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Stories here are reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
Death of a Jewish American Princess
University of Arizona employee reports being stalked by ex-girlfriend.
Arizona father jailed because his wife stalked him to put him there
Marine in Kuwait indicted in grenade attack on lover's husband
Globe man ruined by violent illegal immigrant
Arizona attorney experiences domestic violence laws first hand
Fallon, Nevada, woman charged in Yuma murder of her husband 21-years ago
Wife shoots husband in back in Flagstaff, then flees to Mexico
In 1982 Phoenix restaurateur Steven Steinberg killed his wife by stabbing her 26 times but was acquitted. His legal defense portrayed the victim as an overpowering "Jewish American Princess," whose excesses provoked her violent end according to Shirley Frondoff in her book Death of a Jewish American Princess.
Of course the reverse side of the coin, the "battered woman syndrome" has now become a standard ploy in the defense of women who kill their male partners. But we have seen no other example where a battered man was acquitted because of his wife's battering.
October31,1994 — The victim told University of Arizona police Thursday that his ex-girlfriend has been harassing his current girlfriend and believes the suspect is following them around. The victim told UAPD the suspect has repeatedly blocked in his car with her truck on campus.
The victim said he is concerned because the suspect took a hunting rifle from her ex-husband when they divorced last year and threatened to kill her ex-husband. The victim said he plans to have a restraining order put on the suspect.
As we approached Christmas, 2000, and the new millennium, an Arizona man spent the holidays sitting in the Durango Jail in Phoenix, Arizona. He has been there since before Thanksgiving and will be there until January before he can get a hearing.
His current problems began when his ex-wife was granted an Order of Protection under false pretenses. She then found out where he shopped and got a job there. The minute he walked into the store to buy groceries, and she noticed him, the police were called to arrest him.
There is a joke going around that cell phones were invented for women with restraining orders against their ex's to report violations. You probably won't find that funny if you've been in this situation.
In Arizona they have a convenient law(?) called "Interference with Judicial Proceedings" as a catchall for violations of domestic abuse restraining orders that elevates the crime to include domestic violence. Though the charge carries a maximum penalty of 6 months in jail and a $2,500 fine, the Arizona Supreme Court, in all its Imperial Glory, has ruled that a man cannot demand a jury trial under this charge.
The stated reason the Arizona high courts are limiting jury trials for such petty(?) offenses is in the interest of judicial efficiency and expediency. One wonders if the framers of our Constitution were concerned about "efficiency and expediency" when they wrote that document and the Bill of Rights? Perhaps good King George had pulled a few of these same stunts on the American colonists and they wanted to put a stop to such practices?
As with Colorado, a trial to a judge by a man is just a long, slow way of pleading guilty. As a result, he was placed on probation for three years, fined, served some time in jail, and required to take the standard 36 domestic violence counselling sessions that are going to teach him how to manage his anger after he admits that he is a "batterer."
Not content with these punitive actions, during his probation his ex-wife then stalked him and threw herself on his car at church. As a result he has now been charged with violation of probation, vehicular assault, and child endangerment, because his son was in the car when he drove off to get away from his lunatic ex-wife. Though her behavior was clearly outrageous, and he was trying to escape, of course it is he who has been charged and given the holidays in jail.
Though women who abuse men tend to abuse their male children as well, while he sits in jail his son has been given back to the mother. We can only hope the boy had a calm Christmas. It couldn't have been a happy one, with his Dad in jail. Lets hope the little boy behaved, and was quiet, so Mom didn't get mad.
Reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
June 5, 2003, Phoenix (AP) - A federal indictment alleges a grenade attack that injured a Marine in Kuwait was carried out by a fellow Marine plotting with the man's wife and trying to disguise the crime as a terrorist act.
Chief Warrant Officer Larry A. Framness, 36, and Wendy Glass, 33, both of Yuma, are charged with murder conspiracy in the May 14 attack on Chief Warrant Officer James H. Glass.
Wendy Glass, who allegedly had an affair with Framness, was arrested Thursday in Yuma, and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in federal court in Phoenix.
Framness, an 18-year veteran, is being held at the Marine Corps station in Miramar, Calif., where his squadron is headquartered, said Gunnery Sgt. Matt Olivolo. Framness is to face military charges before appearing in federal court.
Framness detonated a grenade after luring James Glass, 37, into a guard shack, according to the indictment handed up Wednesday.]
Glass, a 20-year Marine veteran, suffered shrapnel wounds to his neck, back and legs. He has recovered and is back in Yuma with his unit, Marine Wing Support Squadron 371.
The Glasses and the Framnesses were neighbors who socialized together before the Framnesses divorced, the indictment said. The document alleges Framness and Wendy Glass began an affair in 2001 and wanted to collect life insurance benefits from James Glass' death.
The indictment alleges that Framness and Wendy Glass plotted to make James Glass appear as if he had driven his car off a cliff while inebriated during a weekend cabin trip in California last year. The plan wasn't carried out because James Glass wasn't "sufficiently intoxicated," records say.
