Number of protective orders doubled in Rowan County over past decade

Some really good advice here; get a safety plan together before leaving a domestic violence situation and filing for a protective order.  Let’s face it, an abuser receiving this information is going to get pissed, and that’s bad news for a domestic violence victim.  A protective order does not stop a bullet, does not stop a stabbing, does not stop an abuser from stalking/harassing a victim, or wheedling their way through being able to do whatever they can without getting locked up.  This is where it is very important that the Victim plays a huge roll in their own protection.  Only the victim knows the abuser well enough to know what steps need to be taken to stay safe, and talking it through with a domestic violence advocate just could save their lives.

I do have to say one thing about it being said that victims don’t go to court because they don’t want to air out what’s going on in front of the judge and an audience of people.  This may be true to some extent, yet I feel that more so Victims have been so demoralized that they aren’t sure they’ll be listened too, or start thinking that what’s going on just isn’t bad enough to say to a judge or go through a court hearing.  That and the fear of all of this goes with this, and this is why it’s so important for Domestic Violence Advocates to work with the victims and help them through the court process.  This is a very scary and traumatizing time for a victim, although it is widely looked at as something simple or easy to do.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

By Nathan Hardin

nhardin@salisburypost.com

Nearly 600 Rowan County women filed for domestic violence protections orders in 2011, telling judges they feared for their lives and the lives of their children.

The number of protective orders doubled over the last 10 years, according to the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office.

So did the number of reported female assaults.

Trina Baldwin, court advocate for the Family Crisis Council of Rowan County, said filing 50-Bs “depends on the situation.”

“Just as leaving an abuser can escalate the danger for a victim, so can filing a protective order,” Baldwin said. “If a person is not sure what is the best method of seeking help, then they should contact a domestic violence agency for advocacy, counseling and support.”

Domestic violence victims can fill out 50-B forms for free at the courthouse. Unlike some other counties in the state, protective orders cannot be filed at the Magistrate’s Office and have to be submitted during the week in the civil clerk of court’s office.

Baldwin said victims looking to file protective orders should create safety plans first because leaving domestic violence situations is dangerous.

Kesha Bennette, a domestic violence clerk at the Rowan County courthouse, said photos, text or Facebook messages or recordings can help victims obtain a 50-B.

“It’s just a burden of proof,” she said.

But Bennette said some victims don’t go through with restraining orders when they find out a court appearance is necessary.

“They actually have to come to court to get it,” Bennette said. “A lot of people don’t like having to air out what happened to the judge in front of an audience full of people,” Bennette said.

Victims can contact the Family Crisis Council of Rowan County for help filling out 50-B requests at the courthouse. Contact the 24-hour crisis line at 704-636-4718.

Original Article

3 dead in standoff at Deerfield Beach RV park; two others badly hurt

By Juan Ortega and Wayne K. Roustan, Sun Sentinel

3:15 p.m. EST, February 10, 2012

A Port Orange man's trip took a bizarre turn when he drove his family to a recreational vehicle in Deerfield Beach, killed someone unknown to him there and then stabbed himself, his wife and two sons, the Broward Sheriff's Office said Friday.

The incident led to an hours-long standoff with SWAT team members, and it ended with three people found dead: The alleged attacker, William De Jesus, 41, his 9-year-old son, Jeshiah De Jesus, and one of the RV's occupants, Ovila Plante, 76, a snowbird from La Tuque, Quebec, the Sheriff's Office said.

Meanwhile, De Jesus' wife, Deanna De Jesus, 37, and his 7-year-old son remained hospitalized in serious condition on Friday, officials said.

During part of the ordeal, Plante's girlfriend also was held captive inside her RV at Highland Woods, a community of recreational vehicles at 900 NE 48th St. Pierrette Beauchemin managed to escape, run to safety, and was unhurt.

"This was initially just a bizarre and senseless crime," sheriff's spokeswoman Dani Moschella said of how the standoff unfolded. "And over the course of the evening, it became more horrific."

