prosecuted

35:28.755 --> 35:31.912
with a third of this pathology,

35:31.912 --> 35:34.829
a tenth of this pathology.

35:42.246 --> 35:44.006
I can\'t process that.

35:44.006 --> 35:45.163
I can\'t.

36:18.848 --> 36:21.163
- Do you want a peanut
butter and jelly sandwich?

36:21.163 --> 36:21.996
- Hm?

36:21.996 --> 36:23.680
- Do you want a peanut
butter and jelly sandwich?

36:23.680 --> 36:24.960
- I\'m gonna make some tuna.

36:24.960 --> 36:25.793
- Okay.

36:27.105 --> 36:28.401
Ready?

36:29.382 --> 36:30.890
Oh, good girl.

36:32.453 --> 36:34.075
- And then the bitch called.

36:34.075 --> 36:35.419
The social worker called,

36:35.419 --> 36:36.997
and wants to cover for Mike.

36:36.997 --> 36:39.101
It was a miscommunication.

36:39.101 --> 36:41.469
A fucking miscommunication my ass,

36:41.469 --> 36:43.589
is what went through my brain.

36:43.589 --> 36:45.260
But yes ma\'am, I understand,
thank you very much.

36:45.260 --> 36:46.263
(laughing)

36:46.263 --> 36:47.958
I\'ll see you in court on Thursday,

36:47.958 --> 36:50.480
I\'ve already called my
attorney, thank you.

36:53.825 --> 36:55.435
- Let me ask you something.

36:55.435 --> 36:57.246
What brought you home?

36:57.246 --> 36:59.080
What brought you back here?

36:59.080 --> 37:00.222
- That,

37:00.222 --> 37:02.851
one, you let me come back home

37:02.851 --> 37:05.283
after I had that nervous breakdown

37:05.283 --> 37:06.755
that I had last weekend.

37:06.755 --> 37:08.589
You let me come back home.

37:08.589 --> 37:10.005
And you believed in me,

37:10.005 --> 37:11.092
and you believed in me,

37:11.092 --> 37:13.156
and these girls believed in me.

37:14.346 --> 37:16.223
- We believe in you.

37:17.284 --> 37:18.980
- And I\'m able to stay sane.

37:18.980 --> 37:20.281
- \'Cause you\'re worth it.

37:20.281 --> 37:23.036
Don\'t ever let anybody tell you otherwise.

37:23.036 --> 37:24.572
- I refuse to.

37:24.572 --> 37:25.575
- Good.

37:26.703 --> 37:27.726
Fuck \'em.

37:27.726 --> 37:29.412
- You know I\'ll say it.

37:29.412 --> 37:31.344
(laughing)

37:39.686 --> 37:42.891
- Here we go, North Carolina thunderstorm.

37:43.771 --> 37:45.766
This case that I\'m working on right now

37:45.766 --> 37:49.392
involves a woman who killed her abuser

37:49.392 --> 37:54.006
after a number of years of
real severe domestic violence.

37:56.441 --> 37:58.498
What I\'m gonna do today is go down

37:58.498 --> 37:59.907
and meet with her sister.

37:59.907 --> 38:01.784
Her sister Regina has photographs

38:01.784 --> 38:03.619
of what Latina looked like

38:03.619 --> 38:07.960
before she got together
with her boyfriend.

38:07.960 --> 38:11.160
During the time that she was with him,

38:11.160 --> 38:13.645
he punched her in the eyes so many times

38:13.645 --> 38:16.151
that she\'s now blind in her right eye.

38:16.151 --> 38:18.263
And then I just wanna get a sense

38:18.263 --> 38:21.419
of what we can all do to
try to support Latina.

38:21.419 --> 38:23.232
She\'s charged with first-degree murder,

38:23.232 --> 38:26.063
so she\'s looking at spending
the rest of her life in prison.

38:31.199 --> 38:32.143
Hi.

38:39.945 --> 38:42.601
When were these pictures taken?

38:42.601 --> 38:45.161
- Those pictures, probably
like eight or nine years ago.

38:45.161 --> 38:46.622
- From eight or nine years ago?

38:46.622 --> 38:47.871
Do you mind if I snap pictures

38:47.871 --> 38:49.450
of this picture with my phone?

38:54.495 --> 38:56.276
You\'ve been to see her in jail, right?

38:56.276 --> 38:57.140
- Mhm.

38:57.140 --> 38:59.756
- So you see how beautiful she was here,

38:59.756 --> 39:02.636
and then now, her eye looks like it does.

39:02.636 --> 39:04.492
So she\'s told me several times

39:04.492 --> 39:06.369
that she really loved him a lot.

39:06.369 --> 39:07.372
- Mhm.

39:07.372 --> 39:09.089
Because every time he beat up on her,

39:09.089 --> 39:11.414
she still went back to him.

39:11.414 --> 39:13.014
We just asked her,

39:13.014 --> 39:17.686
why you wanna go through things like that.

39:17.686 --> 39:18.987
- What\'d she say?

39:18.987 --> 39:20.608
- She said she loved him.

39:20.608 --> 39:22.294
- Uh huh.

39:22.294 --> 39:24.092
Your mom mentioned to me

39:24.092 --> 39:26.012
that she\'d gone through a
lot of stuff with your dad.

39:27.484 --> 39:29.201
- My sister, she told me,

39:29.201 --> 39:31.942
that\'s why she is the
way she is right now,

39:31.942 --> 39:36.400
because my dad used to beat
up on my mom all the time,

39:36.400 --> 39:39.579
that\'s why she feel like
she don\'t wanna leave Woody.

39:39.579 --> 39:41.573
Because she knows it\'s not normal,

39:41.573 --> 39:44.133
but in her mind, it\'s normal to her.

39:44.133 --> 39:45.296
You know what I\'m saying?

39:45.296 --> 39:46.129
- Uh huh.

39:46.129 --> 39:47.700
- I kept telling my sister, like,

39:47.700 --> 39:50.565
if you don\'t leave, he
gonna end up killing you.

39:50.565 --> 39:53.445
You know, and it was just
shocking to know that

39:53.445 --> 39:57.172
it happened the other way.

39:58.917 --> 40:02.384
We cried plenty of times on
the phone talking about this.

40:02.384 --> 40:06.681
You know, that he\'s going
to kill her and all that.