Framness and James Glass were deployed to Kuwait in early 2003 and stationed at Camp Snake Pit at the Ali Al Salem Air Base. E-mail messages and phone conversations between the defendants indicated another murder plot, the indictment said.
In a phone conversation around April, Wendy Glass allegedly told Framness that she didn't want to know details of the killing but didn't want her husband to suffer.
2002 — I am 64 years old and disabled. My wife is Mexican with an expired visa, forged work permit, and drivers license. I divorced her after I recorded her on the telephone with a lover. She found out and attacked me and my friend trying to get the recording from me. I was put in the hospital with heart problems. Both my friend and I filed assault charges against her but the court and DA refused to prosecute. Then the family-court judge stated that we both committed domestic violence.
We have a son who was five at the time and they kept us apart until 2005 when I have finally been able to see him with her supervising. What hurts more than anything is whenever I see him or talk to him over the phone he will say things like "I want to be with you dad," or "Please come and get me dad."
Victim's advocates made up false accusations against me and I have spent thousands of dollars since 2002 clearing myself of the accusations.
But because of these allegations she was put in a shelter for abused women that is run by a Mexican woman and they have created a hell for me. Horizon Health services with VAWA money supported her for five months in the shelter, they also paid for legal counsel to apply for a battered woman's visa for her. Despite the expired visa and no green card they got her a job.
Used with permission, name omitted at attorneys request
October, 2003, Tucson — My wife. age 45, is, I believe, a borderline personality and suffers from depression. I have taken quite a bit of verbal abuse and on occasion physical as well. I stand 6'4", but was trained never to raise hand to a woman, so it's safe for her. I never dreamed of calling 911.
Last October I was lying on the bed reading a book when she exploded. She threw a drink at me, then poured another on me. She turned and reached for the bookcase. I knew from past experience that books hurt when hurled. I pushed at her with the glass she had thrown. She ran from the room saying she had me now, it was DV and she was calling 911.
She called, then thought better of it and hung up. Of course they had the number on caller ID and sent a deputy out. She later told me she thought the deputy would just talk to us and leave. If that sounds incredibly stupid — well, I'm convinced it was true, since she told the deputy the truth, that she began the fight.
Needless to say, we were both arrested. Luckily, my sister answered the phone when the deputy called her; otherwise they'd have had to take the kids away and put them in a shelter. The deputy who took me to jail was a helluva nice guy. Made sure the cuffs were comfortable, that sort of thing, and we joked all the way to the jail (my sense of humor stayed with me). He was doing his job, and the law left him with no choice.
The night in jail was the usual hell. Two guys in my cell already in the bunks, so I slept on the floor, tossing and turning on an inch-thick mat, bones aching. Breakfast was slop and lunch two pieces of bread with a piece of lunch meat and one of cheese between them. Biggest pain was being trapped in a tiny area — maybe 4x4 feet available for standing room, shared with two others — and nothing to do except wonder about the family. I got out for half an hour, got to a phone, made a collect call — the only way a call can be made — at about $1 a minute. On third try my daughter got it and, despite being only ten, figured out how to push the button to accept charges. I almost wept to hear her voice.
I got OR'd at the hearing at 4 PM the next day, and then it took four hours for processing. I got out almost 24 hours after the arrest. 20 miles from home, in a rough area, at night, without a penny. The jail converts your cash into a check. Can't use that in a pay phone. Luckily another inmate told me they'll give you a free bus pass, so I rode the bus back, bought dinner, and used the change to call my sister.
I heard some horror stories from my fellow inmates that far beat mine. One had been told by officers that they had to make an arrest, should it be his wife or him? He said the kids need her more than they need me, take me. Another had surgical staples in his head. He had been cussing out his criminal stepsons, who have become drug dealers, and they attacked him with a golf club, splitting his scalp open. The wife called 911, the stepsons fled. Police got a felony warrant for them — and arrested him on the spot! I asked — but he hadn't touched them? He said yes, the charge was disorderly conduct DV for yelling at them. I'd never heard of disorderly conduct domestic "violence" but after my release I looked it up. Yes, disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace is domestic "violence" — so is exhibiting an offensive gesture!
My wife heard one of her own while in jail. A young hispanic lady said that her stepfather had grown violent and was going to attack her sister. She fought with him, police were called, and bought his story that she'd attacked him. She was jailed — but because she had some past misdemeanor arrest they imposed a $120 bail. She didn't have it with her, the stepfather probably wouldn't post it, and so she likely sat in jail for a month until the pretrial hearing.
I had excellent proof of self-defense. To protect myself, I had taped a prior confrontation where she seized books from that very cabinet and pounded me with them. The tape was pretty graphic with her screaming and me crying out in pain, ending with me calling her a lunatic and she snarling " Yes, I am a lunatic." I had other proof as well. But the prosecutor refused to consider any of it. They mass-produce these cases, only think about them the day before trial, if then, and won't return calls or reply to letters.
