Case 1: Family Violence Protective Order
Hearing date/time: July 22, 2022; 9:30 AM (Zoom)
Summary: The parties are married and share adult children. We believe that Respondent will be represented at this hearing, but an Entry of Appearance has not been filed yet. The Petitioner and Respondent were previously living in Nigeria, and the Petitioner came to visit their son, a student at Georgia Tech. in May 2021. While the Petitioner has been here, the Respondent has made repeated threats to their son to call the police or immigration on the Petitioner. The Respondent was in the Atlanta area as well, and was served by the Georgia Tech Police. It's our understanding that, following perfecting service, the Respondent might have returned to Nigeria.

In August 2021, the Petitioner was preparing to return to Nigeria from visiting their son in Atlanta. The Petitioner called the Respondent to discuss logistics of returning, and the Respondent became angry. He said that he never should have allowed the Petitioner to come to the US, and threatened that she would never see their children again and he would "show her when she gets back." After that threat, the Petitioner began the asylum process, and has remained in Atlanta ever since. Since this time, the Respondent has sent repeated threatening messages to the Petitioner and their son.

In January 2021, the Petitioner was washing produce with a water/bleach mixture, and the Respondent manually strangled the Petitioner and intentionally splashed the bleach mixture in her eyes, temporarily blinding her. The Respondent continued to strangle the Petitioner until their son intervened. The Respondent punched their son, and the Petitioner and their son hid in his room while the Respondent damaged property in the home. Later, the Respondent slapped their son and continued to yell at the Petitioner. 

Throughout their 20+ year marriage, the Respondent has verbally, physically, and psychologically abused the Petitioner. On their wedding night, the Respondent told the Petitioner that she could no longer contact her family, and he slapped her for the first time a few days later. Since then, the physical violence has increased in frequency and severity. The Respondent would strangle the Petitioner about once per month, on average, including when she was pregnant. He would also slap and punch the Petitioner. She was not allowed to leave the home without the Respondent accompanying her, and the Respondent would empty the car's gas tank or slash tires to prevent the Petitioner from escaping.

Case 1: Family Violence Protective Order
Hearing date/time: July 22, 2022; 12:30 PM (Zoom)
Summary: The Petitioner and Respondent have lived together in the past, but have never been married and share no children. On June 20, 2022, the Respondent went through the Petitioner’s phone and found a dating app- he became upset and pushed the Petitioner to the ground in anger. When the Petitioner got up, the Respondent punched her in the eye. The Petitioner ran downstairs screaming, looked in the mirror, and observed blood coming from her eye. The Respondent pursued the Petitioner downstairs, and mocked her crying. The Petitioner asked the Respondent why he hit her, and he continued to mock her and call her a “cunt.” The Petitioner called the Respondent’s mother for support, who instructed her to drive to her (Respondent’s mother’s) home, but the Petitioner could not see out of her injured eye and was unable to drive. The Petitioner called her sister, and saw the Respondent walking toward her with a knife in his hand. When Petitioner asked the Respondent, “Why do you have a knife?” the Respondent dropped the knife and pretended to not know what Petitioner was talking about. Since the incident, the Respondent has gaslit the Petitioner, maintaining that he never assaulted her, and threatening that “[she’s] going to get what [she] deserves.” The Petitioner believes that the Respondent has an active warrant for his arrest based on her conversations with Sandy Springs Police Department. The Petitioner has the police report from this incident, as well as text messages, recordings, and photos.
 
The Respondent has hit the Petitioner in the eye previously in December 2021; after the Petitioner threatened to call the police, the Respondent apologized. The Respondent has also pushed the Petitioner into the wall hard enough to leave a dent. The Petitioner believes that the Respondent’s behavior is heavily influenced by drug use. In November 2021, the Petitioner was sitting in the backseat of the car, and the Respondent grabbed her by the hair and forcibly pulled her all the way into the front seat.