40:08.153 --> 40:09.219
I was hurt.

40:09.219 --> 40:10.728
You know, because,

40:13.358 --> 40:15.278
when things like that happen,

40:17.364 --> 40:19.277
you gotta survive.

40:20.681 --> 40:23.123
- That\'s why he kept that pistol so much.

40:23.123 --> 40:24.808
Yeah, she was always scared

40:24.808 --> 40:27.603
because he would always
throw that pistol out.

40:27.603 --> 40:28.904
He done shot at her.

40:28.904 --> 40:32.424
He done shot at her and my
cousin at the same time.

40:32.424 --> 40:34.749
\'Cause my cousin was taking up for her

40:34.749 --> 40:36.840
when he was about to beat her up,

40:36.840 --> 40:39.997
and she said no, you\'re
not fixin\' to beat her up

40:39.997 --> 40:41.394
in front of me!

40:41.394 --> 40:43.293
So then he started shooting at them.

40:43.293 --> 40:44.242
- Your cousin?

40:44.242 --> 40:45.244
- My cousin.

40:45.244 --> 40:46.503
- See, this is the stuff.

40:46.503 --> 40:49.490
This little stuff like this.

40:49.490 --> 40:51.495
What\'s your cousin\'s name?

40:55.793 --> 40:58.022
And see, if he\'d have ever been arrested

40:58.022 --> 41:00.508
and gone to jail for what he was doing,

41:00.508 --> 41:04.614
then maybe that would
have given her a break.

41:04.614 --> 41:06.982
- I was thinking that.

41:06.982 --> 41:09.702
Yeah, the last time,

41:09.702 --> 41:13.296
when he beat her up really bad,

41:13.296 --> 41:16.197
he messed up her eye,
her ribs and all that,

41:16.197 --> 41:18.714
I think he had a warrant
for his arrest for that.

41:18.714 --> 41:19.706
- Right.

41:19.706 --> 41:22.981
But then, he was killed
before they ever got a chance

41:22.981 --> 41:24.677
to do anything with that.

41:25.647 --> 41:29.278
If you can think of anybody else that has,

41:29.278 --> 41:32.616
like this woman that was with Latina

41:32.616 --> 41:34.269
when he shot at them,

41:34.269 --> 41:36.307
please send me that information.

41:36.307 --> 41:39.357
I wanna make sure that when
it\'s time to go to court,

41:39.357 --> 41:42.813
that everybody\'s real clear
about how dangerous he was.

41:42.813 --> 41:44.129
- Okay.

41:54.691 --> 41:57.507
So the Harnett County judicial
buildings are coming up

41:57.507 --> 41:59.224
on the right hand side.

41:59.224 --> 42:01.283
The detention center\'s
back behind the courthouse

42:01.283 --> 42:04.722
and that\'s where Latina is.

42:05.656 --> 42:08.952
Where she\'s been since
the end of last November.

42:11.693 --> 42:13.858
I\'ve worked other cases with women

42:13.858 --> 42:15.500
who have killed their abusers,

42:15.500 --> 42:18.103
and they\'ve told me that
they feel safer in prison

42:18.103 --> 42:21.911
than they ever felt out
in the world, with him.

42:21.911 --> 42:24.631
Because he was so predatory,

42:24.631 --> 42:26.529
and the courts just didn\'t care.

42:26.529 --> 42:30.710
I mean, I can think of all kinds of women

42:30.710 --> 42:33.270
that I\'ve talked to, and they have told me

42:33.270 --> 42:35.723
that once she killed him
and she went to prison,

42:35.723 --> 42:38.458
that was the first time
in years she\'d felt safe.

42:52.192 --> 42:55.466
- In general, when we are
thinking about accepting a case,

42:55.466 --> 42:57.674
one of the things we think about,

42:57.674 --> 42:59.156
one of the things I think about,

42:59.156 --> 43:01.780
is how am I gonna prove this case,

43:01.780 --> 43:03.775
and if it has to go to trial,

43:03.775 --> 43:06.356
how am I gonna prove the case at trial?

43:06.356 --> 43:08.809
What is my evidence gonna be at trial,

43:08.809 --> 43:12.728
and how will the jury be
affected by that evidence.

43:13.993 --> 43:15.550
I mean, the pictures are just,

43:15.550 --> 43:18.488
they say it better than any words can.

43:20.030 --> 43:24.094
The fact that it seemed to
be a very good VAWA case,

43:24.094 --> 43:26.269
Violence Against Women Act case,

43:26.269 --> 43:27.586
the interstate domestic violence,

43:27.586 --> 43:29.506
we had the crossing of the state lines.

43:29.506 --> 43:33.154
It seemed like if we didn\'t do it,

43:33.154 --> 43:35.031
nobody else was going to,

43:35.031 --> 43:36.503
because there were a lot of times

43:36.503 --> 43:38.402
she didn\'t know where she was.

43:38.402 --> 43:41.836
So she didn\'t know whether
a particular assault

43:41.836 --> 43:44.652
happened in Oklahoma or New Mexico,

43:44.652 --> 43:48.321
but we knew that she had been
forcibly taken from here.

43:48.321 --> 43:51.030
So we could prosecute it here,

43:51.030 --> 43:52.886
and if we didn\'t prosecute it here,

43:52.886 --> 43:55.211
it may not have been
prosecuted anyplace else

43:55.211 --> 43:58.187
because we didn\'t know where
the assaults were taking place.

43:58.187 --> 44:00.821
So that also made it compelling.

44:00.821 --> 44:02.816
If we weren\'t going to do anything,

44:02.816 --> 44:04.789
then maybe nothing was gonna be done.

44:04.789 --> 44:06.458
And something had to be done.

44:25.289 --> 44:26.814
- Hey there, we\'re just about there,

44:26.814 --> 44:28.467
we\'re like five minutes away.

44:28.467 --> 44:30.457
All right, I\'ll see you in a few minutes.

44:30.457 --> 44:31.592
Bye bye.

44:35.331 --> 44:37.933
We\'re gonna go talk with Deanna

44:37.933 --> 44:40.184
about how she\'s feeling about court

44:40.184 --> 44:42.413
and about what it\'s gonna mean to her

44:42.413 --> 44:44.290
to be able to take the witness stand,

44:44.290 --> 44:48.098
say out loud what Robbie did to her,

44:48.098 --> 44:50.139
and to Martina.

