Abuse

Navigating Systematic Failures

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I ran across this story written by Annah Mason a few weeks ago. She names her abuser, speaks to the history of his abuse, and calls out those in his circle that enabled him to abuse so many women. The comments section includes other women he abused in the same way. Just a sad tale of how people like Michael May and Trash get away with their abuse over an extended period of time.

It got me thinking about my own experience. 16 months with Trash and I’ve been set back in so many ways:

  • Financial: over $100k in stolen money, goods, moving costs, lost income, etc. It is going to take a long time to get myself back on track for early retirement.
  • Systematic: going through the court system in an attempt to right a wrong has shown me that a) no woman is safe in the USA, and b) the system is absolutely NOT set up to protect women from serial abusers. It was all an illusion.
  • Emotional: I no longer see this world through the same eyes; I have lost my innocence and faith in humanity. There are so many users, abusers, conmen among us. It has definitely influenced the way I see and interact with people.

Trash has a path of destruction behind him. I am aware of 3 other women before me that had a similar experience with Trash. I am lucky in that I didn’t lose everything and I had the means to stand up for myself. Filing the Civil Suit was not just about me, it was a way for me to get “justice” for the harm Trash has caused the women before me, and quite frankly, more broadly for all the women who have been unable to fight.

But I learned a very hard lesson. I no longer believe is justice. I no longer feel safe. I clearly see that I had a false sense of safety here in the USA; it is all an illusion. Based on my experience and the experience of these other women, the system is set up to protect abusers, not victims. Below I write about the path of destruction in Trash’s wake, and my experience with the systems that has allowed him to continue to abuse anyone he comes across.

History of Abuse

If you listen to Trash tell the story, all the women before me were “crazy”: His now ex-wife only used him for his money so she could live the “Scottsdale Wife” life. Betsy had kids that didn’t respect him, Lisa was “crazy”. Given his smear campaign against me, I’m 100% sure I’m on the long list of “crazy ex-girlfriends” – That is a lot of crazy ex’s for one fellow.

While I was preparing for my Civil Suit, my Lawyer, Mark, asked me to find out more about Trash’s history. Why did. he ask me to do this? Because In Civil Court, the reputation of the parties involved is very important as a jury will use it as a way to determine someone’s character and truthfulness. The lawsuit was about fraud and deception (Mexican Condo); stolen property All I need to do is sway the jury that I’m more credible than Trash…… So I set forth to gather evidence … started with police reports and speaking with the people he has interacted with… What I learned was that my situation was not unique, that he is a depraved, despicable person who has a trail of destruction and inhumanity behind him.

Below are the tales of the 3 women before me:

So from 1999 to today, Trash has abused at least 4 women (5 if you count “The Russian” he was caught with the first time the Ex-Wife caught him cheating). I’m 100% confident there are more than this, but this gives you an idea how long he has gotten away with being a serial abuser. Its the same old pattern with every lady:

  • Physically, verbally, and emotionally abusive
  • Inability to stay faithful while in an exclusive relationship; all the while claiming he is “not a cheater”
  • Using the court systems and social media to harass and intimidate his victims
  • Using lies and manipulation to control people

Systems that Let Abusers Further Hurt Victims

My experience is that the systems that are currently in place support criminals and abusers and not victims they say they “protect and serve”.

Criminal Court (The Police)

In criminal court, the government files a case against someone for committing a crime. In my case alone, I filed a total of 8 police reports with the Chandler Arizona police:

Not a single one was addressed by the criminal court system. And when I reported these crimes, the police treated me with indifference at best. It was if I was bothering them. They truly could not have cared less.

The home break-in report, stolen items reports, and credit card fraud reports were filed in the “it’s a civil matter” bucket and the police wiped there hands of it. This means that Trash basically got away with robbing me, stealing from Bank of America, as well as the green light to break-in whenever he pleased. This is why I was forced to go the eviction and Order of Protection (OOP) route (see Civil Court below).

Two of the reports, identify theft and wire fraud were submitted to the DA for prosecution. Since these are criminal matters, I do not get a say – the AZ District Attorney gets to decide if they will prosecute.  I received a letter a week ago stating they were not going to proceed with prosecution in the identify theft matter. I was given the opportunity to speak with the DA covering the case – Janine L. She is a lovely woman. She agreed that Trash did all the things he did – he created the fake emails, he used my PII to create DirecTV accounts. But because I found out BEFORE he charged my card for the services, they would not proceed. I asked her – “what should I have done in order for this case to be prosecuted?” The answer: Let him charge the services to my credit card. Yes. That’s right. The only way that would move forward with prosecution is if I let myself be MORE of a victim. Basically, I was too diligent – I cancelled the card he intended to use to pay for the fraudulent services. 

