What does a woman do when she is abused?  What does she do when her husband threatens her life? 

If she is smart, she gets help and leaves…

That is what Laura did, and now the City of St. Helens has put her in jeopardy.

Laura Johnston lived in Tennessee, where she was in a very controlling situation with her husband.  According to a  "Demand for a jury trial", she stated that she was in fear of her life.  According to this trial request, her husband, Richard Johnston, was good friends with the local Mayor, Police Chief , and had friends that worked for the Department of Motor Vehicles in the town of Venore, Tennessee where they lived.  Because of these connections, it was her belief that her husband had the resources to carry out his threats.

Laura (According to her request for trial) contacted a friend named Kevin Hill.  He put her in touch with another friend, Gary Moser.  Moser was willing to provide Laura with room and board until she could gain some financial security to start a new life.

On July 11, 2002, Laura arrived in St. Helens.  On the following day, Mr. Moser took her to the local Woman's Resource Center where she was assigned a counselor.  Her councilor put her in touch with Police Chief Cocklin who listened to her story.  The Jury Trial Request indicated that she told the Chief about her husband's threats to kill her, and about his "connections."

Chief Cocklin ran a check on her driver's license, and discovered that there was, a "pick up order" on her for being missing and in danger.  She told the Chief that this was one of her husbands ways of finding her, and asked that this pick up order be taken off, because she was "where she wanted to be and not in danger." 

Police Chief Cocklin assured her that he would get the order taken off and he gave her a card.  He told her that if any of his police officers pull her over, that all she had to do was show his card and tell them to get in touch with him.

Gary Moser and some of our local police officers are not friends.  There have been instances in the past were they have been at odds, and Mr. Moser has even sued them.   Consequently, he was not very popular with all of them. 

On August 17^th, Laura borrowed Mr. Moser's car to run some errands.  She looked in her rear view mirror and noticed a police officer following her.  The car stayed with her seemingly  following her for some time. Finally the lights came on signaling her to pull over.

The police officer introduced himself as Officer Bundy.  He told her that she had failed to use a turn signal and had made an illegal lane change.  Laura denied this, and told the officer Bundy that she was watching him follow her for quite some time.

As the police officer started to write out a ticket, Laura showed him Chief Cocklin's card and begged him to talk to the Chief before turning the citation over to the Department of Motor Vehicles.  She told the police officer that if her husband ever found where she was, that he might kill her.

The Officer Bundy continued writing out the citation.

Laura was extremely worried.  She contacted her councilor at the Woman's Resource Center, and he, in turn, made an attempt to contact the Police Chief but was not successful.  He told Laura that she needed to try and call the Chief or the Victims Advocacy Representative before Monday to stop the citation from being entered into the DMV Computer.

Monday arrived, and Laura was finally able to get in touch with Chief Cocklin.  He told her it was "too late."  The ticket had already been turned into the DMV Saturday evening, and it was her fault for living with Gary Moser.  Evidently this last statement stung.

On Tuesday (August 19^th) her councilor helped her file a Restraining Order with the courts.  That afternoon, a friend checked her e-mail and called her to tell her that there was an e-mail from her husband saying that he now knows where she lives, and was on his way. 

Laura was forced to fee the State and go into hiding; resulting in her losing her job.

On September 16^th, Laura returned to St. Helens.  It was her turn to appear before Justice Thompson in Municipal Court. Laura pleaded "Not Guilty" to the St. Helens Offi