Domestic Violence Headlines for the Week of June 30

Belief, action, justice—for women, this week, they prove to still be in short supply.

Diddy Acquitted of Sex Trafficking, Found Guilty of Only Minor Charges After Ex Alleges 10-Year Cycle of Abuse and Rape

On Wednesday, a jury found rapper Sean “P. Diddy” Combs not guilty on two charges of sex trafficking and one count of racketeering conspiracy (organized crime off which individuals or groups profit), a decision which angered survivors, advocates and supporters of victims who have long argued that men in positions of power continue to get away with violence against women. 

The jury did find Combs guilty of two lesser charges of transportation for purposes of prostitution. The 55-year-old will face a maximum of 10 years in prison and was denied bail until sentencing. 

Combs’ seven-week trial began in May of this year after he was arrested last September on charges of sex trafficking. His arrest came after ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, filed a civil complaint alleging a 10-year cycle of ongoing domestic violence, rape and sex trafficking. Ventura, a singer, model and actress, who met Combs when she was only 19 and he was 37, says that when she tried to end the relationship with Combs in September 2018, he forced his way into her house and raped her. 

Sex trafficking and domestic violence too often overlap. What we may think of trafficking—buying and selling women for sex like they’re objects—is one form of the crime, but another facet of it is forcing one’s partner to have sex with other individuals under various guises. An abuser may coerce a partner to do it for financial gain or may coerce the partner into it through guilt and brainwashing, aka, “If you really loved me, you would.”

Last year, a video was released to the public of Combs assaulting Ventura in a hotel in 2016 as she tried to escape their room. Combs can be seen running down the hallway in only a towel after Ventura before violently grabbing, throwing and kicking her to the ground before she could get on an elevator. He then drags her back to their hotel room. 

Escaping an abusive partner is hardly ever as simple as walking out the door. Coercive control describes a type of abuse where every aspect of the survivor’s life is controlled by the abuser, keeping her trapped not only through physical violence, but also psychological, emotional, financial and sexual abuse. It’s the reason survivors like Ventura are essentially held hostage, afraid of what will happen if they leave. But until they can, many survivors try to minimize an abuser’s violence against them by essentially giving in to their demands, a heartbreaking cycle Ventura says she was trapped in. Combs would often demand Ventura participate in something he called “freak-offs,” drug-fueled orgies where he would force Ventura to have sex with male sex workers while he would watch and sometimes record, threatening to release the videos if she spoke out, a tactic of abuse called revenge porn. 

Ventura, who is now married with two children, testified against Combs while 8-months pregnant with her third child. 

“Whatever was going to make him not be angry at me and threatening me, I was willing to do. I just didn’t want to feel scared anymore. It was the one thing he made me feel like I was good at....I felt trapped,” Ventura testified, saying that Combs treated her like he was Ike Turner. 

Combs has a long had a history of sexual assault allegations stemming from other drug- and alcohol-fueled parties he’s thrown in the past. Last year, a Houston attorney announced he’d be filing civil lawsuits on behalf of 120 victims of Combs who claim they were sexually assaulted by the rapper at these parties. Twenty-five of them were minors at the time of the assaults, with the youngest victim only nine years old when he says he was abused. 

Dream Hampton is the executive producer of “Surviving R. Kelly,” the Lifetime docuseries that details decades of sexual abuse by fellow rapper, R. Kelly, who is serving a 30-year prison sentence after being convicted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges in 2021 and 2022. Like many others, she was disappointed by the outcome of Combs’ trial, releasing a statement that read, in part, “I just wonder what we’re going to learn from this. I wonder when it will end. I wonder when we’ll cease to look at women as disposable and as property. I wonder when these men will cease to tell themselves these stories. I mean, his defense — the closing arguments by his attorney were absurd, that this was like a Bonnie and Clyde love affair. No, it wasn’t. You’re talking about someone who endured a decade of abuse.”

