A Few Facts About My Case

If this wasn’t happening to me, I would think this was out of some conspiracy theory movie.

This all started when I left my husband and started seeing someone else. He was so angry that I left and I knew that he would stop at nothing to destroy me.

Anyway here are the chain of events.

In February 2009, my ex husband brought a valentine’s day present to me, at the home that I shared with my finance.  My fiance became very angry and we had an argument. Our neighbors called the police and I was arrested for the domestic violence and obstruction of an officer with violence as per my last post.

The arresting officer assaulted me after I asked him to get a search warrant to come into my home. He grabbed me by the hair and through me on the floor. He threatened me with a taser and verbally assaulted me. He arrested me without reading my  Miranda Rights and threatened to call child protective services and arrest me and my fiance  if i didn’t admit to scratching my fiance. I was going through a horrible custody battle and didn’t know what to do. So I was arrested and that is just the beginning of nightmare.

• A few facts about the police officer that arrested me. 
• He was a friend and colleague of my ex husbands.
• His ex-wife was a friend of mine and she was battered by him.
• He was later fired, I found this out after my court date, from the police department for conduct unbecoming a police officer and joy riding in his patrol car while on duty.

When I went to my first hearing. I was denied bond and had to wait six weeks for a superior court bond hearing. While in jail I lost custody temporarily of my son and youngest daughter. It was later returned to me after being released.

While in jail, the guards where horrid. We were attended to primarily by male guards. They who refused to give us sanitary pads and toilet tissue, as well as medical attention and other basic human needs. They also would peep into the shower area of the cell while we were showering. The food was horrible and I spent every night sleeping on the floor due to over crowding. One of the guards was having sex with one of my cell mates. It was horrible.

After being released on bond, I was unable to find employment and spent months waiting for a pretrial hearing. The case went to court ten months later. I had a public defender and I did not speak to him once until the day of court. I tried numerous times to find out information about the case prior to this but me messages where never answered. My fiance, my mother, and my oldest child wrote the public defenders office and the DA regarding the case with no answer ever given to them. My fiance and daughter were there when all of this happened but the were not given a chance to testify on my behalf.

The day of court I spoke with the public defender and he recommended that I take the plea. He said that it was the police officers word against mine and that I would surely go to jail if I took the case to trial. I explained to him that I was a LPN and that I could lose my license to practice nursing if I took a plea as a first offender. He assured me that my record would not be visible to employers and that my livelihood and career would not be affected. I told him that I did not want to take a plea because I did not do the crime and he kept pressing me and telling me that I didn’t stand a chance in court on the felony charge. Well, I was 34 years old and never had been in trouble a day in my life so I agreed. That was the biggest mistake I have ever made.

So, I was placed on felony probation for 5 years.  5 years, for I crime I did not commit. I thought I could deal with it as long as I could still work. I would pay a fine and have to see the probation officer once per month, big deal. Well, it was a big deal.

I was placed on probation in October and at the end of November my fiance was offered a job out-of-state for twice the money he had been earning, so we needed to move. Well, I told my PO and she told me to go ahead and go. She said when we set up residence and I got a job to let her know and she would give me travel permits to be there until my probation was transferred to that state. So, I went. I was offered a job about 3 weeks after moving so I called her and she told me to come there and get my permit. Well when I got there she arrested me for moving without her permission. She did this because my ex husband called the probation supervisor, who happens to be a close friend of his, in the jurisdiction that I was sentenced in and told him I had moved and because she didn’t have me do the proper paper work, paperwork that I was unaware of, she lied and said I moved without her knowledge. So, I spent another week in jail. Needless to say I didn’t get the job. I learned then do not to trust anything they say.

Well, in order to be able to live with my family I had to rent a separate apartment in the state of the probation and get married in order for the probation to be legal transferred. I couldn’t even go there to visit with a permit. It took almost 5 months after we got married to move back in with my now husband.

Now the probation has been moved. Then when i get to the new state the probation officer threatened to violate me every time I went to see her. She said that because I had not completed all of my community service she was going to violate me. I was told I had two years to complete it. Then she threatened me because she claimed my fines had not been paid, turned out it was a posting error.

Everyday I have live in constant fear of being arrested. I can’t find a descent job. I am nurse and am currently working a cashier. I went from making 250.00 per night to making 250.00 for 40 hours of work. I do have a felony conviction when my background is checked for employment it shows up.