44:55.042 --> 44:56.418
Are you nervous about testifying

44:56.418 --> 44:57.826
or do you feel okay about it?

44:57.826 --> 44:59.831
So what are you doing to prepare yourself?

44:59.831 --> 45:03.265
- Just keep telling myself
that I know I can do it,

45:03.265 --> 45:07.329
and I\'ve got a lot of
people backing me up.

45:07.329 --> 45:12.150
- This is Deanna\'s thick
file, her case file.

45:15.456 --> 45:19.200
District attorney said that
a juror or defense attorney

45:19.200 --> 45:23.439
may ask why she didn\'t call
someone and ask for help.

45:25.845 --> 45:27.370
Robbie had told her not to pick up a phone

45:27.370 --> 45:29.322
at the truck stop.

45:29.322 --> 45:32.245
Stated that, many would
argue that she had the chance

45:32.245 --> 45:33.759
to get away in Virginia,

45:33.759 --> 45:38.196
when they stopped at a truck
stop for several hours.

45:38.196 --> 45:40.372
- What do you think you\'ll say

45:40.372 --> 45:43.721
when his defense attorneys
try to say things to you

45:43.721 --> 45:45.364
like, why didn\'t you try to get away,

45:45.364 --> 45:48.750
or why didn\'t you call the
police or something like that.

45:50.825 --> 45:53.289
- I was too scared.

45:53.289 --> 45:56.926
There was lots of things,
ways, running through my mind

45:56.926 --> 46:00.734
of how I could get away,
but I couldn\'t do it,

46:00.734 --> 46:03.176
I was afraid I would wake him up.

46:03.176 --> 46:07.869
If Marina had made a noise, he
would have instantly woke up.

46:07.869 --> 46:12.690
She had coloring books and crayons.

46:12.690 --> 46:16.210
I thought about tearing the back out

46:16.210 --> 46:20.754
of one of the coloring
books and writing help me

46:20.754 --> 46:23.292
and sticking it behind the curtain.

46:23.292 --> 46:26.535
Maybe people passing by on
the interstate would see it

46:26.535 --> 46:28.049
and call the law.

46:28.049 --> 46:33.034
Then, again I was afraid
that he would see it,

46:33.034 --> 46:35.921
and if he did see it he probably

46:35.921 --> 46:38.438
would have instantly killed me,

46:38.438 --> 46:43.014
and I never knew what
would happen to Martina.

46:43.014 --> 46:45.430
- [Stacy] There were so many injustices

46:45.430 --> 46:47.474
that I felt like happened with her.

46:47.474 --> 46:52.390
You know, Martina was removed,
in Oklahoma, from Deanna.

46:52.390 --> 46:55.829
And that just, that really angered me.

46:57.243 --> 46:59.824
- What was it like when
they came and took Martina?

46:59.824 --> 47:01.403
- It destroyed me.

47:01.403 --> 47:03.786
It took everything.

47:05.134 --> 47:08.195
It was the hardest
moment in my whole life.

47:08.195 --> 47:09.784
- [Kit] I bet.

47:09.784 --> 47:11.331
And how often did you see Martina

47:11.331 --> 47:13.197
in the time that she
was taken away from you?

47:13.197 --> 47:15.463
- Twice a week, for an hour.

47:29.065 --> 47:33.063
- (squeals) Piggyback!

47:39.240 --> 47:41.016
- Where are we going now? (laguhs)

47:47.646 --> 47:51.150
I could talk to her on
the phone every night.

47:51.150 --> 47:53.422
- [Kit] What kinds of
things did she say to you?

47:53.422 --> 47:56.238
- Wanted to know why I gave her away.

47:56.238 --> 48:00.280
And that was hard, that was really hard.

48:00.280 --> 48:03.213
I would tell her that she was staying

48:03.213 --> 48:07.079
with the foster parents
so they could protect her.

48:08.407 --> 48:12.369
(giggling)

48:18.071 --> 48:20.108
She still asks me, now,

48:20.108 --> 48:23.084
she still asks me why I gave her away.

48:23.084 --> 48:24.588
- [Kit] \'Cause she remembers it.

48:24.588 --> 48:25.488
- Yeah.

48:28.374 --> 48:30.085
Wait up, wait up!

48:35.133 --> 48:36.268
(laughs)

48:48.521 --> 48:51.313
- [Man] You don\'t
understand, I\'m not hungry.

48:51.313 --> 48:52.827
I\'m not over y\'all coming down there

48:52.827 --> 48:55.124
and acting like you\'re
gonna testify against me.

48:55.124 --> 48:56.606
I\'m not over that shit!

48:56.606 --> 49:00.355
I can\'t understand why my
daughters would go against me!

49:02.024 --> 49:04.318
Don\'t ever go against me!

49:04.318 --> 49:07.411
Do you understand what I\'m saying?

49:07.411 --> 49:10.451
(crashing) Don\'t fucking go against me!

49:10.451 --> 49:11.613
Never!

49:11.613 --> 49:14.002
Don\'t you ever! (banging)

49:14.002 --> 49:17.255
Fucking go against me!

49:17.255 --> 49:19.789
Don\'t ever! (banging)

49:19.789 --> 49:21.687
Go fucking against me!

49:21.687 --> 49:24.290
You understand what I\'m saying?

49:24.290 --> 49:28.151
I can\'t never forget,
you are my daughters.

49:28.151 --> 49:31.255
Goddammit, I\'d never do that to my dad!

49:31.255 --> 49:33.377
What\'s wrong with y\'all?

49:33.377 --> 49:36.236
Now, am I a person that you fuck with?

49:36.236 --> 49:37.868
I mean, seriously.

49:37.868 --> 49:39.723
I mean, look at me!

49:39.723 --> 49:41.558
Just look at my face.

49:41.558 --> 49:43.734
(slapping) This is not
a motherfucker that you!

49:43.734 --> 49:46.944
(slapping) Is that a
fucker that you fuck with?

49:46.944 --> 49:47.915
- [Girl] No.

49:47.915 --> 49:48.917
- [Man] Is it?

49:48.917 --> 49:51.189
Who\'s going to take care of you?

49:51.189 --> 49:52.075
- [Girl] You are.

49:52.075 --> 49:53.579
- [Man] Who\'s going to fucking provide?

