A biting, a slapping, a fire, all in a week. For the first half of this year, 1,416 cases of abuse were reported.
By STEVE THOMPSON
Published October 15, 2003
The arguing had started earlier that day. Then he got angrier over a conversation she had with her mother.
The yelling and screaming moved into the bedroom and soon he was straddling her on the bed, shaking her, authorities said.
That's when Daniel Lawrence Winter Jr. bit off a chunk of her lower lip, according to a Pasco County Sheriff's Office report. The report said Christie Foster would be permanently disfigured.
"I was hysterical. I couldn't even calm down. I hid in the closet," Foster, 19, said Tuesday of the moments following the Oct. 9 attack. Since then, she said, she has been afraid to be alone, go out at night or sleep in the mobile home where she and Winter had lived together for more than two years.
She used to be tough. She was the girl that would stand up to guys, she said.
"I'm just not like that anymore," Foster said. "I can't even stand men in general."
Although what happened to Foster is unusual, cases of domestic violence in Pasco County are not. During the first half of this year, 1,416 cases of domestic violence in the county were reported, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. A total of 3,320 incidents were reported in 2002.
The problem is severe, said Penny Morrill, director of Sunrise of Pasco County, a domestic violence center.
"That it's the poor folks across the tracks, that's a myth. It crosses all lines."
Authorities tracked down 20-year-old Winter, Foster's now ex-boyfriend, four days after they accused him of leaving a 11/2-inch chunk of her lip sitting on their kitchen table. He was arrested Monday on a charge of aggravated battery and has since been released on a $2,500 bond.
Foster wasn't the only person in Pasco County to report abuse by a person close to her during the past week.
Steven S. Nelson, 37, was accused of slapping his live-in girlfriend in the face during an argument Monday afternoon. After that he grabbed a small hammer and hit her on the head with it several times, New Port Richey police say. The attack was apparently not life-threatening. The police report noted a bump on her forehead, which was bleeding. Nelson was being held in the county jail Tuesday in lieu of $5,000 bail on an aggravated battery charge.
Another man was arrested Monday, accused of trying to burn his own home down with his stepson in it.
Robert Ellis Jones, 44, had been arguing Sunday over a dinner plate, New Port Richey police say. He is accused of pouring gasoline over his stepson's bedroom floor and lighting it, the report says. Jones tried to put it out with a garden hose, the report said. Jones' stepson, whose age was not given in the report, and a friend escaped unhurt. A New Port Richey firefighter was treated and released from the hospital for an electrical shock he received while fighting the fire, which caused an estimated $35,000 in damages. Jones was being held in the county jail Tuesday in lieu of $30,000 on charges of arson and arson resulting in injury to another.
Morrill recommends that anybody suffering violence at the hands of a family member or loved one call the state's domestic violence hotline toll-free at 1-800-500-1119. Counselors there can discuss safety planning, she said. "There are things they can do to try to keep themselves safe."
