A: Though not included in the petition, his child support obligation and the mounting debt to his attorney were the reasons Don continued to seek custody. (Don would eventually admit to incurring over $70,000 in attorney’s fees to Hepburn). However, the reason stated in his second custody petition was that my estrangement from my mother and other family members was detrimental to the emotional well-being of DJ and Doni. There was no situation or evidence cited by Don to support this claim.
The family law commissioner (FLC) ruled that my estrangement from my mother and other family members could form a basis to modify custody and ordered the matter set for trial.
At the time Don filed his first custody petition I’d already been estranged from my mother and other family members for several years and no one—not Don, Hepburn, my mother, other family members, or the court—raised this estrangement issue as a basis for modifying custody in Don’s first custody petition.
A copy of the Order of Protection I had obtained after the assault was in the court file. At the hearing, however, Hepburn denied that any assault had occurred. As a consequence, the FLC ruled that testimony relative to the assault would not be allowed at the custody trial!
A: Absolutely not.
A: Just prior to Christmas Day I met with “Georgia,” a prosecutor with the King County Prosecutor’s Office. In addition to the fact that Don assaulted me by forcing himself through a window and breaking into my house, Georgia considered the allegations made by Don and the KCDPS sergeant claiming that Don was at my house to deliver a child support check the night of the assault. She dismissed this claim, however, as in my mail the morning following the assault the child support check Don claimed to have been at my house to deliver the night of the assault was received. The envelope exhibited the official U.S. Post Office cancellation date stamp proving it was mailed prior to the assault. Georgia also met privately that day with Doni, who was present during Don’s assault on me. At the close of the meeting, Georgia advised that there was sufficient evidence against Don for the filing of a “Simple Assault—Domestic Violence” charge against him relative to his November 18, 1987 assault on me.
A: Upon being advised of Georgia’s decision to file a Simple Assault—Domestic Violence charge against Don, Hepburn contacted a former co-worker of hers at the King County Prosecutor’s Office. This female prosecutor contacted me by phone at work and advised that, after conducting her own investigation, it was her decision that no criminal charge would be filed against Don relative to any assault. In fact, she stated she did not believe that any assault had taken place.
The evidence is clear that this second prosecutor discussed the matter in detail with her former co-worker and Don’s attorney, Carol Hepburn, as during my telephone conversation with her a messenger service delivered to me—at my office—a copy of an affidavit Hepburn had prepared and filed with the court that morning advising what this prosecutor was only now telling me over the phone!
This prosecutor’s investigation was not based on any competent, complete, or unbiased investigation, and had not included any conversation with the complaining witness—ME!—prior to reaching her decision. This prosecutor’s claim that she did not believe that any assault had occurred was alarming because during our conversation she threatened to file a charge of assault against me for an alleged injury that Don was claiming to have suffered—during his assault on me at my house!