In The Ex-Wife’s case, there were 6 police reports in Scottsdale in 2016 for abuse…. only one resulted in consequences (a single night in jail and fines). The others were filed and forgotten.

In Lola’s case, she filed a few reports and nothing was done. As a matter of fact, the police told her that she would go to Jail if she pressed charges because Trash also called the police and their stories were conflicting. Same experience the women had in this article.

So within a 6 year period (2016 through 2022), Trash has had 25 run-ins with the police / court system that I am aware of:

  • 15 Police Reports (8-me, Lola-1, The Ex-Wife-6) filed against him. And this is just what I was able to find, I’m sure there are far more as tracking this stuff down requires you to go to each county to file and pay for the reports.
  • 3 OOP’s filed against him (2 from Betsy in 2017 and 2018, 1 from me in 2022)
  • 3 Speeding Tickets – “SPEED GREATER THAN REASONABLE AND PRUDENT“
  • 4 Evictions (see Civil Courts below):
    • October  2022 – Me, Paula.
    • March   2021 – Lola
    • September 2017 – The Ex-Wife
    • October  2016 – who knows….poor girl…

NOTE: This list DOES NOT include:

  • Any incidents filed with the Family Courts.
  • Any other OOPs that may have been filed as OOPs are NOT covered under the Freedom of Information Act. So NO ONE can find out if someone is dangerous. I would think a company would want to know if a potential employee is safe entering peoples homes. Or we ladies want to be safe and research a potential suitor. There is no way to find this information. IMO, people with OOPs should be registered offenders just like sex offenders. It’s mind boggling me to me that this information is NOT readily available. Jees.

So in summary, the Police are not your friends. I believe they have a bias against survivors, choosing to NOT believe the victims, especially in the case of domestic violence or partner abuse. When they don’t take action to protect the vulnerable, they are in fact protecting the abusers and thieves of this world. It is no wonder that crime is on the rise and specifically familial crimes are on the rise – no one is holding the criminals accountable.

Civil Court (Civil Suits, Evictions, Divorce, Order of Protection, etc)

In civil court, one person sues (files a case) against another person because of a dispute or problem between them.

In my case, I have had THREE interactions with the Civil Courts while dealing with Trash’s shenanigans:

First I will say that this is a VERY EXPENSIVE route to go. Given this, most people cannot go this route. I know that Lola was not able to get her things back because she didn’t have the money to fight in court. You typically have to hire a lawyer, in some cases a mediator, and the process can take years. It is not for the faint of heart.

Second, even if you have the funds to fight in court, the fact is, even if you win, the garnishment process is a bitch. It is very hard to get the funds you are awarded in court from the perpetrator. In the OOP and Eviction cases, I was awarded judgement. I’m “lucky” in the sense that I had Trash’s banking account information, so we were able to garnish his accounts. But he knows how to play the game – he just moved his money around – out of his accounts and into new accounts that I did not have the account details for. So even if you do win a judgement, the only way to truly collect is to put a lien on the perpetrators assets. And I know this because in Trash’s case, all his other eviction liens where satisfied with the sale of his marital home in 2020. So the folks that had to evict Trash in 2016 and 2017 didn’t get their judgements awarded until 2020 when Trash sold the marital home. Myself and some poor bastard in the 2021 eviction are still waiting to collect. And since he doesn’t own a home here in Arizona, the only asset we can put a lien on at this time are his automobiles. It’s just not right or fair that it sits on the victim to have to chase these criminals down – there should be an easier way to make victims whole.

Let’s Talk about Order of Protection (OOP)

I applied for and was granted an OOP. Trash appealed it so I hired a lawyer to represent me in court. The Judge made it clear to Trash that if he loses, he has to pay my attorneys fees. Of course my evidence for the OOP was rock solid, so the OOP was upheld and a judgement for legal fees was granted. Going to my second point above, it’s difficult to collect.

In addition, both the wire fraud and the airBnB business interference violate the Order of Protection, but who’s enforcing it? Clearly the police aren’t. And do I want to spend MORE money going through the civil courts to have him held accountable? Honestly, the OOP is meant to protect, but I do not feel any safer having it. It would require the police take protection orders seriously and act appropriately when abusers violate them – but I’ve seen nothing of the sort. So I will be taking matters into my own hands in 2024.

Family Court

This one is a doozy. I have only dipped my toe into the family courts as I do not children and my divorce years ago was amicable. My experience with the Family Courts are recent and are entirely based on Lola’s and The Ex-Wife’s experiences.

