Will this nightmare end?

By S.G.

I know this story has been told over and over. I know a lot of people have lived this as well but I wanted to be heard. You see I am not a S.O. I am a wife to a S.O. In 2007 I met my husband. He had been convicted of statutory rape 2nd degree in October 2003. She was 3 months from 17 he was 31 at the time. He served 2 1/2 years in prison in Missouri.

I had just gotten out of a severely abusive relationship. We started as friends. We attended group therapy and one on one counseling. In 2008 we got married. At this point we were heading in right direction. We both worked hard.

In 2012 we bought a house in a small town. We were very open with the mortgage broker and real estate agent that nothing within 500 feet of a playground. The house was 1 block from sheriffs station and 3 blocks from our doctor. At the time I got diagnosed with Poly-cystic Kidney Disease and him with Epilepsy. This house was run down but we could fix it up and make it handicap accessible for the future. It was on a major highway and when we would sit on our front porch people would randomly stop and tell us how nice it looked and how much they appreciated it.

There was a park behind house a block over. You couldn’t see it from our house and to get to it you had to go around a bar, a senior center, across a street, up over railroad tracks and up a hill. We lived in that home for 7 years.

In September of 2018 we got bit by a false allegation of a jealous family member. I was at work and the police came to our home and told my husband he needed to come to the police station for questioning. He told them I was due home any time. He was yanked outside our home and handcuffed and taken to station. He was never read Miranda rights but later to cover their tracks they gave him a paper to sign. They questioned him and told him to go home.

That week they put in the paper that they had arrested him for loitering. In October we received a letter from DCFS stating after extensive physical and mental testing there was nothing against him. We thought the nightmare was over. Boy were we wrong.

The D.A. spent months trying to build a case against him and we knew there was nothing. He had never been alone with a child. So on valentine’s day of 2019 the judge signed a warrant for loitering against my husband. He was arrested.

I sold several items to post bail to get him out. The stipulation was he could never return home. I was threatened that I would be watched and followed to make sure it didn’t happen.

I had to move him constantly just so we could see each other and he had to rent hotel rooms for weeks at a time. I had to sell the house, and sell anything that was too heavy for me to move myself in between working 12 hour days. We lost a lot of money and I had to transfer jobs. The nightmare is not over. All we could get was a 1500 broken down mobile home, but I am not complaining.

After 5 months I am now back living with my best friend at least for now. We did everything that was asked. We sold the house and moved away. The D.A. has not presented all evidence to the judge and the lowest offer we have received is 3 years in prison. We go back to court in September. I hope for a breakthrough every day for this nightmare to end.