49:53.579 --> 49:54.421
- [Girl] You are.

49:54.421 --> 49:56.042
- [Man] Who\'s the son of a bitch

49:56.042 --> 49:58.901
that stands in front
of the fucking monster

49:58.901 --> 50:01.540
and keeps him from raping y\'all?

50:04.191 --> 50:07.391
- I get calls from battered
women all over the country,

50:07.391 --> 50:10.388
and emails, and this one
happens to be from a woman

50:10.388 --> 50:13.776
who\'s married to a doctor,
a very prominent physician.

50:17.110 --> 50:20.054
And they made this tape not long after

50:20.054 --> 50:22.422
there was a restraining order hearing.

50:22.422 --> 50:25.717
But the female judge, who
knew that he was a doctor,

50:25.717 --> 50:27.904
said, just let him come home,

50:27.904 --> 50:30.229
your house is big enough for both of you.

50:30.229 --> 50:31.471
And so,

50:33.386 --> 50:35.189
it\'s just so frustrating because,

50:35.189 --> 50:40.117
we don\'t know what\'s going on
in these gated communities,

50:40.117 --> 50:44.042
in these expensive homes, until
something like this happens.

50:47.472 --> 50:50.081
So, I tore this up.

50:51.922 --> 50:55.628
I tore this up because
I was so angry about it.

50:56.487 --> 51:00.092
It\'s a rough draft of the paper
that I turned in recently.

51:00.092 --> 51:03.804
The professor wrote a
note across the bottom,

51:03.804 --> 51:06.464
so it made me mad and I tore it up.

51:09.862 --> 51:13.329
Now I\'m gonna put it back together again.

51:13.329 --> 51:15.163
\"Kit, a very interesting discussion.

51:15.163 --> 51:16.838
\"I have two recommendations.

51:16.838 --> 51:19.110
\"First, you say in the
beginning that domestic violence

51:19.110 --> 51:21.637
\"quote, touches all socioeconomic groups.

51:21.637 --> 51:23.963
\"I am not an expert in this field,

51:23.963 --> 51:27.418
\"but my impression is that
domestic violence is more common

51:27.418 --> 51:29.840
\"among poor, less educated people.

51:29.840 --> 51:32.047
\"Most middle-class
persons, such as doctors,

51:32.047 --> 51:33.903
\"lawyers, and professors, et cetera,

51:33.903 --> 51:36.543
\"do not beat their wives and children.\"

51:38.052 --> 51:39.145
Nice.

51:40.526 --> 51:41.384
Nice.

51:43.480 --> 51:45.571
But I\'m going to save this.

51:45.571 --> 51:47.587
Because this is a reminder to me

51:47.587 --> 51:50.716
that we have a long, long, long way to go.

51:56.290 --> 51:58.535
(giggling)

52:11.574 --> 52:16.135
- This was my favorite photo of Martina.

52:19.105 --> 52:23.819
It did have Robbie in it,
and of course I cut it out.

52:23.819 --> 52:25.690
It\'s just her now.

52:34.378 --> 52:36.388
- First soccer practice.

52:42.388 --> 52:45.497
Halloween, okay I can\'t read that.

52:47.455 --> 52:50.979
- Beware of ghosts and goblins.

53:04.307 --> 53:06.579
- Halloween of 2008

53:06.579 --> 53:11.579
Deanna and her husband were separated.

53:12.104 --> 53:14.568
There had been a domestic
violence incident

53:14.568 --> 53:16.594
earlier in the summer.

53:16.594 --> 53:18.354
They were living apart.

53:18.354 --> 53:20.029
But it was Halloween,

53:20.029 --> 53:22.589
and Deanna decided that
she was gonna ask Robbie

53:22.589 --> 53:24.722
if he wanted to go along

53:24.722 --> 53:27.111
with her and their
daughter trick-or-treating

53:27.111 --> 53:30.172
in downtown West
Jefferson, North Carolina.

53:30.172 --> 53:33.895
They drove down together
to the downtown area,

53:33.895 --> 53:37.148
but for some reason, Robbie
didn\'t wanna get out of the car.

53:37.148 --> 53:39.953
So Deanna took their
daughter trick-or-treating,

53:39.953 --> 53:42.694
and when she came back to the car,

53:42.694 --> 53:45.872
he was focused on the fact

53:45.872 --> 53:48.539
that she may have been
talking to another male

53:48.539 --> 53:52.208
while they were trick-or-treating,
and he became jealous.

53:52.208 --> 53:55.675
And as the night progressed,
he was getting more angry

53:55.675 --> 53:57.018
and more angry.

53:58.893 --> 54:02.722
He drove them down to a
secluded area of a parking lot

54:02.722 --> 54:05.645
outside of the local hospital.

54:05.645 --> 54:08.621
And so, he was confronting
her and hitting her,

54:08.621 --> 54:10.967
and he eventually got out his lighter,

54:10.967 --> 54:13.804
and was hitting her ears with the lighter,

54:13.804 --> 54:18.231
basically trying to force her to confess

54:18.231 --> 54:21.089
that she was involved with another man.

54:21.089 --> 54:23.105
All the while, the daughter was asleep

54:23.105 --> 54:25.051
in the back of the truck.

54:29.121 --> 54:31.702
Finally, in the morning,
the daughter woke up

54:31.702 --> 54:32.929
and Robbie announced

54:32.929 --> 54:35.787
that they were all taking
a cross-country truck trip.

54:37.937 --> 54:41.664
He had a cousin who
co-drove the truck with him,

54:41.664 --> 54:45.216
so the arrangement was that
he would meet his cousin John

54:45.216 --> 54:47.381
to deliver this load to California.

54:47.381 --> 54:49.653
They were being secret about this

54:49.653 --> 54:51.882
because the truck company had a policy

54:51.882 --> 54:54.303
against unauthorized riders.

54:54.303 --> 54:57.524
And Deanna and the daughter
would be unauthorized riders.

55:00.223 --> 55:02.751
They eventually all get
into this tractor trailer.

55:02.751 --> 55:05.961
They drove across the line from
North Carolina to Virginia,

55:05.961 --> 55:09.812
stopped at a truck stop,
where for a couple of hours,

55:09.812 --> 55:12.979
Robbie and John played
the video poker machines

55:12.979 --> 55:17.979
while Deanna and the daughter
walked around the truck stop.

