NEWS 25 WEHT Evansville, Henderson, OwensboroGetting Help For Domestic Violence

Getting Help For Domestic Violence

story by Jamie Rose

EVANSVILLE - It's Domestic Violence Awareness Month and one Tri-State domestic violence victim wants to speak---hoping by getting her story out, she can prevent it from happening to someone else.

NEWS 25 gets her story and finds out where you can go in Evansville if you find yourself or anyone else a victim.

29-year-old, Bobbie Clinely, of Ohio County, Kentucky, says she's lucky to be alive today, after what happened to her on August 5, 2008.

Clinely tells NEWS 25, "When the police came in they said my guts were literally hanging out of my side."

It's one of many injuries Clinely says she suffered on what's become an unforgettable day. She says her then boyfriend, Robert Puckett beat, stabbed, and shot her.

Robert Puckett is serving a 20 year sentence for first degree assault, and is in the Muhlenberg County Detention Center right now.

"I don't think that's long enough," says Clinely.

Clinely showed NEWS 25 the scars from that day-- stab wounds on her back, gunshot wounds to her foot, and a prosthetic left eye, just to name a few.

Clinely says, "If it hadn't been for God, I wouldn't be here right now."

Now after 54 surgeries, Clinely says she wants to get her story out.

"You don't have to be afraid. No matter what they say it's just a bluff to get you to keep your mouth shut, so they don't go to jail for a longtime," says Clinely. "There is help out there. If they're going to hit you once, they're going to do it to you again."

And Holly's House on Evansville's northside is one place you can go

"We provide a safe reporting location for victims of intimate crimes," says Holly's House Executive Director, Holly Dunn Pendleton.

Pendleton says they work with Evansville Police and Albion Fellows Bacon Center to give victims options like advocacy and shelter.

Dunn Pendleton says, "When you can provide a safe place victims don't feel like they are in trouble. Domestic violence victims have done nothing wrong."

NEWS 25 learns Evansville Police Detectives worked 80 cases of domestic violence in September out of Holly's House.

"Hopefully it's not necessarily happening more," says Dunn Pendleton. "It's that they have a safe place to come to."

If you want to report domestic violence you can contact:

Holly's House at (812)437-SAFE(7233)
750 North Park Drive, Evansville, IN 47710

Or

Albion Fellows Bacon Center (where help is available 24 hours)
Domestic Violence: (812)422-5622
Sexual Assault: (812)424-7273
Toll-Free 1-800-339-7752

Or

You can always call 911.