Joanna’s Story

Joanna lived in Texas with her spouse and two children.  Sadly, she was being abused by her spouse.  One day she finally had enough, took her two children and ran away.  She moved in with her sister which was only a few miles away from her spouse’s home. Unfortunately, being so close Joanna continued to be harassed by her partner. Even though Joanna felt safer at her sister’s house, her harasser started to bother Joanna’s sister and brother-in-law as well. Not knowing what else to do, Joanna fled from her sister’s home for the safety of both her and her sister’s family.  This time she moved to a different state, where she had other family members and immediately changed her phone number. However, the abusive partner filed for divorce and custody of their children in the state of Texas.

Mosaic’s attorneys understood the severity of the situation which caused Joanna to flee. In union with the state that Joanna was now residing, our attorneys were able to secure a protective order for Joanna.  This allowed her to remain safe from the abuser.

Throughout the course of the divorce case, Joanna had to change her number several times because her former partner would continue to harass her.  In one instance, Joanna’s former partner called her 63 times.  As a result, Mosaic’s attorneys, with the coalition in her new state, were able to file a violation of Protective Order case in the state which Joanna lived.

In Texas, our attorneys were able to convince the court to allow all communication between Joanna and her former partner to be done through a third party, co-parenting website.  This was a win for Joanna since releasing any information, especially her number, would not be safe for her.

Additionally, Joanna feared traveling back and forth between her new home and Texas and feared seeing her abusive former partner in court. Mosaic’s attorneys were able to effectively advocate for Joanna to not only prepare for court hearings via telephone with our attorney’s but also testify in court over the phone.  She was able to tell her story on four different occasions without having to be in court with the person she feared.

Based on her testimony and advocacy from attorneys, we were able to secure an order that allowed Joanna to remain in the new state with her two children.  It also forced Joanna’s abusive former partner to have to travel to the state where Joanna and her children lived and meet them at a police station in order exchange the children. The court also ordered that the abusive partner would be solely responsible for all costs of travel for him and the children, which is nearly unheard of in Dallas County Courts. Mosaic, with the support of our donors, was able to keep Joanna and her children safe in her new state, where they were able to start a new life.