First and foremost, holy smokes what an inefficient system. The latest example of this is The Ex-Wife’s Petition to Enforce Spousal Maintenance in July 2023. All she wants is for all Spousal Support to be paid so she can be done with him. He stopped paying in May 2021, last required payment was Nov. 2023.

First, why does the victim have to go back to the courts and ask for what has already been agreed to by all parties??? Why are the courts not enforcing it? Why was he not hunted down in June 2021 when he missed his first payment in May 2021?? Why do the courts not enforce Child Support and Spousal Maintenance?

Second, why do you have to have money to be represented?!? The Ex-Wife has zero money. She was a stay-at-home mom, taking care of her family while her then-husband advanced his career. She got her first minimum wage job in August of 2016. She is in no way able to represent herself, but there are no resources available to her. All she needs is a lawyer that will represent her in court. Why do criminals get court appointed lawyers in criminal cases, but stay-at-home mothers don’t get a lawyer to represent them in Family Court??!?!?

Its sooo intimidating. I was intimidated but I am tech savvy and know how to get answers. The Ex-Wife speaks Arabic; English is her second language. Yes she can get an interpreter, but she needs help with context, the why something is happening. In addition, the legalize required to navigate the system and the way you need to speak in court is like learning a whole new language. Again, why do mothers NOT get a lawyer to help with representation like criminals do?!?!

And back to the inefficiency.

  • In July 2023 The Ex-Wife filed a Petition to Enforce Spousal Maintenance as he is almost $30k in arrears. She came prepared to court in November – he did not. He asked for an extension and was granted one. Mind boggling. He should have been fined/arrested for contempt of court. This is just another way the current justice system fails women.
  • Instead of the courts forcing him to abide by a court order (divorce decree), He gets another chance to do what he was supposed to do in the first place, causing more stress and angst for The Ex-Wife. In an ideal world, she shouldn’t even have to file the Petition – it should just be upheld and the courts should garnish his bank accounts just like they did for Child Support. Why is the system like this?!?

In my quest to understand the Family Court system, I joined a few FaceBook Family Law Support Groups a did a lot of Googling. I learned that the The Ex-Wife’s experience is all to common:

I’ve come to the conclusion that that the Family Court system is fundamentally broken. Abusers manipulating the courts, filling unnecessary motions, delaying hearings, drag the process out for years with the sole purpose of torturing their victims and avoiding responsibility. The biggest losers of it all are the single mothers who bear the brunt of caring for kids without any financial or institutional support. They are truly victimized twice – by their abuser and by the courts.

Why is it like this? Why has it not changed? This experience was a(nother) real eye-opener for me – and knowing what I know now, I would highly recommend that women NOT have children or get married until this institution has changed to protect vs. betray women and children.

Lessons Learned

All I can say is that Women – do NOT get married or have children. If you don’t pick the right person and things end badly, if you are not rich or do not have a support system, you will be brutalized by both the abuser AND the system, or quite frankly, with the wrong partner, could end up dead.

In addition, when it comes to the OOP, my experience is that the Police do not care. After several violations, Trash was not admonished, no repercussions for his violations. Now maybe thats because it was not physical abuse, but either way, seems like all it is is a piece of paper and its worth nothing. As I mentioned above, not only do the Police not seem to give a shit, OOP information is NOT readily available as it is not covered under the Freedom of Information Act. So essentially, there is NO WAY for any woman to find out if someone has an active or previous OOP. This seems wildly unfair to women – there is just no way to protect yourself in this day and age. It seems very clear to me that men/abusers who have OOP’s against them, they can continue to abuse, intimidate, harass without penalty/repercussion. This is sanctioned systematic assault on women.

Statistics prove this is true –

  • Nov 2023: More women and girls killed in 2022 even as overall homicide numbers fall, says new research from UNODC and UN Women
    • “Fifty-five per cent (48,800) of all female homicides are committed by family members or intimate partners, underscoring the disturbing reality that home is far from a safe haven for women and girls. This means that, on average, more than 133 women or girls were killed every day by someone in their own home. In contrast, 12 per cent of homicides against males are perpetrated in the home.“
    • “While Central and South America experienced a decline in yearly killings between 2017 and 2022 (by 10% and 8% respectively), Northern America witnessed a significant increase (by 29%)“
  • National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
    • “1 in 7 women and 1 in 25 men have been injured by an intimate partner“
    • “72% of all murder-suicides involve an intimate partner; 94% of the victims of these murder suicides are female.“
    • “The presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation increases the risk of homicide by 500%” (Trash has guns).

