Monday, May 7, 2012

Sherrod Brown's ex-wife claimed he abused her

While Sherrod Brown has been playing politics with the Violence Against Women Act, it seems he has his own violence against women to answer for. Breitbart News has uncovered documents relating to Brown's 1986 divorce, and his then-wife Larke Ummel Brown made accusations that he assaulted her.
Divorce records from Brown’s first marriage, obtained by Breitbart News, show that during the contentious proceedings, his wife accused him of “extreme cruelty” and “harassment”; she said she was “in fear for the safety … of myself and our children,” and accused Sherrod of “physical violence.” In fact, she said, Brown had “struck and bullied me on several different occasions.”
Larke Brown was so afraid of Sherrod Brown, that she pleased the court for a restraining order against him to ensure her safety.

The motion asked the court to stop Sherrod from “harassing, including telephone harassment, annoying, interfering with or doing bodily harm to this Plaintiff at her residence or elsewhere.” The affidavit to the motion alleged that Larke believed that unless restrained, Sherrod would “harass” or “do bodily harm” to her; she further stated, “I am also intimidated by the Defendant and am in fear for the safety and well-being of myself and our children due to the Defendant’s physical violence and abusive nature.”
The court apparently saw enough evidence to agree and granted the restraining order against Sherrod Brown in May 1986. He wasn't allowed near her house, except when he came to pick up the children for his allowed visitation. However, she claimed that that wasn't enough to stop Brown from intimidating her. Later, in October, she asked the court to reduce his visitation because he was using those visits to continue to abuse her. She also asked for an order that he not allowed to come any closer than the curb when arriving for his visitation. She described an incident that showed he was still being abusive and had violated the previous restraining order.
“[Brown] refused to return to the car, pushed me up against the wall with his arms in order to pass and entered the house. He refused to leave and began to say insulting, derogatory things about me, my mothering of the children and my character in front of my friends and the children … [Brown] then cornered one of my friends … and again started on his tirade of character assassination. … [I] felt physically threatened because of [Brown’s] combative tone and his assault on [me] at the entrance to the house.”

Meanwhile, Brown has been trying to accuse Republicans, and Josh Mandel, of condicting a "war on women" and accusing Mandel of opposing the renewal of VAWA. Nothing could be further from the truth. The VAWA act was originally passed with wide bipartisan support and it's renewal as is is also supported by almost every Republican, including Josh Mandel.

The problem is, that Senate Democrats Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer and Pat Leahy are playing political games with the bill. They have added poison pills to the bill that they know will bring objections, so that they can paint Republicans as "anti-woman". Tina Korbe does an excellent job of explaining the poison pills here.

So when Sherrod Brown tweets that Josh Mandel doesn't support the VAWA act, remember two things.

One, Mandel has said that he completely supports the clean renewal of the Act as the law stands today. So when Sherrod claims that he doesn't, he is clearly lying.

Two, there is only one candidate in the race who has actually been accused of perpetrating violence against women. And that candidate is Sherrod Brown.

6 comments:

  1. This story just got a big boost(IMO)--was just listening to Sean Hannity on the radio and he is talking about SB's blah, blah, blah campaign rhetoric about supporting women and then cited the story on Brown and his first wife.

    Good to see conservative talking heads picking up the baton and running with it.

    (P.S.--did you hear Rush today ask a caller what they thought about BHO's CT social security number--it was great!!!)

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  2. It would be interesting to know what happened to Mandel's first fiance. Everyone knew he did not intend to marry her and, right after the election, she disappeared. He traded up to a much wealthier model.

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    1. People change their minds--that's their prerogative but it is never permissible to abuse anyone--a spouse, child, etc. Abuse is much more despicable than having second thoughts about marrying someone wouldn't you agree?

      If you are going to "knock" Mandel's wife (calling her a "wealthier model"), how do you explain Brown's choice of a wife in Connie Schultz--think he married her only for love (or did her newspaper connection appeal to his political side)--the point is, it's really no ones business why Mandel married his wife; it's no one's business why Brown married Schultz--but it is OH's business when our elected Senator lies about the GOP's war on woman when he himself is a documented abuser!

      As an OH woman, Sherrod Brown is not the type of Senator I would want standing up for me or any Ohio woman--ever--not only because of his past with his first wife but equally because of his progressive, destructive, nanny state big government policies!

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    2. I agree that we should be concerned about any man who abuses a woman. It turns out that Senator Brown's ex-wife has stated that those statements were made in the heat of the moment and that they should be disregarded. It is even more interesting that Brown's ex-wife supported him in 2006 and supports him now. I wonder why Mandel's wife did not vote for him in the primary?

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    3. Actually, Brown's ex-wife was supporting Brown as early as 1992, when Brown's opponent ran ads featuring the restraining order.

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