Statements from Protective Orders
The following statements are from affidavits attached to protective orders granted in 2007. The orders were filed in Frederick County circuit and district courts.
"She has spit on me many times, scratched my face once and pulled a kitchen knife on me twice," the document states. "Many many many verbal threats from her and her family and friends."
"I have also been told by his family members," the document states, "that he has told co-workers if I leave and take the kids he will kill me."
"(He) came to my house wanting the baby and I wouldn't answer the door," the document states. "He was trying to beat the door down so I wouldn't answer the door. We began to argue through a window. He tried to push me and I put the window down and he pushed the window instead and I ended up with seven stitches in my right knee."
One report states that a husband has been abused by his wife. He claims he was punched, slapped, kicked, shoved, hit with an object and verbally abused.
"The dates vary because these acts happened often."
One woman filed a restraining order against her husband after he admitted to raping and sexually abusing their 7-year-old daughter. She asked for protection for her and their two children.
He was served while at the Frederick County Adult Detention Center and was moved to the Roxbury Correctional Institution in Hagerstown.
While seeking help for depression at the institution, the man wrote a letter to Circuit Court clerk Sandra Dalton asking her to relay a message to his wife.
"Please inform her that I love her very much and hold nothing against her," the letter states. "I should have checked in somewhere before all this happened. But I didn't know where to go. Please lift restraining order."
"The (child's mother) has been in and out of drug treatment programs and is increasingly erratic, abusive, violent, and emotionally abusive toward minor children," the document states.
"There are times (the child's mother) would threaten in front of me and (a friend) that she would hurt (their daughter)," the document states. "Something needs to be done about this situation."
"(Daughter) is being mentally abused, constantly hearing profanity and screaming not only from (child's mother) but from her boyfriend," the document states. "(Daughter's) welfare and safety is my only concern."
"We had an argument regarding my truck that was registered in his name and he punched and slapped me," the document states.
A woman in the process of divorcing her husband filed a restraining order against her husband. She asked for protection for her and their six children.
"All the kids are scared," the document states.
She also said that her daughter told her that her dad has put food in her vagina and has touched her breasts and butt.
A woman filed a restraining order against her former spouse on behalf of their 12-year-old child. She claimed the child's father called him the N-word, psycho, mental, fat and retard. She also said that the father head-butted the child, slammed his head against a wall, slapped and shoved him.
"(The child) is on medication for depression and has very low self-esteem."
"Beginning April 2007, (my wife) started leaving the house in the evening and return around 6 a.m.," the document states. "(My wife) would return drunk or high on drugs."
The husband claimed his wife slapped, shoved, punched, and hit their child with object. He also claims she is causing the child mental injury and providing improper care and supervision of their child.
"Sometimes (my wife) takes the child to a known drug dealer's house to purchase drugs," the document states. "(My wife's) drug use has escalated to regular use and she is unable to care for our child."
"I was standing at (the) kitchen counter and he walked over (and) elbowed me in the left side to move me out of the way," the document states. "Later that same evening, I was standing at the back door when (he) walked in and tramped on my bare right foot. When I screamed, he started laughing."
A woman told the court that her husband had threatened her several times with kitchen and pocket knives.
"I want him to stay away from me and my place of work," the document states. "I fear for my safety and others around. This happens each time he drinks alcohol, he becomes unreasonable and enraged."
A married couple had been arguing for the past two months because of the husband's drug use, the document states. She tried to help him get off drugs but her efforts did not work. She finally had enough and told him she would not help him anymore.
"He said he was not going anywhere so I picked up the phone to call 911," the document states. "He twisted my wrist (so) I could drop the phone. He threw the phone down and said you are not calling anybody until you give me my medicine referring to his Valium which he is not supposed to take."
One woman said the man she had been living with for a while threatened to kill her several times. After she asked him to leave their home, he called her cell phone 64 times in one day but left no message. Seven days later, he called it 118 times without leaving a message.
A woman locked herself in the bathroom after her husband became verbally abusive.
"He broke (down the door) and came at me and started choking me. He was drunk," the document states. "I reached up and grabbed his necklace which broke and he released my neck.
"He then pulled my hair and jerked my head to look at him," the document states. "He then started ripping off my pajamas leaving bruises across my back from the fabric."
