Good morning:

I am writing to find out if there is a place where  women can go for help who have been sexually harassed by a neighbor, a city employee, and certain members of the police departments. I won't go into the entire story right now, but suffice it to say, that this harassment has been going on for more than 35 years and is still taking place. My husband, an elderly man, and myself, have been and are still being harassed by people who should be protecting us.  I believe the police are the enemy of every law abiding citizen.  They are certainly not our protectors. When I was young, a hundred years ago, I made some mistakes. Who doesn't? Then in l972 I met and married my wonderful husband.  But  these people (I have their names on my caller ID), some of them members  of the Police Department, have been harassing both my husband and I for many, many years. 

 I have filed sexual harassment and attempted rape charges against a city employee, and certain members of the local Police Department.  Not all of them, just certain ones. After years of being followed while I went to the grocery store, the only places we go, I finally wrote to Nancy Pelosi, and most of the  harassment and threatening phone calls have stopped.  But they went on for a long time, and would never have stopped had I not written to Mrs. Pelosi.

However, this past Sunday, my son and I were taking my husband (76 years old) to the hospital because he was having chest pains.  My son was driving because I don't drive anymore, and I didn't want  my husband driving while he was having chest pains.  He is not well and has suffered two heart attacks and I have had one, brought on by the brutality, constant harassment, intimidation, terrorizing and threatening of the members of the Police Department, and the particular city employees.  These are viscous, vindictive people whose only reason for living is to brutalize women and destroy them. Anyway, police officers appeared out of nowhere, to the side of us, behind us, in front of us and at the entrance to the hospital.  Why can't they leave us alone? Even when we may be dying?  I have written to the governor of Virginia, Senator Webb, Nancy Pelosi, but nothing works. Well, actually, the harassing and physical and sexual harassment by the  police officers (both city and state) did cease, but now the neighboring police department has taken over.

I filed harassment and attempted rape charges (happened years ago, but   sexual harassment continues) but cannot find out what, if anything is being done. The stalking, harassing police have driven both my husband and I to have heart attacks, and I want to file police brutality charges against them. Can you tell me how to do that?  The two individuals who tried to rape me told me that if I said a word, they would do harm to my elderly husband. I called the police back in February when they threatened my mentally handicapped, 76-year old husband, and the police would do nothing.  We tried to get a warrant for his arrest, but the county magistrate would not allow us to do so. It isn't the first time this person has threatened my husband and me, and yet the police will do nothing about it. The police also threatened us via voice mail and answering service, in addition to following us around the grocery store, having their lowlife friend, trying to force me into his truck in the parking lot, jumping out from behind shoe boxes in Walmart, and everything else you can think of.  

All of this is brought on by the raging lunatic who thinks every woman is dying to sleep with him and can't bear it when they don't; and a brutal, psychotic, stalking, delusional city employee. There were so many names on my caller ID, some of them women, and I wrote down their names, but these are the ones that come to mind.   Please know that the physical and sexual harassing calls from the police came the very night after I had filed charges against these men with the governor. Not one complaint that I filed has ever been acted upon, at least as far as I know. I guess while were trying to get my husband to the hospital to save his life, the police were out, doing their usual thing, following, harassing, raping, intimidating, threatening and murdering citizens, the things they do  best. I haven't always hated the police.  I lived in this city all of life, and I have never been questioned, charged, or convicted of anything. So this personal vendetta against my husband and me has to stem from the filthy lies of these city employees and their influence with the police department. Like I said, these people are sick.  I don't think the police department should be used to terrify and harass people, and who just want to destroy innocent people they don't happen to like.

If there is further information that you can give me, since the police   chiefs will not respond to my requests, please let me know.  Somebody may get hurt if this continues. 

Thank you for listening. 

Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

Sadly, I have heard many stories about people's cases being mishandled or not handled by the police. This is often the case when an abuser is also a police officer, miraculously any allegations against him disappear. So I can certainly attest to the fact that police officers aren't always as neutral as they should be in order to adequately do their job. In reading your note, however, I'm not sure what the actual sexual harassment was. I ask this because perhaps part of the problem is appropriately identifying what happened to you. Sexual harassment is a very specific thing, and yet there are so many other harassments that happen, which happen to be sexual, but which fall outside of this legal definition. I would actually say that is a major gap, there is little room to acknowledge that in between place, or the murky area of harassment.

Of course, this doesn't mean the act itself shouldn't be punished, etc., but because there is a limitation in terms of representation then it has ramifications. Have you tried going directly to the DA? I think that the more local you can get, the better. Of course, Nancy Pelosi should be sympathetic, but she is more likely to be if she has a more direct relationship to your district. I would also encourage you to work through existing organizations, such as those who work in your area on the issue of domestic violence. They often know of sympathetic officers and judges and can better finagle an otherwise unjust situation.

Good luck to you and I'm sorry that you have to experience this and more so, that you can't get the appropriate response.

--Amy