Unforgivable: The jailing of an abuse victim
Last year in my home state of Florida, Judge Jerri Collins put an abuse victim in jail.
After failing to appear in court to face the man accused of choking her, threatening her with a knife, sticking her head in a microwave oven, and gauging at her eyes with his fingers, the woman told Judge Collins that her severe anxiety prevented her from making the scheduled court appearance.
“You think you’re going to have anxiety now?” Collins told the woman. “You haven’t even seen anxiety.”
Ignoring her tearful pleas for mercy, Judge Collins sentenced the woman — the mother of a 1-year-old child — to three days in jail for contempt of court. What worse, the abuse survivor had NO ATTORNEY PRESENT to help her plead her case. In addition, her testimony was not required to prosecute her abuser — who ended getting a whopping sentence of 16 days in jail.
Now the state Judicial Qualifications Commission — saying that she broke no laws but convinced that she violated the code of conduct that requires judges to be “dignified, patient and courteous” (Nah, ya think?) — has sanctioned the judge, also ordering her to take anger management and domestic violence classes, and to accept a public reprimand. The judge has expressed remorse in court papers.
Judge Collins, just as you ignored that woman’s pain and tears, I now am choosing to ignore your supposed remorse. As far as I know you have not begged this woman’s forgiveness, as she begged repeatedly for her freedom that day in your courtroom. So your remorse is meaningless to me. And no anger management tactic will temper my language as I tell you exactly what I think of you, and in no uncertain terms.
First, though, here are some easily accessed facts that you as a judge should already know.
Anxiety and PTSD are a way of life for abuse survivors, reports Psychology Today.
“And often, it’s the emotional component of domestic violence that leads to a chronic state of PTSD.” reports PT. “Being abused by someone who should be trustworthy and nurturing leads many women to feel abandoned, betrayed, even crazy. Depression is by far the most common symptom of domestic violence, and it’s also one of the chronic effects of PTSD caused by abuse. The feeling of helplessness and hopelessness that many victims fall prey to has a profoundly undermining effect on their mental and emotional wellbeing….Even those of who have managed to move on from crippling abusive relationships can suffer the aftershocks of abuse — on other words, PTSD — for many years. PTSD from abuse is characterized by symptoms such as flashbacks, intrusive imagery, nightmares, anxiety, emotional numbing, insomnia, hyper-vigilance, and avoidance of traumatic triggers. (I added the emphasis here).”
So you see Judge Collins, the woman that you dealt with that day in court was already trapped in an emotional prison. Shame on you for exacerbating her pain, for making things even worse for this woman and her family by condemning her to a brick-and-mortar version of the living hell she already suffered.
The things that you are likely to learn in your precious classes you should already know — as a woman, as a human being, and especially as a judge. The individual I saw in that videotape seemed reluctant to listen or to learn anything — so really, the only alternative I see is to recall you from the bench.
Florida judges, of course, can be voted out of their positions — if, that is, someone chooses to run against them come election time. Otherwise they may be removed in one of two ways:
• On the recommendation of the Judicial Qualifications Commission, the Supreme Court may discipline, retire, or remove a judge. (Already tried that one)
• Judges may be impeached by a two-thirds vote of the House of Representatives and convicted by a two-thirds vote of the Senate. (Ah!)
To make your opinion known about this issue and to encourage the removal of Judge Jerri Collins from the bench, here are some links and addresses that may be helpful:
Capitol Office
214 House Office Building
402 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399–1300
Phone: (850) 717–5028
Contact information for Rep. Jason T. Brodeur, state representative overseeing Seminole County, where this travesty took place:
A petition to Florida Gov. Rick Scott to remove the judge from her post:
I just have to add a note here; this petition currently has fewer signatures than another Change.Org petition designed to ‘uncancel’ an HBO show. I know that my readers and followers can turn this around, so please be sure to share the petition on social media after you sign.
As the great Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t over til it’s over.” And as far as I’m concerned, this one is far from over. And here’s why; in perusing Twitter responses to this issue, I read a Tweet composed by an abuse survivor who defended her decision not to press charges against her attacker. Her reasoning?
“I might have been put in jail.”
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