One woman said she had been married to her husband for 25 years but the abuse started about seven years ago.
"I had him arrested," the document states, "but when I went to court I dropped the charges hoping he (would) change but it did not stop."
A separated couple had an altercation when they exchanged custody of their son. The husband accused his wife of having another man in the house.
"At which point he stated he will find out his name and where he lives and kill him," the document states. "His immediate response after was that he would kill me too. He then got in the face of our son and told him that his mother is a slut."
The woman claims that her husband had been abusing her for several years including threats on her life.
In one incident, she claims in the court documents that he got into her face and said "he could take care of this situation quick, made his hand into a gun and said 'Boom.'"
"I fear that now since I have asked him to leave the house," the document states, "he would become violent."
"He said if I ever leave him, he'll kill me and put me in the 'bone pile'," the document states. "This was said often during sex. He calls me a whore, (a racially derogatory word) and a whore."
"My son has thoughts of suicide from mental abuse," the document states. "My daughter is petrified of him. He grabbed (one daughter) by the neck and screamed in her face. (He) squeezed (another daughter) until she screamed in pain, pinned (daughter) down and screamed in her face and raised his fist. ...(He) constantly threatens to kill me."
A five-month pregnant woman took out a protective order against the father of her child. One night he grabbed her face and twisted her neck.
"He wouldn't let go," the document states. "I started crying. He said he was going to snap my neck. He let go then laid on top of me, grabbed my head and yelled look at me and said if you leave me I will kill you."
A woman got a protective order after her husband slapped and hit her one night. She and her son left because she feared for her their safety.
However, later she decided to rescind the order.
"I may have overreacted," the document states. "I realize now that counseling is in order for both."
"He showed me his gun and told me he was going to kill me if I don't do things the way he wants," the document states. "He wanted to take the baby away from me and when he gets mad he hits me. I have bruises."
"He always hit(s) me when drunk or too much stress of the bills he had to pay that were consequences of him not working everyday," the document states.
Around midnight, a woman went to her former spouse's home to collect their child. He did not want to let her in because it was late and raining outside.
"She pushed her way towards me, threw a lighted candle down on a carpeted floor, threw my belongings down the steps and finally hit me with her cell phone," the document states.
"He is an alcoholic and had been drinking when I got home," the document states. "He became argumentative and verbally abusive."
After more drinking and arguing, there was a fight.
"He and my son got into an argument after he ran through the house with a power drill threatening to remove all the locks and threatening to burn the house down," the document states.
A woman told the court that the man she lives and shares a child with has slapped her in the head and tried to push her out of his moving car while they were driving down I-270.
Whenever he was drinking or got high, he would become verbally abusive. He would also try to keep her from her friends and family.
"(I) feel like a prisoner," the document states.
"I locked myself in the bathroom to get away from him and he punched (the door) telling me to open it or he will hurt my dog if I did not open it," the document states.
"My wife has shoved me against doors, hit my hands, threatened me with a big pair of scissors and stalked me through my house and into my bedroom," the document states. "My wife wants me to hit her so she can get me removed from my home."
"...I have told her I am not leaving my house," the document states. "She has told me that she will make me leave."
"My husband took my three sons to church," the document states. "I learned this afternoon that he has sexually molested (my 15-year-old son) who is partially autistic and mentally challenged.
"My son disclosed to CPS (Child Protective Services) that his father came up behind him and inserted his hand into my son's pants and played with his penis," the document states.
The son told CPS that this incident was not the first time.
When one woman filed for a protective order, her husband, whom she was in the process of divorcing, was in a psychiatric ward in Baltimore.
She described her husband as an alcoholic whom she tried to help for several years. He had recently spent time living on the streets and threatened his wife that he would come back to their home and "you know what will happen," the document states.
"I am afraid he is delusional, homicidal, suicidal and have been told many times by police officers they think he is a classic murder-suicide waiting to happen," the document states.
A woman filed for a protective order against her husband because she claims he was abusive toward their 14-year-old daughter.
Court documents claim the father grabbed, shook, and shoved his daughter. He also pulled her hair and slammed her against a wall.
"His behavior," the document states, "has become increasingly violent."
"He tells me that I am worthless, I need to earn my keep since I am unable to work anymore," the document states. "I never know how much money is in his account or (what) he has. He no longer wants the marriage so he said if he made me miserable enough that I would go.
