Farmington, Maine — Agnes Barden’s abuser is scheduled to be released from jail on Wednesday morning.
By the time he is released, she will have escaped with her daughter. She claims it’s her only option.
“I have a whole life that I need to evacuate,” Barden remarked.
She claims her husband abused her for years before she called the police after he threatened to burn down their house and kill her and their children.
According to court documents, he pled guilty to domestic violence threatening and illegal weapons possession. Despite earlier convictions, he will be released after less than a year in jail.
“I was very adamant about it the day of the sentencing, and they still just let him accept a plea,” Barden added.
She panicked when she heard he was being released and sought guidance from advocates.
“She’s telling us that we’re on, like, a high mortality list,” Barden said of the advice she received from an advocate. “That we have… if he is released, there is a high probability that he will return home and try to harm you and your daughter.” “You are not safe there.”
She has a protection from abuse order against him, he will have to follow probation requirements, and local law enforcement personnel have offered her some safety precautions, but she does not believe they are adequate to protect herself and her kid. An advocate informed her that she needed an escape strategy.
“She’s putting all these ideas in my head about teaching my daughter how to jump out a window and run to the nearest neighbor and teach her not to protect you and tell her that her life is more valuable than yours … and this is a seven-year-old child you’re telling me that I have to tell these things to,” Barden recalled. “It’s terrifying.”
Despite the fact that her husband is barred from carrying guns, he has already acquired them.
“I’m just going to make sure he can’t find us because my daughter and me are not a statistic,” Barden told me. “I’m not going to allow it.”
She has packed up all of her stuff and is heading into hiding with her daughter.
“I don’t understand why our system works this way,” Barden remarked. “I think that there needs to be change.”
Prosecutors argue that a plea agreement is sometimes the best option.
“A lot of it is not based on the victim’s safety, but also on keeping defendants out of jail,” said Maine Prosecutors’ executive director Shira Burns. “They want to see them be able to rehabilitate.”
In Barden’s case, the defendant may have received a heavier term if the case had gone to trial, but only if the prosecutor was able to obtain a guilty judgment, which Burns says is difficult in domestic violence cases because much of the assault occurs behind closed doors.
“Other factors when you’re looking at plea agreements is, what can the state actually prove,” Barden told me.
District Attorney Neil McLean, whose prosecutorial district includes Franklin County, where Barden’s husband was accused, says the prosecutor in this instance took an innovative approach, pursuing a longer term by pressing charges for each gun and assisting in obtaining a longer probation period.
Barden says she would feel safer if her abuser had electronic monitoring, and while some counties do offer GPS monitoring for pre-trial inmates, probation is handled by the Maine Department of Corrections, and Maine does not have a state-wide electronic monitoring program.
“Will the victim feel safe and actually be safe when the defendant is released,” Burns wondered. “The criminal justice system doesn’t provide that.”