Judge Robben was assigned to an Order of Protection evidentiary hearing my abuser requested after he was served with ...
Judge Robben was assigned to an Order of Protection evidentiary hearing my abuser requested after he was served with the ex parte OFP by me. Both the abuser and I had lawyers. I had police reports, videos of physical abuse happening in real time, pictures of physical abuse, text messages from the abuser detailing abuse he did, and audio recordings of the abuser’s active abuse. The judge ruled that because I had gone back to the abuser during the years of our marriage that an OFP wouldn’t be granted. He ruled this after he stated in his ruling, as shown also in the court transcript, that he had never seen a worse liar in all his years on the bench (referring to my abuser). My lawyer read off every MN statute requirement for OFP’s in court and stated that my case met every single requirement. But despite these statements and facts of the case, Judge Robben denied the OFP request. Both my lawyer and the domestic violence advocate at the hearing with me were stunned by his remarks because of decades of research evidence and current “Domestic Abuse 101 training” showing that a domestic violence victim goes back to their abuser 7-9 times, on average. That going back is part of the abuse cycle. And often times, victims don’t have anywhere to turn. In my case, my abuser controlled all of our finances. And Hennepin County judges were supposed to have gotten training on this as part of a systemic overhaul to the judicial system in terms of domestic violence education and training. I ended up moving out of state because he continued to stalk me, but I didn’t think I could get any help. He is now physically abusing his new girlfriend. Judge Robben’s blatant biases and blatant ignorance regarding domestic violence is literally putting people’s lives in danger.