2014 Sara Lewkowicz – “Domestic Violence” These images are copyrighted by Sara Lewkowicz and are used her by permission. They may not be used elsewhere without her permission. Domestic Violence Maggie had two children, Memphis, age 2, and Kayden, age 4. Maggie had separated from their father several months prior to beginning her relationship with Shane. From the beginning of the relationship, Shane became very involved with the children, asking Kayden to call him “dad.” One month into their courtship, Shane had Maggie’s name tattooed on his neck in large black letters. Maggie and Shane took a rare night out alone together, singing karaoke at a local bar. Shane flung Maggie back into the kitchen when she tried to escape. He told her, at one point, that she could either get beaten up in the kitchen, or come into the basement with him so that they could talk alone. Maggie refused to be alone with him, saying she was fearful of what he might do without witnesses around. As Shane and Maggie continued to fight, Memphis ran into the room and refused to leave Maggie’s side. Shane continued to scream in Maggie’s face as Memphis wedged herself between them. At some point, the toddler had stopped crying and began trying to soothe her weeping mother. A resident of the house called the police, who arrived and arrested Shane. As he was being led away in handcuffs, Shane pled with Maggie not to let the police take him into custody, crying out, “Please, Maggie, I love you, don’t let them take me, tell them I didn’t do this!” Maggie sat in front of her best friend Amy’s house and smoked the morning after the assault, while Kayden and Amy’s daughter Olivia, three, played in the window. A few days later, she decided to move to Alaska to be closer with her estranged husband and father of her children. Shane pled guilty to a count of domestic battery, and was given a nine month sentence. He was released in August 2013, five months later, on good behavior. The decision to move to Alaska was made quickly after the incident, and Maggie and the children moved into an apartment with Zane inside of a month. The couple had limited funds, and the children slept on a futon together for their first several months. Kayden’s behavior had shifted dramatically after the move to Alaska. His mother said he acted out far less often and tested his father’s boundaries far less than he did with Shane. “He respects his father,” Maggie said. “He never liked Shane. He never respected him.” Maggie and Kayden, four, share a moment in the apartment they share with Maggie’s husband. Over three months after the assault, Maggie has moved her family to Anchorage, Alaska to try to repair her marriage and give the children a chance to be closer to their father. Maggie and her husband met at 14, when he invited her to a rodeo for their first date. She said they’d been on and off since eighth grade, and always seem to find their way back to one another.