The statistics are not our favor ladies. From what I’ve researched, the laws are not changing here in Arizona, or in the USA for that matter. Go here for stats by State.

Safety is an illusion – we ladies are not safe. It’s high time I get a gun and learn self-defense. Just two of my many 2024 goals. I highly recommend you do the same.

2016 – 2022: Lola

PaulasPonderings2 Comments

I met Lola a little over a year ago when I discovered that the furniture in the Chandler home was actually hers. I have come to know Lola this past year, and her story – the chapter that includes Trash – is not only heartbreaking, but also all too familiar.

Lola spent a long time with Trash, how she did it I will never know or understand. They met in October 2015, they stopped seeing each other at the end of 2022. Here are a few key dates/times of Lola’s time with Trash:

  • October 2015 – Lola met Trash online. Yes, he was still married to The Ex-Wife. Yes, he was also living with Betsy. None of which she was not aware of.
  • December 2015 –  She said things didn’t seem right, so she broke up with him.
  • February 2016 – Without any warning, Trash showed up at her house with Gabe. She didn’t know what to do, but he knew how to pull at her heartstrings – the kid.  She made a fatal mistake this day but letting him stay. Her life forever changed for the worse this day, she just didn’t know it yet.
  • March 2016 – Lola went to England on vacation; same time that Trash was thrown in jail overnight for domestic violence.
  • Summer 2016 – Lola found out about Betsy
  • September 2016 – Lola bought her house (go Lola!!)
  • September 2017 – Moved in with Trash and turned her home to an airBnB… 
    • I’m going to assume Trash just pivoted from Betsy’s house to a new house because September 7th 2017 is when Betsy filed her first Order of Protection against Trash.

All in all, they were together until late 2022. Yes, you read that correctly. The entire time I was in a relationship with Trash, he and Lola were still talking, texting, and having sex. The ENTIRE TIME. He told me she was crazy and that he had to block her, he did not do that. He continued to see her, wine and dine her, sleep with her – at my house, in hotels, in Mexico. Did she know about me? Yes she did. And she did it anyway. This is the hardest for me understand – how another woman does another woman like this. I will post about this later, for now, we are going on Lola’s journey of theft and deception with Trash.

2021

March 2021

Now back to 2021. She and Trash were living together at a home he rented. She had sold her home by this time. She was paying him $1000/mo and he was paying the landlord. Except he wasn’t. She received a 3-day “pay or vacate” notification. Trash did not pay and they were evicted. It was clear he was taking HER money and not paying the rent. This was a devastating blow to her as she and her two boys had nowhere to go. She did all the packing and she and Trash put their stuff in the same storage unit. He is the one that purchased the lock, and therefore the only one with the key.

This was his 3rd eviction. He has a total of 4 evictions as of Dec. 2023:

  • October  2022 – Me, Paula.
  • March   2021 – The scenario described above with Lola.
  • September 2017 – he was evicted and left The Ex-Wife home
  • October  2016 – who knows….poor girl…

You can find eviction information on the Arizona Justice Courts casesearch website. I now recommend that ALL women research any person they plan to see/date BEFORE they meet up in person. Had I known to do my research, I definitely would have NOT gone out with Trash.

He is a prime example of a hobosexual: ”Someone who enters into a relationship to prevent themselves from being homeless“. 

Anywhoo, the point is, he created this chaos, and in this chaos he took advantage of her. Why she went back to him after this and/or continued to see him is beyond me. Another story for another time.

Fast forward to November 2021. 

November 2021

The Chandler House

I had purchased the home in Chandler in October 2021 as a short term rental. He said he had furniture in storage and I would be doing him a favor by letting him furnish the new home. I didn’t want to do it as we have very different taste in furniture. He told me if I loved him I would do it, it would be a favor to him; and what did I care, it was a rental, not our home… I begrudgingly went along with it. BIG MISTAKE.  He had all the furniture moved to the house BEFORE I ever saw the house. When I walked in, I was right – it was not good. It had a bad energy, I didn’t like it at all. I had multiple conversations with him about moving it out…. I was really in an awkward position and did not like how I felt or how I was being treated. This is a perfect example of how I didn’t stand my ground – I just went “with the flow” because I was too busy working and I didn’t want to fight.

