I haven't talked much about this since I began this blog... but here it is.
On the morning of the last time my husband assaulted me, I called a mutual friend for help. The friend is the Chief of Police here in our town, a good friend of my husband's, and someone who I've known all my life. I told him what happened over the phone. I begged him to talk my husband. I was crying, upset, and bleeding. (Please understand that my intentions initially were not to report the abuse as I was still clinging on to a broken marriage). My husband had left the house. He told me he'd find him and talk to him. A half hour later, the Chief called me back on the phone. He told me had found my husband and that my husband went to the PD to talk to him. My husband admitted that we got into a "scuffle". The Chief advised that he needed to complete an incident report and put it into the computer. He asked for a written statement. I declined to give one. My husband left the area that day and went to NYC. (He had a previously scheduled visit with his other daughter for February vacation.) This was a Thursday. I managed to collect myself, wash off the blood on my arms, take a few advils for my splitting headache (which was probably a concussion) and get myself to work. On Friday, the Chief called me back and again and asked me for a written statement. At that point, I wasn't sure what to do. Chief made sure to tell me that if I gave a statement my husband would most likely lose his job and be arrested. I asked him, "I already gave you a verbal statement over the phone, can't you use that?" He never answered me directly and instead asked once again for a written statement. The conversation ended quickly as it seemed he was annoyed with me. Over the weekend I had many nasty conversations with my husband. I also discovered proof that he had been having an affair. Emails, phone records, etc all showed what he had been doing for the last several months. On the following Tuesday I stopped by the PD to find out what was happening. I spoke directly to the Chief. He showed me the incident report that he had typed and put into the computer. I was absolutely heartbroken as I read it. NO WHERE did it mention the things that I told him about the assault. He didn't include how my husband had grabbed me, slammed into the closet door, the wall, and the window frame. He didn't include how he held my wrists so tight that his nails dug into me causing me to bleed. He didn't include how he threw me onto the bed face first and pinned me down. In his report, he called it "a marital dispute". I told him, "it was a lot more than that." He said, "well that's how I remember it". At that moment, I knew exactly what was happening. The Chief was going to cover for my husband. The Chief obviously read the emotion on my face. He quickly said, "well I can change the report if I need to." Then he sarcastically said, "Well its not like you had any bruises or marks or anything." At that point, anger took over. I hauled up the sleeves of my baggy sweatshirt I was wearing and sarcastically said, "what do you think?" My wrists and lower arms were covered with fingerprint bruises and I had scabs where his nails had dug into me. The Chief looked at my arms and sighed. He said, "Well since you have marks, I guess I'd better assign this case to **** " (another officer whose name I will omit for now). "I can't assign this case to ***** or ***** because neither one of them like your husband and it wouldn't be fair. I can't do the investigation because I'm too close to both of you." I said, "OK". He proceeded to tell me that the officer who would be investigating was off until Friday but that he would contact me then.
I left the PD feeling dejected. This was not going to go anywhere, I thought. Needless to say, the apparent investigating officer never made contact with me. I filed for divorce that week. Over the course of the next 2 weeks, my husband made a variety of insinuating threats towards me. I grew more afraid by the day. He was coming into the house when I wasn't home and taking things. He was arrogant and smug about everything as if to say he was getting away with it and there was nothing I could do about it. He had shacked up with his bimbo girlfriend a few towns away (the town he actually worked in) and was publically talking trash about me and our divorce. On a Monday, almost 2 weeks after I had visited the police Chief, we got a nasty snow storm. I didn't have to work, as school had been cancelled. I initially decided to keep my 3 year old daughter home with me and not send her to daycare. I was folding laundry in our bedroom and my daughter was playing on the other side of the room. She was playing in front of her father's nightstand on his side of the bed. All of sudden I heard "clinking"... like she was tapping metal together. I asked her what she was doing. She said "playing". I went around the bed to investigate. Much to my horror, I discovered her playing with 6 bullets (at the time I wasn't sure what caliber they were). I asked her where she got these. She told me on Daddy's nightstand. Now I had just vaccuumed this room two days before and never noticed any random bullets sitting on his nightstand. I immediately began to panic. He had been in the house again and I fully believed (and still do to this day) that he left those bullets as a message to me. I swooped up my daughter and took her to daycare. Then I went back down to the police department with bullets in hand.
When I arrived, two officers were at the PD doing paperwork. The Chief was not there. I spoke to both officers, one of which was supposed to be assigned my case. He advised that the Chief had never assigned him my case. I got emotional and started to cry. I handed over the bullets and told them what happened. Not only was I afraid for myself, but now my husband had put my daughter in the middle of it. THIS WAS THE FINAL STRAW. The officers exchanged worried glances at each other. Both advised that they thought the Chief was handling this. One of the officers advised he would call the DA's office immediately and ask for their assistance with this. The other asked me if there were any more firearms in the house. Where was my husband's service weapon? I told him I didn't know but that I had a shotgun in the house. I told him I didn't want ANY firearms in the house at this time. He told me to go home and gather everything up that I didn't want and bring them back down to the PD. He would put them in the locker and store them for me.
I returned home, shaken and scared. I went to get my shotgun. It was gone as were the boxes of shells that went with it. The only thing I found were 2 boxes of 38 shells. I didn't know my husband still had a 38. But I didn't find his 45 service weapon, or anything else. He had taken everything. I called down to the PD and told the officers that my shotgun was gone. One of the officers advised he was on his way to my house. When he arrived he advised he would enter my shotgun into the computer system as stolen. He further advised that he had spoken to the DA's office and was advised to "take over the case". He told me he would come see me the next day at school for the interview as I didn't want to do the interview in front of my daughter.
On Tuesday, March 8, almost 3 weeks after the assault, I was finally interviewed by law enforcement about the incident. I was also informed that he had found my shotgun, that my husband had taken it, and allegedly my husband's employer, his Chief had the shotgun in his possession. He further told the officer that he would not return my shotgun because "she doesn't need it". I gave a written statement and provided the officer with a history of past abuse. It was emotional, embarrassing, and closure all at the same time. On March 10th, exactly 3 weeks after he assaulted me, my husband was arrested and charged with domestic violence.
Since that time, even more police cover-up has occurred. Continuing cover-up by the Chief of the PD in our town and cover-up by the police Chief who my husband worked for. I'll talk about those later on. But I will say that the officers of our local police department have been empathetic, encouraging, and extremely supportive throughout this entire ordeal. They've increased patrol in my neighborhood and continued to check in on me and my daughter. All while working against their very corrupt and very discouraging police Chief.
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