RyanFromMassachusetts18
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- Massachusetts
To preface, I'm an 18 y/o man from Massachusetts, and this incident happened to my 44 y/o father. Earlier today, my brother called me and let my know that my dad had just called him sobbing incoherently, so I dropped everything and tried to contact him. I eventually got through to him and he told me that he was walking around near his home and was in the parking lot of a local convenience store. He was very obviously upset and told me that he had been drinking, so I headed over to pick him up. When I arrived, he broke down in tears and eventually opened up to me after a couple minutes. He said that he and his girlfriend (whom he lives with) had gotten in an argument in the parking lot at a local bank, and when it escalated she hit him "3-5 times with and open hand in the face". We drove around for a couple hours, and he was seriously in a bad emotional state. He added that she often "blew up on him" and had a temper. She was in contact with him throughout this time and said some vile things that I'd rather not repeat about us over text message. These texts did not include further threats, nor did they mention the incident, but they belittled him and disparaged both me and my siblings. I brought him back to the house to grab some things to spend the night in a hotel, and she was in the house at the time. No further argument ensued when he returned home. He had not, to my knowledge, begun drinking before this incident took place.
Initially, she threatened to call the police on him in what I assume to be an attempt to blackmail him/create a false narrative but they were never contacted. I saw her after the incident when I went to his house to grab a pair of shoes, and she had no visible signs of abuse or distress, and acted as if nothing had happened. I didn't ask her about the incident. I feared that she would try to blame him, and possibly injure herself to support her side of the story, but from what I visually assessed she was in perfect health afterwards My father is a large and muscular man, and therefore did not show any physical markers of the alleged abuse. The location where this occurred was the parking lot of a public bank, and my father and his girlfriend were in a car at the time of the incident. I called the bank today and spoke with a representative, who allowed me to leave a message to the security officer with my name and number. I obliged, and included that I would like to examine the security tape during the approximate time frame of the incident to see if any of it was captured. All in all, it was a deeply traumatic experience and it has been hard for me to cope with having seen him in the emotional state he was.
My main question is, what can I do as a non-involved party to ensure that this incident is taken to the police? My father has expressed little interest in pursing legal recourse; I suspect this is because he fears the stigma of being a male victim of domestic violence and also that her emotional abuse prevents him from seeing the severity of the situation. If the footage shows the incident taking place, will this be enough to ensure that legal action is possible? I don't have experience in any faucet of law so I am open to any advice which could help ensure that this abuse is brought to the attention of the justice system. This is my forum post, so I apologize for any errors I have made in formatting.
Initially, she threatened to call the police on him in what I assume to be an attempt to blackmail him/create a false narrative but they were never contacted. I saw her after the incident when I went to his house to grab a pair of shoes, and she had no visible signs of abuse or distress, and acted as if nothing had happened. I didn't ask her about the incident. I feared that she would try to blame him, and possibly injure herself to support her side of the story, but from what I visually assessed she was in perfect health afterwards My father is a large and muscular man, and therefore did not show any physical markers of the alleged abuse. The location where this occurred was the parking lot of a public bank, and my father and his girlfriend were in a car at the time of the incident. I called the bank today and spoke with a representative, who allowed me to leave a message to the security officer with my name and number. I obliged, and included that I would like to examine the security tape during the approximate time frame of the incident to see if any of it was captured. All in all, it was a deeply traumatic experience and it has been hard for me to cope with having seen him in the emotional state he was.
My main question is, what can I do as a non-involved party to ensure that this incident is taken to the police? My father has expressed little interest in pursing legal recourse; I suspect this is because he fears the stigma of being a male victim of domestic violence and also that her emotional abuse prevents him from seeing the severity of the situation. If the footage shows the incident taking place, will this be enough to ensure that legal action is possible? I don't have experience in any faucet of law so I am open to any advice which could help ensure that this abuse is brought to the attention of the justice system. This is my forum post, so I apologize for any errors I have made in formatting.
