I wanted to post about a couple of things that have been on my mind. They don’t really relate to each other so I’ll have them separated.
1: My abuser owns a business
I now live back in my hometown, an hour away from where I lived with my abusive ex. He co-owns a business where he works on peoples homes. In the relationship, he did travel to my hometown from time to time to do work. He lives in a bigger city and I live in a small town. With the criminal charges, awaiting trial, he’s out on bond with the no contact order. You’d think he’d send his partner down this way to do the work. It’s not that often, maybe once a month or so, that they get jobs here. His partner is actually 30 minutes closer to my location. I have a new place and he doesn’t know the address to it but I noticed a home he had worked on via their business FB page, and it was only 7 minutes away from where I stay. It is a small town but it still just felt eerily too close. With that, I see the positive reviews online for their business and people commenting how great of a guy he is, hard working, etc. My main reaction is anger. I know these people don’t know what’s going on with court and his charges, but still, I know it feeds into his “I’m the good guy” ego. His partner has been called as a character witness in previous hearings by his defense, I even made it aware to his partner when I left the relationship. He laughed it off. My main hope is that God sees them and their business falls off accordingly. It’s small, just the two of them and I think they recently hired a couple of helpers. They’re both ‘veterans’ and their business values are ‘helping the community’ and really push the military backgrounds.
- Lowkey harassment that I know the courts won’t do anything about.
I’ve already reported to the district attorney that he has posted pictures of him online with alcoholic beverages, his new girlfriend bought him a GUN (they live together), and he did talk to me off a fake account, Reddit of all places. I have proof of all three. The DA says it’s still too difficult to get the judge to take it seriously. He words it in a way as it is a waste of time to pursue. After court last week; I specifically picked a parking spot not near his vehicle. That day, I actually did not see his vehicle anywhere. After court, me and my family left. I was in my new partners car which I don’t think he’d recognize, my mom was in her usual car which he definitely knows. The spot in front of her was empty when we went inside. We chatted at the cars for a second before splitting up and getting in each car. As my mom got in her car, she looked up and saw he was recording her, standing outside the driver door. Turns out, he parked right in front of her in what we assume must be a rental car. The tags aren’t local. His girlfriend also started recording. My sister in turn, pulled her phone out too. When they pulled out, they called me to warn me that was him in the vehicle and he ended up beside me at the red light. As we traveled down the highway, he kept slowing down in the opposite lane so I also slowed down to make sure I did not pass him or get beside him. He slowed down so much (in the fast lane) that other cars were switching lanes to pass him. He was intentionally trying to get us next to them. They finally got in a turning lane to turn and his girlfriend had her phone in the window recording when we passed. I feel like this is an obvious attempt to harass but what am I going to do about it. My sister at least has the recording in case they try to flip the script in future court hearings.
Anyways. That’s all. I just needed a little vent. Ive been waiting for an end to this for over a year now. I’m ready for him to receive his guilty verdict and go on somewhere. I think I would finally be able to let go of the frustration and anger that court forces me to relive. I’ll have to wait another several months for that.
If you read it all, thank you. I’d love some opinions or whatever else in the comments.