About 6:20 pm Thursday, De Jesus drove his red Mustang into the RV park, accompanied by his wife and sons.

De Jesus approached the RV at Lot 61, occupied by Plante and Beauchemin, even though De Jesus and his family didn't know the couple, officials said. "We do know that they were strangers to them," Moschella said.

According to the Sheriff's Office:

De Jesus started yelling at Plante, and Plante pushed him away. De Jesus pulled out a revolver and shot Plante in the chest. Plante fell to the pavement outside his home, and De Jesus approached him and shot him again in the head.

De Jesus led his family into the RV, still occupied by Beauchemin.

Later, Beauchemin fled from the vehicle and ran to deputies outside. De Jesus spoke to law enforcement by telephone early during an hours-long standoff, but later stopped talking to them.

About 12:30 a.m., the SWAT team entered the RV and found De Jesus and Jeshiah dead. De Jesus' wife and other son were found seriously wounded.

"There was a sense of elation when everyone realized there might be survivors inside: SWAT team members rescued the woman and the 7- year-old," Moschella said.

According to the Sheriff's Office, detectives determined that De Jesus stabbed his sons with a knife from the RV's kitchen before stabbing his wife and himself.

A motive hasn't been identified, and it was unknown where the Port Orange family had been before showing up at the Deerfield Beach trailer park.

"It's just so tragic and horrific when you think about the loss of life for seemingly no reason," Moschella said. "These two little boys must have been so frightened. It must have been a nightmare for them."

jcortega@tribune.com or 954-356-4701.

Original Article

Wife who survived motor home killings was abused for years

By Carol Marbin Miller and Diana Moskovitz, The Miami Herald

7:05 p.m. EST, February 26, 2012

The abuse of Deanna Beauchamp dates back more than a decade. It reportedly involved fists, knives, sleeping pills and the threat of a BB gun.

The official record appears to begin on June 9, 2001, when Tampa police took an incident report in which Beauchamp said her husband, William DeJesus, raped her. He abused her, the report said, "physically, emotionally and sexually."

But Beauchamp stayed. The calls to police continued. And, DeJesus and Beauchamp kept custody of their two young sons, who child welfare workers feared were becoming victims themselves. Child-welfare records show one boy — who called DeJesus a "Monster" — accused his father of hurting him and touching his "pee pee." Accusations swirled that both parents regularly molested the two boys. The children went into foster care but were then returned.

DeJesus' last act of domestic violence was on Feb. 9. That's when he hijacked a Deerfield Beach travel trailer, shot dead a visiting Canadian inside the home, and held Broward Sheriff's deputies at bay for seven hours until he attacked his family with a knife blade, then killed himself, authorities say.

Beauchamp and the couple's 7-year-old son survived the rampage with knife wounds. The couple's 9-year-old, Jeshiah, who was disabled and never spoke, did not.

There had been warnings, flashes of rage and violence, along the way, although never enough for child-welfare investigators, who let the children remain with the warring couple, to take decisive actions.

On Friday — the same day a judge ordered that Beauchamp have no contact with her surviving son — the Department of Children & Families released about 200 pages of investigative documents to The Miami Herald under the state's public record law. Those records, along with more than 500 pages released last week, portray a tempestuous, nearly 13-year marriage punctuated by occasional calls for help. Beauchamp told authorities DeJesus had beaten, stabbed, and raped her. He had forced her to take sleeping pills and had seized all her ID cards so she couldn't leave him.

She never did.

Beauchamp's repeated refusal to leave her husband is unsurprising, said Lisa Wiseman, director of communications and public policy for the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

As is common in such cases, DeJesus convinced his wife, as well as authorities, that he would seek help and mend his ways.

"If you look at a batterer, part of what they are very good at is manipulating the situation. Their tactics are manipulative, so they make people believe that they are getting help, they are making progress. That's part of the dynamic," Wiseman said.

Beauchamp and DeJesus had been married for about two years when Tampa police arrived at their doorstep on Dec. 30, 2001. In a report, relatives staying at the home said DeJesus accused his wife of thinking about sleeping with someone else. He slapped her three times in the face and pushed her.