• I was falsely accused of a crime I did not commit.
• I was punished with the maximum amount of probation time that could be given in my case.
• I have served a total of 7 weeks and 2 days in jail.
• I am unable to find professional employment.
• I have lost my nursing license.
• I have to pay over 130.00 per month in fines. I currently make less than 600.00 per month.
• I was lied to my the public defender. The very person that is sworn to defend me against wrongful prosecution.
• The judge that ruled in my criminal case, also was the judge in my divorce case and in all of the custody case before and since with my ex husband.
• The probation officer, the cop involved in my arrest, as well as several of the jail guards are close friends or colleagues of my ex husband, who is still trying to get custody of our daughter. Now he is using Parental Alienation tactics (which I will talk about in a later blog) and the “Justice” system to do so.

 Does this sound like justice to you?

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Starting Over, Life after a Felony Conviction

 

I am writing this blog to tell my story and educate those who have made an error in judgement and sought the help of our so call “Justice” System. I am also hoping to provide those who are in this same situation information that can help put their lives back together.

I am a victim of our Justice System. The system that has victimized the poor and wrongly convicted and

God Help Us All!

 lied to those who are unaware of their rights and the workings of Law. I was accused of domestic violence and obstruction of a law enforcement officer with violence.

Now before you judge, let me give you some back ground. I was living a very small town with a population of less than 10,000 people and was going through a nasty custody battle with my ex husband. I was an outsider in this town and he was a law enforcement officer and very well-connected. He was very angry that I was moving on with my life and was engaged to be married to someone else. The charges were brought by an officer who was a friend of the ex.

The night that I was arrested, my fiance and I had gotten into a very loud argument (I can get very loud when I am angry), and the neighbors called the police. When the police arrived the argument was already resolved and all was quiet. I told the officer that there was no problem and tried to explain what had happened.

That was not good enough. He wanted to come into my home and I refused to let him in without a search warrant. I felt he had no business there. He forced his way in by pushing the door open and pulling me to the ground and threatening me with a taser for crying. He handcuffed me so tightly that I have permanent nerve damage and severe pain daily. He dragged me to the police car and put me in the back.  Apparently this is considered Felony Obstruction of a Law Enforcement Officer with Violence.

The officer then went into the house and questioned my husband. He came out to the police car and said that he saw a scratch on my fiance and wanted to know what I did to him. I had no idea what he was talking about. He told me that if I didn’t tell him that I scratched my fiance that he was going to arrest the both of us and that Child Protective Services would come to take my children from me.  And so, this is Domestic Violence as defined under the Family Violence Act that is present in most states.

Now keep in mind that I am 4 feet 11 inches tall and 34 years old at the time. The officer was at least 5 feet 10 inches tall and in great shape and no older than 25. I had never been in trouble a day in my life. I was a Licensed Practical Nurse. I had served as a tutor and mentor to students in the college that I attended and had served as CFO for a major company in the town. And in one fail swoop of “justice”, I lost it all.

I spent 6 weeks in jail, lost physical custody of my youngest daughter, and with the help and guidance of a public defender was coerced into taking plea, even though my fiance had written letters to the District Attorney stating that nothing violent had happened and the public defender said that I did not have a case against the officer because it was an officer of the law’s word against mine and that if I did not take the plea that i would serve more jail time. I was also told that it would not affect my ability to get a job or affect my nursing license. HAHAHAHA. Was I a fool, because I lost it all!

Now, I am trying to put everything back together. I am going to take the things that I have learned about the system and use it to help those who are going through something similar and to educate those who have no clue what it is like to become a part of the criminal justice system.

I encourage my readers to comment about their experiences and share information that may be helpful to those shoe have been convicted of a felony. I want to uplift and educate. I am going to find and provide as many tips on how to obtain employment after a felony conviction, how to get back your self-esteem, and tell you what my struggles have been and where I am currently.

We need to band together and help each other. We need to petition our leaders about the corruption that is present in justice system and the trials and tribulations of trying to rehabilitate after a felony conviction with or without incarceration. We need to bring to light the abuses of prisoners, probationer, and paroles by those who have sworn to uphold the law.

Join me in my recovery and fight with the Injustice System!