The woman later stated that she is terminally ill and her husband has said he did not feel that he should have to care for her.
"(Husband) beat me repeatedly while driving from Frederick," the document states. "He tried to push me out of the car while speeding."
"In the past few months while I was pregnant, he would knock over my dresser and make me clean it up or he would threaten me if I didn't do it," the document states.
"Every day when we are around each other, (my ex-boyfriend) calls me names in front of our son," the document states. "Bitch, slut, stupid, whore.
"Every day he doesn't let me go to sleep until I (admit) that I was (intimate with) someone else," the document states. "He told me last night if our son is not his, I will be in a body bag."
"Since we separated in November of 2006, my husband has been stalking me and harassing me and threatening me," the document states. "He also tells me that he is going to leave the country with my daughter."
"My husband has been following me to work every day and calls me to let me know he is watching me," the document states.
"He took my keys, cell phone, both my house phones so I could not call police," the document states. "He would not let me leave my house. He kept my children and I up all night while he was going through my house trying to find evidence of another man being there so he could kill me. ... I'm scared for my children's and my safety."
A woman filed a protective order on behalf of her 13-year-old daughter against the child's father. The mother claims in court documents that the daughter has been slapped, detained against her will and had objects thrown at her by her father.
"During the whole time in Maryland with her father, he has been telling her that she gets what she deserves each time he has hit her," the document states.
A woman's ex-boyfriend called her "to say he was going to go to jail cause he was going to kill me and my friend," the document states. "He said he was going to be at my home and kill me when I showed up as well as kill whoever is with me."
A woman's husband "threatened to follow wherever I moved," the document states. "(He) found out where I was moving and stated that he will be moving there also. (My husband) is creating a hostile environment for my children."
"I am scared he will try to harm me if I go to the house to remove my belongings," the document states.
A woman filed a protective order against her ex-boyfriend. She claims he shoved her a few times during an argument.
"He shoved me the last time and I fell and hit the ground with my head on the cement road," the documents states. "He then made me get in the car. I said I want to go home I'm scared. He pulled the emergency brake on the highway and made us skid into the middle of the road."
A woman's boyfriend shoved her into a wall and kneed her thigh repeatedly.
"He then shoved me on the floor," the document states. "He threw a tea cup and hit me in the back of the head. I told him 'Stop that hurts.' He said, 'I'll show you pain.' He picked me up and shoved me into a wall again. He told me to leave and then told me I couldn't leave and grabbed me and punched me in the arm."
"I tried to leave and he shoved me down the stairs. I got up and started walking away. He told me I'd better run. He caught up with me and tried to stop me. I shouted for help," the document states. "Eventually, he let me go and I ran away. As I was running away, he told me he would smash the front windshield of my car."
A woman filed a protective order against her fiance.
Bill Sears 5/14/08 "He came home cussing... He said he'd choke me to death," the document states. He told her, "I hope you're dead by the time I get back home...He's taking pills and when he takes pills he acts like a raving maniac...He smashed a coke can in front of my face and he said I wish it was you."
Gail Pumphrey, roughly six months before her husband David Brockdorff killed Pumphrey and their children in a Montgomery County park:
"We met at the Citgo Gas Station in order to exchange the children and David Brockdorff walked up to my care as the children were getting in the car and spit in my face.
Prior to this incident he had called my cell phone and called me a low life from the hood and a street whore over the telephone. We have been separated since August 26, 2005. I left with the children and got a protective order against him. He has been unfaithful throughout our marriage and uses drugs and I do not want his bodily fluids on me."
On Friday, Feb. 16 ... "He came at me saying 'You just aren't cooperating are you?' and hit me across the head. I turned to run and he punched me in the back of the head and I fell to the floor and blacked out and came to on Wed(nesday) 2/21."
"He came to Frederick Thursday night with he intent to kidnap my kids. He threatened that he will take them as a result of him killing me. I literally had to take my kids and run out of the house and go to a friend's house. He showed me his gun while he threatened me."
"My husband physically pushes me regularly, when he gets angry. 2 mo. ago he wanted to have sex, I said no. He grabbed me from behind. I was wearing my nightgown, he ripped my underwear off and had sex with me. I could not stop him. He has always threatened me and raises his hands."