Sources: CNN, AP News

New Georgia Bill Gives Hope to Survivors of Domestic Abuse Arrested for Self-Defense

Survivors of domestic violence are often criminalized for fighting back against abusive partners and face longer prison sentences for killing abusers than abusers do for killing victims. Advocates in Georgia are working to undo this absurdly unfair double standard with a new bill, known as Georgia’s Survivor Justice Act, or House Bill 582, which went into effect Tuesday. 

While other states like Illinois, California and New York have passed similar bills, Georgia’s is unique in that it is retroactive. The bill will allow the cases of currently incarcerated survivors to be reexamined, looking at the histories of domestic abuse that predated their alleged crimes. Oklahoma has a similar law that went into effect last September. 

Kim Dadou Brown spoke with DomesticShelters.org about what it was like to spend 17 years in prison for killing her abusive boyfriend. She was 25 years old and had endured four years of abuse from her boyfriend, Darnell Sanders. It was 1991, and the two were arguing in the front seat of Sanders' parked car. He struck her in the face before beginning to strangle her. The 250-pound man put his entire weight on top of Brown, letting her know, “This is it, bitch.” Brown felt herself beginning to pass out, but was able to reach a gun Sanders kept under his passenger seat. She shot him six times. She was charged with manslaughter and sentenced to 25 years, was denied early release five times before finally being released after 17 years. She lobbied for New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act, passed in 2019, giving judges the option of shorter sentences for domestic violence survivors. 

“Prison is not a place for survivors of abuse who have been through extreme trauma—they deserve rehabilitation and support,” she said. 

Source: WABE.org

Six-Year-Old Shot by Father Amidst Custody Battle

A tragic story out of Bethany, Okla., this past Sunday. Billy Feaster, 29, shot and killed his 6-year-old daughter, Elizibeth, before fatally shooting himself in the backyard of his home. Feaster was only given supervised visitation four to six hours a week after the child’s mother requested he not be alone with the children in December 2018. Court documents show that the mother alleges Feaster broke her phone so she could not call 911 when he became violent. She says she also witnessed her ex kicking their 3-year-old son. Feaster tried to file for an order of protection against the mother of the children in response to her receiving full physical custody of the children, but a judge denied it. 

Supervised visitation is a safety measure family court judges implement when a noncustodial parent has a history of child abuse, domestic violence or neglect, or when a judge believes children are traumatized from past abuse or exhibits fear of the noncustodial parent. While supervised visitation can sometimes be held in an approved supervision center, it can also sometimes be held in a private setting, such as an abuser’s home, with the stipulation that a trained supervisor be in attendance. However, sometimes that trained supervisor can be a friend or family member of the abuser, allowing for more incidents of inadequate supervision when the children are present. 

It’s not known under what circumstances this most recent murder took place or the stipulation of Feaster’s visitation. Regardless, too many children are killed amid custody disputes, oftentimes with one parent having a history of violence or abuse. It’s estimated that one child is killed every six days due to custody disputes or family court lapses, though one could more specifically assess the cause of death is not the custody dispute itself, but the abusive parent disputing the custody. 

Hera McLeod, a former CIA intelligence officer, talked to DomesticShelters.org last year about how a custody battle with her ex-partner over their young son, Prince, ended in his murder in 2015. Prince was only 15 months old when his father drowned him.

“Our society and our justice system are not built to protect victims or survivors, especially when it’s a woman or a child,” McLeod says. 

Jacqueline Franchetti is living an equally devastating nightmare. Her 2-year-old daughter Kyra was killed by her father in 2016, shot twice in the back. Franchetti was afraid of her ex-partner well before Kyra was born and did everything she could to keep him away from her. 

Despite reports of his abuse and Franchetti pleading with the court that she was terrified of the man, a parenting evaluator recommended joint custody. “He felt that a father should always play a role in a child’s life. Well, Kyra’s father did play a major role in her life. He murdered her,” Franchetti says.  

Unfortunately, family court doesn’t always consider the ongoing escalation of domestic violence amid a couple’s separation, and how abusers often weaponize child custody as a way to harm the protective parent, something called post-separation abuse. Any survivor heading into family court to fight for custody of their children should be well prepared for what’s to come. To learn more, read “A Guide to Child Custody Issues.”

Source: KOCO News 5