A particularly harrowing experience for Lola was when Trash was at the Chandler house in November 2021, I was still in Salt Lake City UT, heading down Arizona within days. Trash and Lola were still texting, meeting up, having sex, all that jazz. I was NOT aware of this at the time. Well, at some point he was at the Chandler house, she was aware he had cleared out the storage room and wanted some of her things back. He invited her to the Chandler house… when she walked into the home, she was stunned to see all of her stuff. She wanted to take it. He got mad at her, hit her, then dragged her out of the house by her hair and arms. He called the police and when they showed up he wanted her arrested for trespassing. They would NOT arrest her for trespassing because she showed them the text exchange between she and Trash where he clearly invited her over. She wanted to file a police report for theft and for attacking her, but they told her, “if you do that you are both going to jail”. She had two young boys at home and couldn’t go to jail…. so she left with her TV and massive scrapes and bruises. I have seen the pictures – her hands and wrists were dark purple and red… her entire back had a road rash, much like motorcyclists get when they fall and skid across the pavement. This is so infuriating to me on several notes:

  1. This is another example of how the police do NOT protect, and if anything, they support the abuser vs. the victim. 
  2. I wished she would have reached out to me. I would have made sure all of her belongings were returned to her.

Please note, I was not made aware of this until AFTER I broke up with Trash and had him evicted from the home – so a year later, November 2022. When I finally got back into the home, a friend of Lola’s reached out to me and let me know that the stuff in my house was Lola’s. My heart broke for her. I was going to donate it all, instead, I reached out to her. She came over, identified what was hers, and we agreed I would sell it and give her the proceeds. Which I did. 

But the storage unit items was NOT all he stole from her. He stole so much more — and took it down to Mexico.

March 2021 through 2022

Mexico

Where do I even begin. When they were together, she purchased and sold her home turned airBnB. Together they moved the contents of her airBnB to Mexico – first to the Mirador townhouse, then into the home that he purchased right before I met him – The Costa Diamante house. He sold her the same dream he sold me – that they would live together in Mexico in that house. She believed him.  When he started dating me in April 2021, she realized they would not be together in Mexico and that she wanted her stuff back.

She continued to ask for it back. She had a trailer lined up and people that would help her load it and drive it back to the USA. He would on one hand tell her to get her shit, he would give her days that she could come and get it, then go radio silent. She would go down to Mexico to get it, then he would NOT give her the code to enter the places to get it. He made it impossible for her to get her stuff… He basically stole the contents of an entire 2 bedroom house from a single mother of two kids – dispersed it to all his different places, and refused to return it:

  • Costa Diamante house (where we lived) was just sold with all her stuff in it – very nice refrigerator, kitchen appliances, bedding, etc..
  • Mirador townhouse has all of her dishes, more appliances, a lot of bedding, clothing for her and her children, etc..
  • Princesa condo now has all of her very nice outdoor furniture. He moved it from Costa Diamante to the condo when he sold the house. See below.

Lola was not and is not in the position to fight for the return of her items. She had to write it off. It’s been extremely hard for her — because she lost everything, she basically now rents a room from a friend to live in. When she is able to get back on her feet again, she will have to start over from scratch. And we all know furniture, bedding, kitchen supplies, etc.. are not cheap.

Summary

Trash feels entitled to things that are not his. He has zero conscience or remorse for the harm he causes other people or the disaster he leaves in his wake. He is a sociopath and it’s only a matter of time before he steals from or harms someone else.

Ladies, do not let this be you. Do NOT, for any reason, give anything to a man. There is no reason. He should be providing for himself. I wished someone would have given me this advice before and during my time with Trash. But they didn’t. So both Lola and I are here to tell you – DO NOT GIVE YOUR MONEY OR ITEMS to any man, ever. 

Ending Narcissistic Abuse Using The Court System

PaulasPonderingsLeave a comment

Narcs will do just about anything to stay in contact. Best solution is to go no-contact and move on.

I asked him to never contact me again. I blocked him on every platform (WhatsApp, Text message, Email, Facebook, Snapchat, etc). Instead of just moving on with his life with his new girlfriend Nurse Nincompoop (aka Nurse N’Poop), He:

I’ve never had to work with the police before so everything is so new to me. I’m lucky I have an amazing Arizona attorney helping me through the process.

What I’ve learned:

  • Narcissists will never take accountability for their actions. It’s always someone else’s fault.
  • When dealing with an aggressive Sociopathic Narcissist, hire a lawyer immediately — this may very well save your life.
  • Always always always go no contact. Nothing they have to say is true or warrants any of your attention — as my lawyer says, “If his lips are moving, he is lying”..

Please take care of yourself out there. I had no idea these kinds of people existed.. I’m learning the hard way. Educate yourself on narcissism and their behaviors…. it will help you spot one earlier in the dating cycle and could save your life and your sanity.