55:18.088 --> 55:20.542
Deanna had no money, no cell phone,

55:20.542 --> 55:22.707
didn\'t know anybody up there.

55:22.707 --> 55:24.797
So she didn\'t alert anyone

55:24.797 --> 55:27.048
that she was there against her will.

55:27.048 --> 55:28.786
She got back into the truck.

55:28.786 --> 55:31.037
They drove down into Tennessee,

55:31.037 --> 55:34.759
and again Robbie becomes
obsessed with this idea

55:34.759 --> 55:36.498
that she\'s cheating on him.

55:36.498 --> 55:38.908
So he has John drive the truck.

55:38.908 --> 55:41.052
He gets back in the cab.

55:41.052 --> 55:43.505
He just started beating on her.

55:43.505 --> 55:47.942
It was like the night before,
where he wanted to beat her

55:47.942 --> 55:50.129
into confessing to cheating on him,

55:50.129 --> 55:52.892
and initially she was saying
no, I\'m not cheating on you,

55:52.892 --> 55:54.587
and he would beat her some more.

55:54.587 --> 55:57.137
Well finally she decided
that wasn\'t working,

55:57.137 --> 55:59.920
so she was gonna admit to cheating on him,

55:59.920 --> 56:02.459
hoping that would get
him to stop beating her.

56:02.459 --> 56:06.011
So she started saying, yes,
yes I did cheat on you.

56:06.011 --> 56:08.613
And then he started
saying, well, with who?

56:08.613 --> 56:10.000
Give me some names.

56:10.000 --> 56:12.133
And so she just started spouting off names

56:12.133 --> 56:13.712
of people that they knew.

56:13.712 --> 56:17.413
So he forced her to use his phone

56:17.413 --> 56:20.516
to call these people that she was naming

56:20.516 --> 56:22.330
back home in North Carolina.

56:22.330 --> 56:23.812
And so people back in North Carolina

56:23.812 --> 56:26.436
were getting phone calls
in the middle of the night

56:26.436 --> 56:29.849
where she admitted that
she had cheated on Robbie.

56:29.849 --> 56:33.710
She called a husband
and wife named the Guys.

56:33.710 --> 56:37.241
Told the wife Hope that
she had cheated with Mike.

56:37.241 --> 56:40.515
But eventually, Hope could tell
that something wasn\'t right.

56:40.515 --> 56:42.883
That Deanna\'s tone on the phone calls,

56:42.883 --> 56:46.637
she sounded robotic,
Hope got the impression

56:46.637 --> 56:48.611
that something was not right.

56:48.611 --> 56:51.746
So while the truck is traveling west,

56:51.746 --> 56:54.818
and Robbie is continuing to beat Deanna

56:54.818 --> 56:57.047
and accuse her of cheating on him,

56:57.047 --> 56:59.085
people back home are
starting to figure out

56:59.085 --> 57:02.338
that something is wrong, and
they call the trucking company,

57:02.338 --> 57:03.820
and eventually alert them

57:03.820 --> 57:06.914
that there are unauthorized
people on the truck.

57:06.914 --> 57:08.535
Well, \'til that happens,

57:08.535 --> 57:11.607
they get to California, drop off the load.

57:11.607 --> 57:15.137
They head back east, John\'s driving,

57:15.137 --> 57:17.473
they\'re heading towards Oklahoma,

57:17.473 --> 57:21.844
and Robbie just, this is the
absolute worst beating of all.

57:26.490 --> 57:29.977
- [Deanna] He took me back
to the sleeper of the truck,

57:29.977 --> 57:33.774
and that\'s when he started
hurting me the worst,

57:33.774 --> 57:36.025
and Marina was sitting there.

57:36.025 --> 57:39.481
And he kept covering my
face with the pillow,

57:39.481 --> 57:42.670
and he was telling me that
I wasn\'t gonna make it back

57:42.670 --> 57:44.110
to West Jefferson.

57:44.110 --> 57:46.051
I couldn\'t breathe.

57:46.051 --> 57:49.443
And when he realized that I wasn\'t moving,

57:49.443 --> 57:53.272
he pulled the pillow off of my
face and he started laughing,

57:53.272 --> 57:56.850
and he said, I almost got
you that time, didn\'t I?

57:58.040 --> 58:01.218
And it was right after
that I started having,

58:01.218 --> 58:04.493
I had seizures, and I had three seizures.

58:04.493 --> 58:07.452
And I could hear Martina screaming.

58:07.452 --> 58:11.867
I couldn\'t see anything, I
could just hear her screaming.

58:13.317 --> 58:17.739
When I did stop, he pulled
me up next to Martina,

58:17.739 --> 58:19.983
and I went to sleep.

58:20.842 --> 58:23.072
That was the first time the entire trip

58:23.072 --> 58:25.764
that I was able to sleep.

58:29.109 --> 58:31.316
- [Prosecutor] Finally,
the folks back at home

58:31.316 --> 58:32.500
had gotten in touch with
the trucking company

58:32.500 --> 58:34.527
and they arranged for
the truck to be stopped.

58:34.527 --> 58:38.217
(sirens)

58:38.217 --> 58:42.164
It was pulled over by law
enforcement in Oklahoma,

58:42.164 --> 58:46.110
but as the blue lights were turned on,

58:46.110 --> 58:49.427
Robbie told Deanna that they
were gonna tell the police

58:49.427 --> 58:51.838
when they were stopped
that he had saved her

58:51.838 --> 58:54.974
from a boyfriend back in North
Carolina who had beaten her.

58:57.491 --> 59:00.147
- I received a call that
had a child in danger

59:00.147 --> 59:02.980
and we needed to do a
traffic stop on a semi,

59:02.980 --> 59:04.743
so that\'s what I did.

59:04.743 --> 59:09.652
And what I found inside was
the little girl and the mother.

59:15.494 --> 59:18.235
In the 15 years I\'d been
a law enforcement officer,

59:18.235 --> 59:20.187
I\'d never seen anybody
that\'s been in a car wreck

59:20.187 --> 59:22.320
that was beat up as bad as that girl was.

59:22.320 --> 59:24.368
Even if they was thrown
out of the vehicle,

59:24.368 --> 59:26.874
mangled up in the vehicle, still,

59:26.874 --> 59:30.463
I\'ve never seen anybody that
was in that kind of shape.

