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.

http://twitter.com/Bytor3BP