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from Dateline: Husband paralyzes wife

 
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gozgals



Joined: 28 Jul 2005
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Location: A Place Called Vertigo

PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 5:22 am    Post subject: from Dateline: Husband paralyzes wife Reply with quote

I read this very sad story about a controlling ex-husband tonight and how dangerous he was. I really felt sorry for the woman involved and wanted to share it.

I will post the first page and all can read this story when they have time.


The couple had shared a marriage, three children, and a divorce. She had moved on; he couldn't.
NBC video


Suspicious shooting paralyzes woman after divorce
Part 1: They'd shared a marriage, three children, and a divorce. She had moved on; he couldn't.
Dateline NBC




By Keith Morrison
Correspondent
NBC News
Updated: 1:34 p.m. CT July 31, 2007
Originally aired Dateline NBC July 30.

Keith Morrison
Correspondent


Boca Raton, Fla. - Along the Gold Coast of Florida, gazing out at the sparkling Atlantic, is one of America's privileged precincts of perpetual tan: Boca Raton.

And here, under the brilliant sun, lived a golden beauty named Heather Grossman.

She was a mother of three whose tumultuous first marriage and bitter divorce had given way to new love, new marriage, and an apparently happy ending with a wealthy young businessman named John Grossman.


Here was their refuge by the sea.

But as anyone in Boca Raton can tell you, there are moments here when the sea and the sky go ugly and violence erupts as if from heaven itself.

October 13, 1997 was just another glorious day.

Heather, 31, and her new husband John were driving to lunch.

They'd stopped for a red light.

Did they see the green Ford approach on the left? Did they hear the blast pierce the morning air?


Det. John Sanchez: It was reported by witnesses that they saw a-- like a rifle going out of the window, passenger window, and firing. And then the vehicle took off.

Detective John Sanchez was one of the first to arrive.

John Grossman's injury appeared to be minor.

Not so for Heather.

Det. Sanchez: It was pretty bad. The female victim, Mrs. Grossman, she had a very traumatic injury to her neck.
Keith Morrison: Unclear at that point whether she would survive or not.
Det. Sanchez: Unclear.

She did survive – barely. But now paralyzed from the neck down, she remembers the moment as clear as if it were this morning.

Heather Grossman: I felt my body shutting down … shutting down almost like a machine.

Her life, in one violent moment, was unalterably changed.

Not just for Heather. There were the children, 8-year-old Ronnie, and 6-year-old twins, Lauren and Joseph.

What would become of them?

As Heather lay in the hospital, struggling to survive, her ex-husband, a wealthy car dealer named Ron Samuels sought to assume custody of their three children and actually filed the request in court.

But, wait. This was not simply the supportive gesture of a concerned parent. First you should know a little about Ron Samuels.

Heather Grossman: He always forced the child custody issues even after the divorce. He had an extreme amount of money, and he used it to legally harass me through the court system.

It hadn't always been that way. In the late ‘80s, Heather, a former cheerleader from Minnesota, had been working as a flight attendant when she met Samuels on a plane. Samuels wooed her with gusto and charm.

Heather Grossman: Very handsome, had a lot of charisma … You know, if we went out for dinner, he always sent me flowers after.

They got married in 1988. And almost right away, says Heather, he changed.

Heather Grossman: He became very controlling, very demanding. It was almost like he owned me.

It wasn't all bad, mind you. Eventually there were their three children. Samuels was a doting father even as, according to Heather, he became an unpredictable and abusive husband.

Heather Grossman: One time, he threw a whole plate of lasagna at me. If I didn't do something right, you know, he would blow up.

She could never tell, she said, when a storm was coming, or how bad it would be.

Heather Grossman: I was pregnant with my twins and he held a gun to my head and said, you know, "You're not going to leave. If you leave me, I'll kill you.”

She finally did leave, filing for divorce in '92.

The children bounced back and forth, staying mostly with her, but sometimes with him.

She took up with John Grossman, a Minnesota businessman whose successful and well-connected father was part owner of the Minnesota Vikings.

Meanwhile, Samuels romanced his lawyer's secretary, a woman named Deborah Love.

Deborah Love: He was impossible to ignore. I mean, he made you aware of his presence. He was very friendly. He was charming.

Except, that is, when he told Deborah about ex-wife Heather.

Deborah Love: He said she was a real bitch. And he said she was a gold digger. And that all she cared about was herself.

Samuels' war with Heather intensified.

He sold his car dealership, stashed money offshore in the Cayman Islands, and battled Heather in court for the children.

He even accused Heather and her new husband of abusing the kids.

By then, Samuels had married Deborah Love and he told her all about it.

Deborah Love: Ron would say, "Debbie, you'll never believe what the children just told me. They're being beat with a big belt called Big Moe. John's beating them. John's locking them in the closet. Isn't that right, Ronnie? Isn't that right, Joseph?"
Keith Morrison: And they would say what?
Deborah Love: Sometimes they would say “yes” and sometimes they wouldn't say anything.

But the Grossmans denied his accusations. Heather felt the children were being pressured by their father.

Heather Grossman: These were children that were two- and three-years-old being pushed around and influenced by a very scary individual.

Samuels even called police about the alleged abuse. And who headed the investigation? Why the very same detective Sanchez who, later, was called to the scene of that shooting.

Det. Sanchez: There was insufficient evidence to charge them with abuse.

And then finally, by Oct. 1997, the court had had enough. Samuels was denied visitation. He was ordered to pay back child support by Oct. 31, 1997, or face jail time.

Just two weeks before the deadline, a shotgun blast had put everything on hold. At the scene John Grossman told police he knew where to lay the blame.

Det. Sanchez: He suspected right away that it was her former husband.
Keith Morrison: The way he was saying it, was it a mere suspicion or was he convinced that this--
Det. Sanchez: He was convinced. He was convinced.

In a stroke of luck, there had been eyewitnesses who provided the first clue.

John Sanchez: The witnesses were able to identify and provide a tag number for that vehicle.
Keith Morrison: So you tracked the car down.
Det. Sanchez: Yes.
Keith Morrison: Case resolved?
Det. Sanchez: No. N-- case was not resolved.

Why? Because that car did not belong to Ron Samuels.

In fact, Samuels was nowhere near the shooting that day -- and had witnesses to prove it.

But he was busy in the days after the shooting, trying to get custody of his children. It was an effort that failed.

But then police seemed to have failed, too, to answer the question: Who shot Heather Grossman? And why?

CONTINUED: ‘Blink once for yes’
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20040663/

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