59:31.450 --> 59:33.882
I truly believe that if I
hadn\'t stopped the vehicle,

59:33.882 --> 59:36.041
I don\'t think they would
have ever come home.

59:38.189 --> 59:40.120
The reason he wasn\'t detained

59:40.120 --> 59:41.698
is because I didn\'t have no proof

59:41.698 --> 59:43.650
of whether it had actually happened.

59:43.650 --> 59:46.306
I had no paperwork stating anything was

59:46.306 --> 59:48.503
out of the ordinary or anything.

59:48.503 --> 59:50.537
She wouldn\'t tell us who done it

59:50.537 --> 59:52.414
because of the fear factor.

59:52.414 --> 59:54.164
I think she feared more for the child

59:54.164 --> 59:55.995
than she did her own life.

59:55.995 --> 59:58.108
That\'s why she didn\'t say.

01:00:00.696 --> 01:00:02.871
- Once they were separated,
once she was in the car

01:00:02.871 --> 01:00:05.591
and away from him, she told them that,

01:00:05.591 --> 01:00:08.290
in fact Robbie had been
the one who had beaten her.

01:00:08.290 --> 01:00:12.396
The police could tell that
she was very badly beaten.

01:00:12.396 --> 01:00:16.238
They took her to the hospital in Oklahoma.

01:00:16.238 --> 01:00:18.487
- Deanna Howell presented
at my emergency room

01:00:18.487 --> 01:00:21.409
in Anadarko Hospital
in Anadarko, Oklahoma.

01:00:22.945 --> 01:00:26.732
When I first saw her, I was
horrified by her appearance.

01:00:26.732 --> 01:00:29.494
Obviously, with every
movement that she made,

01:00:29.494 --> 01:00:31.876
she was experiencing pain.

01:00:31.876 --> 01:00:35.055
Initially, it was important
for us to clean her up,

01:00:35.055 --> 01:00:37.657
as she was covered in dried blood.

01:00:37.657 --> 01:00:40.932
And when I felt her
hair, it was very sticky

01:00:40.932 --> 01:00:44.345
and very soiled, and I
asked her at that point

01:00:44.345 --> 01:00:48.169
what was in her hair, which she
shared with me at that time.

01:00:48.169 --> 01:00:51.651
It was Mountain Dew, and urine.

01:00:52.796 --> 01:00:57.688
And when I asked her how that came to be,

01:00:57.688 --> 01:01:00.987
she stated that he would throw his soda,

01:01:00.987 --> 01:01:04.208
her ex-husband would throw
his soda in her face,

01:01:04.208 --> 01:01:09.208
and that whenever he had to urinate,

01:01:09.599 --> 01:01:14.561
he would hold her by the
ears and urinate in her face.

01:01:16.399 --> 01:01:18.431
I took photos of Deanna
in the emergency room.

01:01:18.431 --> 01:01:21.759
She obviously was still
in fear of her ex-husband.

01:01:21.759 --> 01:01:24.638
And when I went out and asked the officer,

01:01:24.638 --> 01:01:27.934
could he please tell me where
her ex-husband was located,

01:01:27.934 --> 01:01:32.083
with the intent of finding
out where he was incarcerated

01:01:32.083 --> 01:01:33.875
and being held at,

01:01:33.875 --> 01:01:35.956
when he piped off to
me that, he\'s somewhere

01:01:35.956 --> 01:01:38.734
between here and North Carolina, I guess.

01:01:39.689 --> 01:01:42.036
- Robbie was left at the
side of the road in Oklahoma

01:01:42.036 --> 01:01:46.260
because she hadn\'t told
police before he left

01:01:46.260 --> 01:01:48.286
that he was the one who beat her,

01:01:48.286 --> 01:01:50.483
and he made his way
back to North Carolina.

01:01:50.483 --> 01:01:51.838
Once he got back to North Carolina,

01:01:51.838 --> 01:01:54.005
he was interviewed by law enforcement

01:01:54.005 --> 01:01:57.086
and admitted to beating her so badly

01:01:57.086 --> 01:01:59.827
that he almost broke his fingers.

01:01:59.827 --> 01:02:00.802
So.

01:02:03.635 --> 01:02:06.839
(phone ringing)

01:02:17.308 --> 01:02:20.348
- I just wonder if somehow
his cousin got to her.

01:02:26.833 --> 01:02:29.222
You know, because with
his cousin not charged,

01:02:29.222 --> 01:02:32.271
he\'s really free to do whatever,

01:02:32.271 --> 01:02:34.777
to intimidate you or intimidate her

01:02:34.777 --> 01:02:38.606
and I just wonder if that\'s
part of what\'s happened.

01:02:38.606 --> 01:02:41.693
I mean, it might not be,
but it also might be.

01:02:48.262 --> 01:02:50.258
So, how\'s Martina?

01:02:53.123 --> 01:02:55.192
Yeah, and that\'s gonna make it hard.

01:02:55.192 --> 01:02:57.464
But maybe what you can do is you can take

01:02:57.464 --> 01:02:59.714
those strong feelings that you\'ve got

01:02:59.714 --> 01:03:02.039
and just really use those

01:03:02.039 --> 01:03:04.621
to be crystal clear in court.

01:03:04.621 --> 01:03:05.890
You know, to just,

01:03:09.783 --> 01:03:11.639
to just say the things
that you need to say

01:03:11.639 --> 01:03:14.022
so the court understands
what he did to you.

01:03:16.119 --> 01:03:18.017
All right Deanna, well
have a really good day

01:03:18.017 --> 01:03:19.436
and I\'m glad you called.

01:03:19.436 --> 01:03:22.411
I\'ll talk to you in the
next couple days, okay?

01:03:23.331 --> 01:03:24.731
All right, bye Deanna.

01:03:28.118 --> 01:03:29.978
Fucking Robbie.

01:03:39.413 --> 01:03:41.525
There\'s a lot of dark
things that happen up here

01:03:41.525 --> 01:03:43.172
like Deanna\'s case, but,

01:03:46.143 --> 01:03:48.249
I do love these mountains.

01:03:57.737 --> 01:03:59.423
That\'s Jack and Jason.

01:03:59.423 --> 01:04:02.910
That\'s October, and he
died the next August,

01:04:02.910 --> 01:04:06.302
cleaning up an oil spill
in the Gulf of Mexico.

