I married E. S. (FAU professor) in June 2000. I moved into my husband’s home. However I had a 2 bedroom condo as rental property, and a building that I operated as an interior design business and a warehouse, plus a 2 bedroom apartment in which I lived.
From the time of my marriage, my husband was after me to sell my rental property, sell my business and retire with him and resume my art career. So I sold the condo. My husband was supposed to invest the money in retirement funds but bought a fancy BMW convertible. A few months later he sold it and leased another, keeping the funds.
He also encouraged me to make him benficiary of my insurance and with his business knowledge, he would take care of my daughter, then 28 yrs. old.
Strange things began to happen. He would place papers on the stairway, concealed so when I came down the stairs I would slip and fall.
The first injury was due to sabotage. He REMOVED a nonskid rug I placed in a step down area leading to a tile floor. I came in with wet shoes and went down on my knee, leading to fractures, surgeries, pins, plates and 6 months’ loss of work. In the meantime, I sold my building and business, investing the equity with my father.
During my recovery one day my husband came up to me from behind and gave me a bear hug, squeezing so hard my ribs fractured.
I called my daughter in pain and asked her to pick me up. She removed me to my apartment and I stayed there for 4 months recovering again. My husband filed for divorce.
After a while, he came begging with flowers, apologies and words of love. We reunited. A few months later my husband’s actions were erratic again. He had a prior conviction of drug use (cocaine, marijuana, and heroin) which I was not aware of. Sleepless nights, red faced, raging tantrums and emotional abuse led me to look for an apartment to move to, and discussions of divorce.
One fatal day, I found an apartment, and called home to tell him I would be late and secured the apartment with plans of moving the next week. I walked into the marital home and was greeted with abuse and anger. I went to the kitchen to prepare something to eat, placed my burger on a low burner and went upstairs to change. After a few minutes my husband began to scream that I was burning the house down, I ran down the stairs and found a well done burger and a little smoke. He had turned the burner to high to cause a scene.
When I turned my back and walked to the fridge, trying to make light of the incident, he came up behind me, grabbing me in a bear hug and dragging me to the front door exclaiming “If you want to leave, you’re going to leave now”. His pit bull dog was going crazy jumping on us. I picked up my leg and braced it on a rail. He picked me up and body slammed me to the tile floor. I instantly felt that I was seriously injured and unable to move in great pain.
He screamed at me using profanity, slapped me, kicked me in the head and then grabbed my legs and dragged me 10 – 15 feet to the living room trying to force me to stand. I was screaming in pain. I realized then that crying would not get me help so I tried to control myself and kept passing out.
He let me lie there 2 1/2 hours. I watched him quietly go into the kitchen, open the silverware drawer, turn to me and rub his abdomen. Not knowing what he was up to, I watched in anticipation thinking he was going to kill me. He came up to me with a scrapbook and flipping the pages in my face, saying, “This is what happens to women who try to hurt me”. I saw photos of women and some newspaper clippings, but I was unable to read and in pain. Then he placed the knife on the kitchen counter, went to the phone and called police, telling them to send an ambulance because I had stabbed him.
The Boca police arrived, guns drawn towards my head, and asked me why I stabbed my husband and where was the knife. They accused me of pretending my injuries, saying it was an attention getting device. My husband refused treatment for his three side by side scratches, which I noticed look like a dog’s scratches, not the knife wounds he claimed. (The next day, my husband had the dog destroyed, saying it was mean.) I was arrested and taken to the hospital. My daughter was called, she called my attorney who advised me NOT to make a statement, and he would handle things.
The x-ray revealed a crushed hip from a high velocity injury, the leg was pulled out of the socket. The doctors thought I was in a car crash and asked if the jaws of life were needed to remove me. Two surgeries, 50 stitches and a 6 month recovery later, I am still in great pain, and will require another surgery soon.
My divorce was a disaster. Judge Colbath (clearly very friendly with my husband’s attorney) awarded all my earthly possessions to my husband, saying it was my fault that I was in great debt during my 1 year marriage. (He couldn’t count either—we were married 3 years.) He refused to hear of the domestic violence and wouldn’t allow it to be brought up. He called me deceitful because I denied a signature as my daughter’s—but it wasn’t hers! My husband had forged my daughter’s signature on a piece of paper, saying he returned all my possessions to her while she was out of town. My attorneys were not prepared, speechless and bought off by my ex’s status at FAU. So, without any viable defense, it was slam dunk, my case was dead.
I have been harrassed, sent dead roses, called and threatened. My business associates were called by my ex and told I stabbed him, just missing his kidney.
My business is ruined, my credit is gone, my possessions are gone, my body is permanently damaged, scarred and emotionally I’m devastated, angry and disgusted with this whole system.
I’m presently looking for anyone that knows my ex or the women he referred to that “hurt him.” What happened to them? Who’s next?