VOICES of Acadiana

(This piece is a continuation of part 1 of my story originally uploaded to the VOICES of Acadiana blog site on September 1, 2019.) I wish that I could say that leaving was easy.        It was not. I wish that I could say that staying away was without turmoil.      It was not. I quickly learned a well-known fact in the world of domestic violence: the most dangerous time for an abused woman is when she leaves the relationship . During the first two years after leaving, ·        He stalked me   ·        He threatened me ·        He damaged property ·        He controlled me through the children ·        He harassed me by telephone and text    ·        He forced his way into my home ·        He threatened suicide    ·        He threatened homicide ·        He pretended to call a hit man named “Ike” to ‘take care’ of me and my attorney During that time, I told the people in my inner circle that if anything happened to me, HE did it. In O

Our Story Part 2 Roxanne: 1/8/18: My supervisor called me saying that she needed to speak with me. Apparently, my ex had called the school board stating that I was having an affair during work hours. He was going to bring phone records to prove this. What he didn’t know was that I had taken time off from work to put my plan into motion so all the phone calls were not during work time but during time documented as off time. 1/9/18: A domestic violence detective accompanied me to the school board and explained the situation to them. They fully understood and warrants were issued for defamation of character. 1/10/18: He turned himself in. 1/18/18: Bond set at $20,000 for defamation charge. No bond set for breaking protective order:-). 3/23/18: Released from jail with an ankle monitoring device. Chelsea: 4/7/18: My dad was never one to go places, especially not festivals. Yet, he was seen at the Boudin Festival. He had an ankle monitoring device. How was he allowed to go to the fest