Judge jails domestic violence victim after she skips attacker’s trial

A judge in Florida is taking a few heat after she sent a victim of domestic violence to jail.

Under fire… Judge Jerri Collins has been slammed by domestic violence advocacy groups after she sentenced an abuse victim to jail for failing to turn up to her attacker’s trial.

Her ex-boyfriend, who has a criminal record of domestic violence, allegedly choked her and grabbed a kitchen wife in front of their one-year-old child.

The victim, whose identify is protected, had been given a court order to appear at Seminole County for the case.

Collins was appointed to the Seminole County Court by former Florida Governor and 2016 Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, according to Ballotpedia. “Look what happened to her. She could be lying, broken in a ditch somewhere, and she would probably not call police because of what happened to her in this place”, Jeanne Gold, the CEO of SafeHouse, a Florida organization that offers shelter to abuse victims, told WFTV.

When the sobbing woman was asked again why she failed to appear at trial, she gave a disjointed explanation about lack of child support and the mess her life is in.

WFTV also quotes Collins as saying, “You think you’re going to have anxiety now?” Collins says. “You haven’t even seen anxiety”.

“There’s no – absolutely nothing that I could think of that would be the reason to re-victimise this person by putting her in jail, and so I don’t understand where that thinking came from”, Gold told ABC News in the US. She said she is living at her parents’ house and had to sell everything she owned. “My anxiety is like, this is every day for me”.

“I asked them to drop everything”.

The woman apologizes again, telling the judge she’s homeless and “not in a good place right now”.

Collins has not commented about her decision to jail the victim, who has not been identified publicly.

Ray went to the judge’s office to try and get her side. “I’ll do anything”, which Judge Collins ignores. I have a 1-year-old son and I’m trying to take care of him by myself. The victim has the option to appeal but since she’s already served her sentence for contempt of court, it won’t change what she’s gone through.

WPTV-TV Channel 9 reached out to the Seminole County judge for comment.

Judge Jerri Collins jailed a domestic abuse victim for failing to appear in court to testify against her attacker.

As WTFV’s legal analyst puts it, “Sometimes the judges, in the hast of trying to do their jobs, forget the big picture”.