I experienced "greatness" through many women on Monday and Tuesday evening.
Tuesday evening, I attended the film festival to view Sin by Silence and to moderate the forum afterward. The film festival experience included an outstanding film, an engaged audience, and a panel of diverse experts. I was very impressed. The festival was able to bring in the California film producer, Olivia Klaus, co-producer, Ann Caryn Cleveland, and a woman featured in the film, Brenda Clubine who tells her tragic story and offers a spirit of resilience. The film gave a voice to domestic violence victims, the tragedies, the healing, the activism needed and above all a message of hope! I was absolutely amazed by Brenda and her openness to tell her story with the goal of preventing others from going to prison like she did and offering options for safety. Recently released from prison, Brenda served 26 years for killing her abusive husband. She endured violence and abuse in her relationship; endured a lie in which she was told her son was killed, just to find him well and alive almost 20 years later; endured a justice system 25 years ago that did not acknowledge the battered women's syndrome; endured the experience of being behind bars and the loss of freedom. Yet, she offers a spirit and a message of hope and options to other abused women and to the community at large.
Monday evening, was even more moving when the film was shown to the women in our shelter followed by Brenda speaking to them. There was not a dry eye in the room. Brenda touched the core of their hearts - and I do believe offered hope - as one woman said through her tears, "I want to be where you are today" meaning self-confident, self-reliant, resilient, and making her own choices. Thank you Brenda.
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Dear Ms. Linda Dooley Johanek,
I met you at the film festival Tuesday evening, I didn’t get a chance to speak to the panel of diverse experts and indeed they truly were. Even hearing the judge, that was remarkable. But the best part after that moving and education film was meeting the California film producer herself, Olivia Klaus, the co-producer, Ann Caryn Cleveland, and Brenda Clubine, who was featured in the film. I had no idea that she would be there. Thank you for taking me over to speak to her.
I too am a domestic violence survivor. My abuse started in 1995 and ended this February of 2009. After years of abuse to myself and others in the household, I reached the breaking point. One fateful day in 1999, my abuser, (Mansa Musa Muhummed) escorted me to the local post office to run an errand. I took the opportunity to slip a postal employee a very disturbing thirteen-page letter detailing the cruelty and abuse which the family members endured at the hands of Mansa the sadist. The postal worker handed the letter over to police and social services. I also had recorded tapes too.
In April of 1999, our Aguanga (Hemet) home was raided. This time, Mansa was not able to prepare for the visit by placing food boxes in the cupboards and threatening family members. His “reign of terror” came to a halt.
Investigators discovered the majority of family members living in garage conversions in filthy, sub-human conditions. There was no heating, no air conditioning. They discovered padlocks on the doors, some doors nailed shut completely. They saw bags upon bags of human waste along with piles of dirty diapers strewn about.
The children showed signs of starvation and many were grossly underweight and underdeveloped as a result of food deprivation. They showed signs of physical abuse; one child's ear was deformed as a result of Mansa burning her with a match. Others bore scarred knuckles, knees, bruises, and contusions as a result of the ongoing abuse. Many of the children could not read or write.
I presented Investigators with tape recorded incidents of the beatings which you could hear Mansa taunting the children and hitting them with various objects as they screamed and begged for mercy. Mansa and his wife were arrested that day. The children were removed and the majority was sent to live in foster homes.
On February 13th, 2009, the Riverside County jury, comprised of six women and six men deliberated for almost half a day. The jury determined that Mansa was guilty on seven counts of torture, twelve counts of willful injury to a child, four counts of corporal injury to a spouse, and two counts of false imprisonment. Mansa sat as the verdict was read, shaking his head and covering his face with his hands.
Later, at his sentencing, Riverside Superior Court Judge F. Paul Dickerson had this to say:
“Mr. Muhammed showed no remorse and accepted no responsibility for his twisted behavior, and the court is sending the strongest message possible.”
Mansa then was sentenced to seven life terms in prison and will be eligible for parole in sixty-five years.
You can see some of the web sites:
http://www.pe.com/localnews/rivcounty/stories/PE_News_Local_S_mansa14.42c6452.html
http://pysih.com/2009/03/21/mansa-musa-muhammed/comment-page-1/#comment-35094
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2009/02/13/news/californian/riverside/z45b10251aac620ea8825755d00029bd3.txt
There's more: if you google his name: MANSA MUSA MUHUMMED, Riverside California. You can get to read about the entire ordeal.
Thank you again. And it was a pleasure meeting you. I hope that one day my story can help others before they end up like Brenda Clubine. That was going to be my next resort, I was going to kill him if we didn't get help soon.
Thank God he let me find another way.
Laura Cowan
cowanl@cmha.net
Keep in touch. I would like to do something for your organization.
Laura,
You are very brave sharing your story. I read an article about the case… You were so courageous passing that letter to the post office employee asking for help! I can’t imagine how terrified you had to be. You should be very proud of yourself; thanks to your actions the terror ended. I hope you, the other women and the children are recovering well, and I am delighted to hear he was held accountable for his despicable crimes. Best wishes for you.
Laura,
Thank you for sharing your story. I am happy that you introduced yourself to me and I would love to set up a meeting with you to discuss how you can become inovlved with our agency - and mission of helping to keep victims safe. Thank you for being so brave.
Amazing stories and amazing women! Thank you so much for allowing SIN BY SILENCE to be a part of your journey.
We are all making a difference and hope you will continues to help us spread the word about our domestic violence documentary - http://www.SinBySilence.com - as we continue to change hearts and minds about the tragedy of violence against women.
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