A woman filed a protective order against her ex-boyfriend who she claimed was stalking her, but later had it rescinded because she had to move back in with him. She was no longer fearful because "he has received counseling," which she said helped control his temper.
She claimed he once rammed her car off the road with his car.
"When I have stayed at my friends he has looked in my windows, parked across the road waiting to follow me. When I am away he constantly calls my phone," the document states. "He has poured gasoline on the firewood at a house I visit (stay at now)."
"He has forcibly (wrestled) me to the ground. He has kicked me and punched me. When I would go away he would bring my belongings and throw them in the middle of the road including my dog. He has threatened to break all the windows in the house I am staying at now. He said he would burn it down. He continually follows and watches me," the document states. "I just want peace."
A woman filed a protective order against her husband while they were in the middle of getting a divorce. She claimed he would come home drunk and violent.
"He said he would kill me and then himself. He pounded my head with his fist over and over, bit me on my arm, mouth and head," the document states. "He raped me the morning before and acted like nothing happened. He pulled the hair out of my head. I said I would get us some lemonade (to make him stop) he said OK and I ran to my neighbors house and they called the cops."
A woman filed a protective order against her ex-husband.
"He went to the bar after work, returned about 9:30 p.m.," the document states. "I ask for him not to speak to me as I could see he was drunk. I went to walk in the kitchen he got up and came toward me with his fist drawn and said, '(I'm) going to punch you in the face.' I went into the kitchen to call the police and he said go ahead call he police. He said, 'He was going to kill my father if I have him come to the house.' He has threatened to kill me and the children in the past," the document states. "He was saying he was going to punch me and leave me in a pool of blood. He took the car keys so I could not leave. He ripped up my Bible, cut the computer cord, broke a picture frame."
A woman filed for a protective order against her husband.
"He has threatened to kill himself. Has threatened to kill me if I ever left him. (Our daughters) told me ... their daddy made them watch pornographic movies all the time when I was at work at that he asked both of them if they wanted to do with him what was in the movies."
A man filed a protective order against his ex-wife.
"(She) came over to me and physically assaulted me again while I was holding my son in my arms and she kicked me in my lower right leg for a second time. ... This is not the first time this has happened. ... She is a violent and very abusive person and I fear for both myself and our 3-year-old son."
A woman filed a protective order against her son's father.
"I kinda let things go in the past years. Thinking he would go away. He never does."
A woman filed a protective order against her husband.
"I'm tired of being insulted every day that 'I'm worth nothing, there is nothing I can do, I'm a slut, a bitch with a big mouth.'
I always ignore him because I love him, but today there is more than me. I have to think of my children. I suffered to have them. I don't want to raise them in fear, violence's. They don't deserve that."
A woman filed for a protective order against the father of her son.
"I feel as though me and my son are not safe because he has a violent history and he said that my son was going to lose both parents."
"We were in the basement of our house and I wanted a print out of our joint bank account," the document states. "We just refinanced our house and there was a lot of money there.
"(He) didn't want me to see it so he threw me back away from the computer and on to the floor," the document states. "I got up and he pushed me down again, hitting me in the chest and trying to pop my implant.
"I got up and he had me in a choke hold up against the wall, not letting me get past him," the document states. "I kept getting up and he kept knocking me down over and over again."
A woman applied for a protective order after the man she had recently broken off a relationship with broke into their home to get custody documents he had signed.
"He then threatened me that I would regret it if I didn't do as he said," the document states. "He said that I was his wife and that there was no more discussion."
"(He) has been verbally abusive for months," the document states. "I told him I no longer wanted to see him because of this. He then punched a hole in the wall of our apartment and told me to get out or he would kill me."
After claiming in court documents that she had been slapped, shoved, pushed, dragged, punched and even drugged by the man she had been living with, she decided to apply for a protective order.
"He gets a thrill from taunting me as well," the document states.
"(He) got mad," the document states. "First he started to shove me. I was holding (the) baby. Once I placed (the) baby in bed he started hitting me in the face and back."
"My husband reached over my daughter and slapped me in the head," the document states. "I told him not to hit me and he told me to shut my mouth before he hit me there again."
When the wife tried to separate from the husband, he tried to commit suicide.
"He is currently in the psych ward at the hospital and I am scared that he will hurt me or himself when they release him."
