By Nikki Brown, Staff Attorney, Family Law Unit
Our client Adriana Cordero (fictitious name) entered the relationship as a minor (16 years old) with a partner ten years her senior. Over the course of the relationship, she had three children and endured years of coercive control, social isolation as well as physical, emotional, and financial abuse. Ms. Cordero had only limited documentation remaining from incidents that occurred several years earlier, and the most recent allegations of abuse were in 2023. Her partner, Vicente Davis (fictitious name), was incarcerated in 2024. Ms. Cordero ended the relationship while he was incarcerated and was afraid the abuse would resume now that he’d been released. She came to the Domestic Violence clinic because she learned that only one day after his release, Vicente Davis appeared at the children’s daycare, demanding to be able to leave with them.
Mr. Davis argued that the abuse was in the past and that he had never harmed Ms. Cordero, that there was no current threat to her or the children, and that she was just trying to keep the children away from him. I represented Ms. Cordero at the Domestic Violence Restraining Order hearing and helped her present testimony and evidence that illustrated a clear history of coercive control and multiple incidents of physical abuse including several involving strangulation either in front of the children or while she was pregnant. She testified why his recent release and immediate attempts to reassert access caused a reasonable fear of renewed abuse and presented evidence that she was not trying to keep the children from their father. In fact, she had continued facilitating contact even when he was in jail.
The court granted a four-year domestic violence restraining order which included the children as protected parties, awarded Ms. Cordero sole legal and sole physical custody of the children under the 3044 presumption, and ordered the father’s visits to be professionally supervised at his expense. These orders give Ms. Cordero meaningful protection while allowing the children a structured, safer opportunity to rebuild a relationship with their father. Just as importantly, they protect the independence she has built since leaving the abusive relationship, including employment and financial independence. Mr. Davis, by his own admission, had not allowed Ms. Cordero to work. She recently got a new job, has already been promoted, and has gotten her own car. She is in a new healthy relationship and is expecting a baby soon.
