All Kinds of Women Get Battered

Reporter Maddie Hanna at the Concord Monitor reports this story of the local homicide prosecutor who herself became a victim of a battering boyfriend.  The story is important because it demonstrates that even someone fully-equipped with the tools of a hardened law enforcement prosecutor can be disabled by battering.

The following is an excerpt from Ms. Hanna's report:

A Laconia man accused of beating and threatening to kill a state homicide prosecutor who was his longtime girlfriend appeared in Concord District Court last week on charges stemming from his alleged efforts to blackmail the woman and her bosses.

Peter DiBiaso, 46, waived probable cause on the charges, which allege he tried to use improper influence when he called an investigator with the attorney general's office and threatened to discredit Assistant Attorney General Lucy Carrillo (pic) if the office didn't persuade the Alton police to drop its charges against him.

The Alton police [ . . . ] arrested DiBiaso in January and charged him with obstructing the report of a crime for allegedly preventing Carrillo from making a 911 call during a domestic dispute at her Alton home.  During that incident, DiBiaso, who is a convicted felon, choked Carrillo and repeatedly kicked her in the head, according to what Carrillo told the Belknap County Sheriff's Department.

But Carrillo didn't initially report those allegations to the police. Her lawyer, Chuck Douglas, said Carrillo had been reluctant to reveal what happened to her, despite having taken pictures of red marks and bruising on her neck and head.

"Unfortunately, even though Lucy is a prosecutor and a lawyer, she had all the classic symptoms of being an abused victim, which she was," Douglas said.

He said Carrillo, who had been in a relationship with DiBiaso for four years, feels that her case is "just an example that no matter who you are, even a professional woman, you can get into a situation where you don't know exactly what to do and when to do it." [ . . . ]
DiBiaso was on probation for burglary and felon in possession of a firearm convictions dating to 2009 when he was arrested Jan. 27 and charged with obstructing government administration and obstructing the report of crime or injury. According to the charges brought by the Alton police, DiBiaso grabbed a phone from Carrillo's hands as she tried to call 911.

A bail commissioner issued a temporary no-contact order between DiBiaso and Carrillo. But after his arraignment, he continued to send her harassing text messages, according to court documents, and she sought an emergency protective order from the Laconia family court.  DiBiaso wouldn't give the court his address, however, and prosecutors told a Laconia District Court judge they'd been unable to serve him with paperwork. After he didn't show up for a hearing, the Belknap County Sheriff's Department issued warrants for his arrest.

He was picked up in April in Florence, Ala., by the U.S. Marshals Joint Fugitive Task Force and brought back to New Hampshire, where he is being held at the Belknap County jail.

Before getting arrested, however, DiBiaso called one of Carrillo's friends at the Merrimack County Attorney's Office, saying he had paid someone "$5,000 to rape, beat, kill and remove Lucy's body so no one would find her," according to court documents.  He then made a series of calls to the attorney general's office, threatening to discredit Carrillo and alleging she forged her diplomas, according to court documents.  DiBiaso also threatened to share explicit photographs of Carrillo, according to court documents.

Those threats led the Belknap County Sheriff's Department, which investigated DiBiaso's threats, to charge DiBiaso with three counts of attempted improper influence.

The sheriff's department also interviewed Carrillo, who reported that before she called 911 the night of Jan. 27, DiBiaso had grown angry after checking text messages stored on her phone, according to an affidavit filed by the sheriff's department.

DiBiaso then pushed Carrillo onto her bed, straddling her and choking her, according to the affidavitCarrillo said she thought she had passed out. When she regained consciousness, she saw she was next to DiBiaso, who started kicking her in the head, according to the affidavit.

The sheriff's department charged DiBiaso with two counts of second-degree assault. Those charges are also pending in Laconia District Court.

Carrillo, who is 46, has worked for the office since 2007 and prosecuted the Mont Vernon home invasion murder cases. She was placed on paid leave March 31, as the sheriff's department was conducting its investigation, said Anne Edwards, the chief of staff for the attorney general's office[.]
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You can imagine what sort of obstacles a victim without Ms. CArillo's connections and skill-set face in getting help for this sort of crime.  It's sickening. 

Good luck to Ms. Carillo.