01:04:06.302 --> 01:04:07.923
You know, I look at that picture

01:04:07.923 --> 01:04:09.833
of his hair shining in the sun.

01:04:11.880 --> 01:04:13.224
And that was one of my jobs,

01:04:13.224 --> 01:04:14.472
was to take care of his hair

01:04:14.472 --> 01:04:16.258
to make sure he didn\'t have split ends.

01:04:17.192 --> 01:04:21.042
So that when he went
out to go pick up women,

01:04:21.042 --> 01:04:23.784
that one of the things that
would draw women to him

01:04:23.784 --> 01:04:25.890
was his long, blonde hair.

01:04:26.973 --> 01:04:29.121
He had a beautiful smile.

01:04:31.867 --> 01:04:33.958
- [Interviewer] You stayed with this guy.

01:04:33.958 --> 01:04:36.773
- Yeah, I didn\'t have a choice.

01:04:36.773 --> 01:04:39.909
He told me, you know,
that\'s the part that always,

01:04:39.909 --> 01:04:43.902
it\'s so interesting to me,
it\'s the standard question,

01:04:43.902 --> 01:04:46.169
why didn\'t you leave?

01:04:46.169 --> 01:04:48.611
Well, he was trained by the
United Stated Marine Corps

01:04:48.611 --> 01:04:50.584
to hunt people down and kill them,

01:04:50.584 --> 01:04:52.675
and he told me if I left, he
would hunt me down and kill me.

01:04:52.675 --> 01:04:54.392
That\'s why I didn\'t leave.

01:04:54.392 --> 01:04:56.877
I used to pull what he would
call my disappearing acts.

01:04:56.877 --> 01:05:00.781
And that would be, I would
get the boys and get out.

01:05:00.781 --> 01:05:03.586
Because it just was getting too intense.

01:05:05.355 --> 01:05:07.338
But I would always go back,

01:05:07.338 --> 01:05:09.866
because at least I knew where he was.

01:05:09.866 --> 01:05:14.207
At least I knew the routine,
I knew what to expect.

01:05:14.207 --> 01:05:17.802
But, you know, it\'s a terrible way to live

01:05:17.802 --> 01:05:21.098
to always be looking over your shoulder.

01:05:22.374 --> 01:05:24.294
He also had good sides, too.

01:05:24.294 --> 01:05:27.409
I remember being in the funeral home,

01:05:27.409 --> 01:05:29.201
looking at his body,

01:05:33.008 --> 01:05:36.240
and starting at the top of
his head and going down,

01:05:36.240 --> 01:05:37.893
and looking at his hands,

01:05:37.893 --> 01:05:40.794
and thinking that his
hands were both a weapon,

01:05:40.794 --> 01:05:42.693
and it was also with those hands

01:05:42.693 --> 01:05:45.130
that he taught me how to garden.

01:05:46.063 --> 01:05:48.115
So, it\'s not clean.

01:05:48.115 --> 01:05:50.476
It\'s complicated.

01:05:52.530 --> 01:05:54.248
You know, there\'s just a lot more to it

01:05:54.248 --> 01:05:57.655
than people are willing
to give women credit for.

01:05:59.197 --> 01:06:02.727
That picture right there,
that was taken that last day

01:06:02.727 --> 01:06:04.252
that he was nice.

01:06:04.252 --> 01:06:06.044
On that one day, it was
a beautiful fall day,

01:06:06.044 --> 01:06:07.996
and he said, let\'s go
ride up on the Parkway.

01:06:07.996 --> 01:06:10.204
And it was just so out of the ordinary.

01:06:10.204 --> 01:06:11.409
But I was thrilled.

01:06:11.409 --> 01:06:13.446
You know, that we were
gonna have a good day.

01:06:15.238 --> 01:06:17.163
And it was a great day.

01:06:37.018 --> 01:06:41.317
- I was just confirmed
that we were still on

01:06:41.317 --> 01:06:44.585
and told to be there at 8:30.

01:06:45.615 --> 01:06:47.983
I am nervous about testifying.

01:06:49.830 --> 01:06:53.968
I don\'t know really, I
don\'t know what\'s going on.

01:06:55.963 --> 01:06:59.056
I guess I\'ll find out this morning.

01:06:59.056 --> 01:07:01.584
Everybody\'s telling me to be strong,

01:07:01.584 --> 01:07:06.388
be truthful, and that
they\'re praying for me.

01:07:09.765 --> 01:07:11.930
Yesterday when I got up,

01:07:11.930 --> 01:07:15.791
there was just something inside of me,

01:07:15.791 --> 01:07:18.692
this feeling that I had,

01:07:18.692 --> 01:07:23.588
that I needed to, after the trial is over,

01:07:23.588 --> 01:07:27.428
give Robbie a picture of Martina.

01:07:27.428 --> 01:07:31.182
I just want him to know, pretty much,

01:07:31.182 --> 01:07:32.953
what he\'s missed.

01:07:32.953 --> 01:07:37.592
And that he\'s missed a
lot in the last two years.

01:07:37.592 --> 01:07:41.869
I mean, his daughter has
really grown up a lot.

01:07:41.869 --> 01:07:46.818
And if he hadn\'t done what he did,

01:07:46.818 --> 01:07:49.671
he would have been there for it.

01:08:21.179 --> 01:08:24.805
I\'m not going to let him get
away with what he\'s done,

01:08:24.805 --> 01:08:26.426
to me, my daughter,

01:08:27.950 --> 01:08:32.227
to other women out there who
I\'m sure he\'s done it to.

01:08:35.085 --> 01:08:38.616
Nobody should get away with this.

01:08:38.616 --> 01:08:40.284
Nobody.

01:09:08.599 --> 01:09:11.618
- I\'m reading from a portion
of the trial transcript.

01:09:11.618 --> 01:09:14.615
The defense lawyer stated
in his opening statement

01:09:14.615 --> 01:09:16.588
that what really happened here was,

01:09:16.588 --> 01:09:18.348
they went on a family trip.

01:09:18.348 --> 01:09:21.111
And it was a trip that
she was willing to go on

01:09:21.111 --> 01:09:22.710
and happy to go on.

