Whenever a woman is a victim of domestic violence, or killed by her husband, there are always those people who wonder why she didn’t leave or go to the police earlier.
Frankly, it’s because they often aren’t believed, or fear they won’t be, and get sent back to their now much more angry abuser.
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Courtney Irby of Lakefield, Florida was actually in the process of getting away.
She’s in the process of divorcing her husband Joseph, and if this latest series of events is any indication, it must have been a long time coming.
It began after a divorce hearing, where the couple got into an argument in the parking lot.
Courtney got into her car and attempted to leave, but Joseph followed her in his vehicle, repeatedly ramming into hers until she was finally forced off the road.
After calling the police, Courtney explained to them that she’d had multiple restraining orders against him previously and that she “feared for her life.”
Joseph was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, though he tried to claim that the vehicle damage was old.
Meanwhile , Courtney applied for a temporary injunction to protect herself and testified over the phone during his hearing.
Shockingly, he was given a pretrial release with only the condition that he not own, possess, or carry firearms.
However, Florida is a state with what’s known as the “relinquishment gap,” which is a loophole due to there being no process to ensure a person ordered to not own guns gives up their currently owned weapons to the authorities.
Since Courtney knew that her husband owned guns, she feared what he may do once he was released.
She also didn’t believe that he would voluntarily hand the weapons over to the police. So she headed over to his apartment, which she accessed through a “locked door” and retrieved a handgun and an assault rifle.
Courtney took them to the local police station and explained what was happening.
Instead of taking them, the officer asked if she had taken the firearms without her husband’s permission and she admitted to that.
“So, you are telling me you committed an armed burglary?” the officer asked.
“Yes, I am, but he wasn’t going to turn them in so I am doing it,” she replied.
At that point, the officers contacted Joseph, who was still in jail, and he asked the police to press charges.
She was charged with armed burglary of a dwelling and grand theft of a firearm.
Though Joseph spent only 24 hours in jail for running her off the road, Courtney waited six days to be granted bond, all the while worrying about the two kids she shared with Joseph.
Courtney’s sister says that she felt she had few options.
“My sister was hysterical,” she told LkldNow . “She knew that this just poked the bear, and he would be coming after her. In the (hopes) of protecting herself and her children, she did the one thing that she thought would help save her life. She went to his apartment, gathered his arsenal of firearms and Kevlar and took them to the police station. She just knew that if the police had the guns, she would be safe for just a little while longer.”
In a statement to HuffPost, Courtney’s lawyer said that her actions didn’t count as theft.
He explained , “Theft is to deprive someone of the right or benefit of property. She didn’t do either one of those. She was taking them to the police department for safekeeping.”
Florida officials readily admit that the situation around enforcing that “relinquishment gap” for firearms is complicated.
“We really don’t have authority to take firearms from people unless they are surrendered or there is a court order,” said Polk County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Brian Bruchey. “We can’t do anything, unless they willfully do it — release them to us.”
State legislator Anna Eskamani said that Courtney’s case emphasizes the need for stronger laws to protect domestic violence survivors.
“The case of Courtney Taylor Irby demonstrates once more the dangerous linkage between intimate partner violence and access to firearms. Court records show that Irby applied for a temporary injunction against her husband and the two were in the process of a divorce. She was actively protecting herself and her family from an estranged husband who had not turned over his firearms to law enforcement, and was arrested for it. We should be outraged by her arrest, and Irby should not be prosecuted by the local State Attorney’s office,” she said.
Meanwhile, both are out on bail and awaiting hearings for their individual charges.
Joseph’s guns were returned to him.
The founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Shannon Watts said, “This man – who poses a clear danger to his family – currently has access to his arsenal.”
h/t: HuffPost , Click Orlando , Miami Herald , LkldNow
