Story of Justice: CCLA Enforces Wendy’s Victim’s Rights

Wendy was a victim of domestic violence by her husband, and father of her children, for a very long time. Eventually, she finally had enough and filed an Injunction for Protection (restraining order) against him. He completely disregarded the Injunction and continued to harass her by approaching her in places such as her work. Wendy would always call the police as soon after as she was able, but he would always disappear before the police got there. She managed to capture one of the encounters on camera when he came to work place. A warrant was issued for his arrest.

With the police report and criminal case filed, much of Wendy’s personal identifying information was available online. Enforcing her rights as a victim, we were able to have her confidential, identifying information redacted.

Her abuser remained on the run with a warrant for this case, and for an additional case, when he actually climbed up her balcony and entered her home through the sliding glass door on the second floor. She also captured this on home security and he was prosecuted for this as well. We monitored the cases for his capture daily.

Eventually, the Defendant was captured and arrested. We advocated for Wendy’s wishes. We appeared in court on Wendy’s behalf. She couldn’t take all the days off of work, so we kept her informed of what was happening with the cases and letting the Court and prosecutors know what Wendy’s wanted to happen. With Wendy’s consent and input from Wendy and her CCLA attorney, a plea was reached. The Defendant pled to one count of Burglary Dwelling Occupied and a misdemeanor violation of Injunction (domestic violence). The Defendant was sentenced to an adjudication withheld, 5 years of probation on the burglary charge, 12 months of probation on the violation of the injunction charge 29 weeks of Batterer’s Intervention Program, a psychiatric evaluation and follow up treatment, no return to her house and no victim contact except for the care and custody of the minor children via the Talking Parents app. He completed almost a full year of probation has not violated since. This sentence is to run concurrent with his misdemeanor case sentence. Wendy was relieved that there were consequences for the Defendant’s actions. He always said no one would believe her, nothing would happen, but these cases made it very clear that we believed her, the police believed her, and the prosecutors believed her.

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