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Thursday, 30 Jul 2009, 12:41 AM MDT
TUCUMCARI, N.M. (KRQE)
TUCUMCARI, N.M. (KRQE)
http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/crime/...fails_brutalized_stalking_victim_200907300041- Scott Simpson is Tucumcari's recreation director, but on Wednesday he was strapping on a gun to protect his daughter from her ex-boyfriend furloughed from jail by a sympathetic judge.
Two days after Moses Earl Ingram walked out of jail on a promise to behave Anber Simpson was brutally beaten at her home. She’s too scared to go on camera.
“We've got her in hiding in a safe house," her father said. "I'm armed around her all the time.
"He's still saying he's bound to kill her.”
According to police Ingram attacked Simpson in April, pulled her in the house by her hair, body slammed her, choked her and repeatedly punched her in the face. Prosecutors charged Ingram with kidnapping, assault and battery.
In May, he bonded out of jail; he was not to have any contact with the victim. The next day though, she said he started harassing her by phone at the convenience store where she worked saying if he was going to go to jail, he was going to "make it worth it."
Police threw him back in jail.
This isn't Ingram's first brush with the law. Earl Ingram has a lengthy arrest record for violent assaults against women.
Still, on July 9, Ingram wrote a letter begging the judge to let him out of jail to see his son and daughter. At a hearing last week, Judge Albert Mitchell granted Ingram a two-week furlough, no guards, no ankle monitor, simply a promise to behave.
The judge ordered house arrest and told him to stay away from Simpson.
But last week, two days after he got out, Simpson said he attacked her again, this time breaking several bones in her face and nearly killing her. She was able to hit the car alarm button on her keys, and the alarm alerted neighbors.
“By the time I got to my door he was dragging her by the hair back across the street," neighbor Lendy Borden told KRQE News 13. He yelled for his wife to call police.
“I hollered at her and said, 'There's blood everywhere; tell them to hurry,” Scott said. “It's traumatic that day, and then you find out she's going to live, there's a big relief there.
"That's when the questions and anger comes to play. She knew he was going to come after her, and she didn’t get a chance to state that.”
It wasn't until the day after the hearing that Simpson found out about it, and that shouldn't have happened. The law says it's the district attorney's responsibility to notify the victim before any hearing.
Quay county District Attorney Ronald Reeves won't talk about it. Asked if Simpson was notified about the hearing or notified about Ingram's release, he twice answered, "No comment."
The law also requires the judge to protect the rights of victims, and the state statute requires the judge to ask if the victim is present in court. If not, he must ask the district attorney if the victim was notified.
If the answer is again no, the judge is supposed to either reschedule the hearing or delay his ruling.
Mitchell told News 13 over the phone that he regrets releasing Ingram from jail.
"I am very upset," the judge said. "I issued a bench warrant as soon as I heard about what happened. I have empathy for the victim."
Ingram is still on the run, and that scares the hell out of the Simpson family.
“You live in fear for your daughter and see those fears play out," Scott Simpson said. "It's terrifying.”
Anyone with information on Moses Earl Ingram's whereabouts is asked to call police.
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