Beauchamp wouldn't call the police, one witness said, because DeJesus said he would kill her. A relative called police from a nearby pay phone.

When police interviewed her, Beauchamp denied the violence had occurred — the first of many denials and recantations. When asked why two purported "witnesses" would lie about it, she didn't have an answer.

Police charged DeJesus with one count of misdemeanor battery. But the charge was dropped, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records.

Three years later, on May 9, 2004, police in the Bronx took a report that DeJesus had slapped a son in the face, twice, during a fight with another relative. It is unclear whether the event involved family members from a prior marriage.

"Reporter also states that she is in fear for her children," the report said.

In 2007, after the couple had moved to Daytona Beach, police received the first report to draw the attention of child-welfare workers.

Beauchamp told police her husband had choked her after she suggested he had been drinking too much. When police arrived, a gun — later determined to be a BB gun — was on the couch.

Beauchamp later showed investigators two holes DeJesus reportedly had punched or stabbed in a wall and door. And she showed a DCF investigator scars on her body from previous violence.

In the coming days, Beauchamp wrote a two-page statement for the Daytona police. DeJesus, she said, wanted her to get a job.

But she was too afraid to leave the children with DeJesus.

"I am nervous right now…to work because I am considered a battered woman and feel he is not a fit father that I can trust with my kids," she wrote. "I have been abused for eight years and feel confused and lost. And do not know what to do. I feel my life threatened. He's threatened to kill me and my family.

"I really want to press charges on him because he's an alcoholic and a violent man that will kill me and my family," she added.

But days later, she changed her mind. "Called attorney to drop case," says a notation in a file. "Stated officer coached her … Not fair to her husband. Things are good now."

The DCF, acting on a call to the state's abuse hotline, asked a Volusia County judge to order DeJesus and Beauchamp to accept services from the state, such as parenting classes and domestic violence treatment. "The parents have a long history of domestic violence," a DCF report said.

The children were at risk, an investigator wrote, but also added: "The parents are perfectly capable of caring for the children."

"It will not happen again," the parents insisted.

As for DeJesus, he "seems to understand that if this occurs again the children will be removed from the home."

A Sept. 18, 2007, "safety plan" drafted by the DCF required Beauchamp to obtain a restraining order against her husband. Additionally, DeJesus was supposed to avoid domestic violence in front of the children and stop drinking alcohol.

But it didn't take long for the family to renege. In less than two months, Beauchamp abandoned the restraining order she had gotten.

The criminal case against DeJesus closed on Aug. 27, 2008. "No formal criminal charges will be filed at this time," wrote Assistant State Attorney Tiffany Stucker, who did not specify why.

Original Article

Domestic violence victims have a "pre-existing condition"

5:03 PM Eastern - September 11, 2009  By Maria Tchijov
Insurance companies have used the excuse of "pre-existing conditions" to deny coverage to countless Americans. From cancer patients to the elderly suffering from arthritis, these organizations have padded their profit margins by limiting coverage to patients deemed "high risk" because of their medical condition.
But, in DC and nine other states, including Arkansas, Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming, insurance companies have gone too far, claiming that "domestic violence victim" is also a pre-existing condition.
Words cannot describe the sheer inhumanity of this claim. It serves as yet further proof that our insurance system is broken, destroyed by the profit-mongering of the very companies who's sole purpose should be to provide Americans with access to care when they need it most. In 1994, an informal survey conducted by the Subcommittee on Crime and Criminal Justice of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee revealed that 8 of the 16 largest insurers in the country used domestic violence as a factor when decided whether to extend coverage and how much to charge if coverage was extended.
It is clear that insurance companies refuse to police themselves. It's up to us to call on Congress to take action now to pass health care reform and end discrimination against patients with pre-existing conditions.

SEIU - Service Employees International Union - Domestic violence victims have a "pre-existing condition"?

Violence, Abuse and Trauma Conference

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14th International Conference on Violence, Abuse and Trauma

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