"(My husband) was trying to take my purse off me and grabbed my arm and shoved me down on the floor," the document states. "I have bruises on my arm from the assault. They happened in the presence of my three and a half year old daughter. She was upset, crying and traumatized by the occurrence."
"He has also been sending (me) threatening text messages stating 'If (she) die(s), he would be happy,'" the document states.
"He says he want to have (their 15-year-old daughter) sewed up to be a virgin again or he will kill," the document states. "He is going to kill me because I didn't stop her from getting pregnant.
"In the (past), he has punched and abused me badly."
"(He) drove by my house and then screamed out the window, 'I'm going to kill all of you'."
"At 3 a.m., I received a call from (my ex-boyfriend) on my cell phone," the document states. "He told me he had been at my sister's grave for three hours and he was going to shoot himself if I didn't tell him where I was."
"I was in bed with (my wife)," the document states. "I had my hands under my head and pillow. She got on top of me, grabbed my neck with her hands and began to choke, shake and hit my head against the headboard and wall. She was yelling and calling me (an explicative)."
A woman filed a protective order against her husband of 18 years last year. She told the court that the past eight years of their marriage have not been going well.
"He has been drinking more which causes him to become violent and jealous over everything I do including work," the document states. "He threatens me and is constantly screaming and yelling at me in front of the kids."
"(My husband) continues to harass me by calling me at work, making threats he will kill himself and me," the document states.
Citing sexual abuse, a woman filed a protective order against her husband. She told the court she is under a doctor's care for narcolepsy and takes a prescription to sleep at night. The medication is taken in cycles and toward the end of the cycle, she sleeps lighter than normal.
"I recall feeling some discomfort in my sleep and attempting to wake up," the document states. "When I did finally wake up, my husband was on top of me performing anal sex. I screamed at him to stop, he wouldn't. I had to punch him to get him off of me."
The next night, she started a new cycle of pills which made her sleep soundly. Her daughter later told her that she heard her mother screaming "No" in the middle of the night. The daughter went to her parents' bedroom and found them involved in intercourse with her mother fighting it. The mother had no recollection of the encounter.
"(Stepfather) has beat (10-year-old stepdaughter) with a belt, has thrown her against a wall and grabbed her jaw and forced her to swallow pills," the document states. "She is very frightened to return home. (The stepfather) has threatened to slit her throat."
A woman filed a protective order against the man she shares a child with because he had been threatening and shoving her.
Their child had witnessed so many physical attacks against her mother that whenever he approached her mother, even just to hug her, the daughter would cry and show fear for her mother's safety.
"He shoved me in the door way and threatened me with killing my son and then told me to get the (explicative) out of his house," the document states.
"(My boyfriend) and I got into a fight," the document states. "He got upset with me for rolling my eyes at him so he spit in my face. When I tried to walk away, he grabbed me and held me on the bed by my wrists so I couldn't move."
"He has told me he will kill me," the document states. "He said he will chop my body up and nobody will find me."
"I have had a lot of free time to think over the last few days and I feel if he is wanting to we can work this out without going this (protective order) route," the document states. "I still love him with all my heart and I was raised to work it out between husband and wife. In my wedding vows I chose to stay with him till death do us part and that is the way my belief is.
"I also feel I am being pushed into all this and this isn't what I want. I am just as guilty at calling him names and shoving him as he is me when we argue. I feel bad doing this without thinking it through."
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Barbara Martin, Heartly House CEO, is taking your questions. From 10 am to noon Friday, she will respond to your questions in real time. Submit your question/View Answers. |
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See the emotion and hear the voices of those affected by domestic violence. Four videos are available for your viewing. |
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Search 214 final protective orders granted in 2007. Plus, here's a video explaining how we gathered the information. |
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View an interactive timeline of the domestic violence cases that occurred in the area in 2007. |
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Read the bios of five key players mentioned throughout the series and about one group's drive to end domestic violence. |
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Are you in an abusive relationship? Are you an abuser? Click here to read the warning signs.
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Who to call, where to go if you're in an abusive relationship.
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Read statements from affidavits attached to protective orders granted in 2007.
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Myths and facts about Domestic Violence.
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Key terms you need to know.
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Domestic violence in songs and movies.
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Take a look back at the original stories as the domestic violence cases unfolded in 2007.
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