Anyway, it ended halfway well. Got an attorney, did some research (I'm a lawyer myself) and worked out a plan. The prosecutors mass-produce, and don't bother to subpoena witnesses as it saves $25 or so — I'm told they have now started doing subpoenas on DV victim-witnesses. They mail a subpoena first class, with bold type saying that if you do not appear a warrant will be issued for your arrest, and enclosing a postcard. Under the laws here, service of the subpoena by first class mail is only valid if you sign and return the card. That of course is never mentioned, so most folks read the language about warrants being issued and figure they must show up.
We agreed. Neither of us returned the card. My attorney and I attended my trial. When it was obvious she wasn't there and that the card had never been returned, my charges were dismissed. I then skedaddled. Her trial, same thing happened. Except that the prosecutor got outraged, demanded that I be held in contempt, why I'd been in that very courthouse half an hour before! Her attorney pointed out the statute allows service of a subpoena in three ways — first class with postcard returned, registered with receipt signed, or personal service by an officer. Did the prosecutor have any proof that any one had been done? Nope. The two deputies were by then grinning at the prosecutor — they thought it a marvelous practical joke — and he angrily gestured them from the room. Then the judge dismissed her charges.
June 2, 2006 (AP) — A Fallon, Nevada, woman has been arrested and charged with killing her husband 21 years ago in Yuma, Ariz.
Delma Troy, 53, was taken into custody at Wal-Mart Wednesday afternoon on a first degree murder warrant issued the day before in Yuma. She is charged with murder in the first degree and conspiracy to commit murder linked to the 1985 death of James Ferrera, 65, who was found shot to death in his home after Troy asked a neighbor to check on him.
Assistant Fallon Police Chief Ray Dolan said Thursday it appeared that Troy has lived in Fallon since at least 1987 based on records of contact with her over the years.
He said he was contacted by an Arizona detective who said Yuma police developed information that Troy was living in Fallon and wanted for the decades-old murder. Dolan said Troy had lived at her current home since at least 2004 when she called to report a fire in the residence.
In Fallon, Dolan said police had little contact with Troy over the years, although neighbors had called officers to complain about noise coming from Troy's house.
Two men also are in custody in the Yuma case.
Clint Norred, public information officer for the Yuma Police Department, said Donald White, 41, of Brighton, Colo., was arrested in Lawton, Okla. May 11. He was arraigned this week on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and is being held in lieu of $3.5 million bail in Arizona
Rick Kosterow, 47, of Richfield, Wash., is being held in Clark County, Washington, pending extradition. He was arrested May 24 on the same homicide charges, Norred said.
"The scoop is that on Sept. 30, 1985, James Ferrera was found shot to death in his house. In November of 2005, we received new information indicating Delma Lee Troy, who was the victim's wife at the time, conspired with Mr. White and Mr. Kosterow to murder him," Norred said. "That's the gist of it right now."
Norred would not detail what new information led to the arrests, saying only that information was provided by a person last year.
Abstracted from stories in AZfamily.com
August 8, 2007 — Flagstaff police are investigating the death of a Flagstaff man in a westside home as a homicide.
The dead man was identified as Rusty A. Riggins, 40, of Flagstaff, said Sgt. Tom Boughner of the Flagstaff Police Department. FBI and Mexican officials are also involved in the case.
According to federal court documents filed in Flagstaff just after the death, Riggins had been shot in the left side of his back with a .22-caliber weapon, and gunpowder residue indicated the fatal shot came from two to four feet away. There was no sign of a struggle.
Boughner said officers responded to the home on the 2000 block of South Highland Mesa Road just after 10 AM August 7 th , after a family member and a business partner, who were worried about Riggins, contacted police.
Rusty's wife, Jessica Riggins, 40, was wanted on homicide and auto theft charges. Police believe she had been planning her husband's death for some time and found that she bought a handgun at a local sporting goods store just days before his body was discovered. While the murder weapon has not been found, the .22-caliber gun Jessica R. Riggins purchased is the same caliber as the one used to shoot and kill her husband, Rusty Riggins.
The car Jessica stole crossed the Mexican border August 7 th .
She was arrested on August 13 th while trying to reenter the United States in San Diego County, California. She faced a federal murder warrant and was extradited to Northern Arizona.
Jessica Riggins was indicted by a Coconino County grand jury in late August and is accused of murder, auto theft, and credit card theft. She has entered a plea of not guilty.
Mrs. Riggins' attorney is claiming she acted in self defense, the killing was an accident, and that she is the victim of domestic violence.
| EJF Home | Find Help | Help the EJF | Comments? | Get EJF newsletter | Newsletters |
| Domestic Violence Book | DV Site Map | DV bibliography | DV index |
| Chapter 7 — Domestic Violence Against Men In The United States |
| Next — Stories Of Abused Men In Arkansas |
| Back — Stories Of Abused Men In Alaska |
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