01:09:22.710 --> 01:09:26.657
The government, I argued that
it wasn\'t a voluntary trip,

01:09:26.657 --> 01:09:29.750
that she was kidnapped
and beaten along the way,

01:09:29.750 --> 01:09:32.534
and that the jury should find
him guilty of both counts,

01:09:32.534 --> 01:09:35.706
the kidnapping and the
interstate domestic violence.

01:09:37.899 --> 01:09:41.611
The government called the nurse
who saw Deanna in Oklahoma,

01:09:41.611 --> 01:09:44.746
several of the people who had
received strange phone calls

01:09:44.746 --> 01:09:46.720
from Deanna during the trip.

01:09:46.720 --> 01:09:49.295
Deanna, of course, testified.

01:09:52.181 --> 01:09:53.567
- [Kit] When Deanna took the witness stand

01:09:53.567 --> 01:09:54.847
my heart was pounding,

01:09:54.847 --> 01:09:57.332
because I understood the
consequences of this trial.

01:09:57.332 --> 01:09:59.781
If he were to be found not guilty,

01:09:59.781 --> 01:10:01.791
he\'d be back out on the streets

01:10:01.791 --> 01:10:04.292
and he\'d be a threat to her again.

01:10:04.292 --> 01:10:07.705
But when I see what Deanna has done,

01:10:07.705 --> 01:10:10.233
that she\'s faced her abuser,

01:10:10.233 --> 01:10:12.228
she\'s walked into federal court,

01:10:12.228 --> 01:10:14.201
she\'s taken the witness stand,

01:10:14.201 --> 01:10:17.587
I\'m just completely
astonished at her courage.

01:10:29.068 --> 01:10:33.782
- The jury made their decision
of guilty on both counts

01:10:33.782 --> 01:10:37.445
and I feel absolutely awesome. (laugh)

01:10:38.358 --> 01:10:40.917
I could feel the tears coming.

01:10:40.917 --> 01:10:43.371
They didn\'t actually start falling,

01:10:43.371 --> 01:10:46.538
but I can feel them coming.

01:10:46.538 --> 01:10:49.418
They wanna come now. (laughs)

01:10:49.418 --> 01:10:51.172
I am so happy.

01:10:55.242 --> 01:10:57.866
I\'ll be glad to get home to Martina.

01:10:57.866 --> 01:10:59.475
- I\'ll be glad for you
to get home to Martina.

01:10:59.475 --> 01:11:00.915
I know she wants her mom home.

01:11:00.915 --> 01:11:02.210
- Yes she does.

01:11:04.541 --> 01:11:08.946
- Robbie was sentenced to almost
21 years in federal prison.

01:11:08.946 --> 01:11:11.389
But the sad and tragic reality

01:11:11.389 --> 01:11:13.618
is that the majority of the time he serves

01:11:13.618 --> 01:11:16.377
will be for kidnapping
Deanna, not for beating her.

01:11:18.117 --> 01:11:20.250
I can\'t help thinking about the fact that,

01:11:20.250 --> 01:11:23.301
after Robbie kidnapped
Deanna and almost killed her,

01:11:23.301 --> 01:11:26.106
when she came back she
had to listen to the DAs,

01:11:26.106 --> 01:11:28.730
to the police, to the defense attorney,

01:11:28.730 --> 01:11:33.466
and ever her own family ask
her why she didn\'t just leave.

01:11:33.466 --> 01:11:36.623
When in reality, that\'s
precisely what she did do.

01:11:36.623 --> 01:11:40.366
She left, and he retaliated
by kidnapping her

01:11:40.366 --> 01:11:42.916
and beating her for four and a half days.

01:11:42.916 --> 01:11:45.891
So she did what everyone wanted her to do,

01:11:45.891 --> 01:11:49.459
and she almost paid for it with her life.

01:12:04.578 --> 01:12:08.087
I\'ve been training advocates
for a lot of years.

01:12:08.087 --> 01:12:10.311
Since 1990.

01:12:14.444 --> 01:12:17.282
And I\'m always so astonished and moved

01:12:17.282 --> 01:12:19.329
at the people who want to
come into this movement

01:12:19.329 --> 01:12:21.665
and do this work, because
it\'s not easy work.

01:12:21.665 --> 01:12:24.620
It can be heartbreaking and frustrating,

01:12:24.620 --> 01:12:28.427
but it can also be unbelievably uplifting.

01:12:28.427 --> 01:12:30.977
And you see things and hear things

01:12:30.977 --> 01:12:32.790
that you couldn\'t make up.

01:12:35.999 --> 01:12:40.905
And you witness victims shedding that skin

01:12:44.414 --> 01:12:47.369
and just leaving the violence behind.

01:12:47.369 --> 01:12:49.496
It\'s just wonderful.

01:13:03.453 --> 01:13:07.794
- We are at a place that I\'m
looking at hoping to rent.

01:13:07.794 --> 01:13:11.159
A new step, a new beginning.

01:13:12.050 --> 01:13:15.357
Gettin\' out of my parents house

01:13:15.357 --> 01:13:20.150
and starting over, a new life.

01:13:28.134 --> 01:13:30.684
- Well, the lady said to
tell you she\'s packing up,

01:13:30.684 --> 01:13:32.987
moving, so there\'s stuff sittin\' around.

01:13:32.987 --> 01:13:34.630
This is the bedroom.

01:13:34.630 --> 01:13:37.158
Stuff sittin\' in here.

01:13:37.158 --> 01:13:38.907
And chest of drawers.

01:13:41.702 --> 01:13:44.603
Self-cleaning oven, you
have a refrigerator.

01:13:44.603 --> 01:13:48.528
Washer and dryer, commode.

01:13:48.528 --> 01:13:50.890
Very good shower.

01:13:55.397 --> 01:13:57.093
Plus a beautiful view!

01:13:57.093 --> 01:13:58.906
- Yes, I love it.

01:13:58.906 --> 01:14:01.807
- Parkway that way,
Grandfather Mountain that way.

01:14:01.807 --> 01:14:03.385
You can see Grandfather Mountain today,

01:14:03.385 --> 01:14:05.540
somedays you can\'t see it
when it gets real hazy,

01:14:05.540 --> 01:14:07.283
but you can see it good today.

01:14:14.905 --> 01:14:16.776
- [Deanna] It\'s perfect.

01:14:19.758 --> 01:14:24.349
(uplifting guitar music)