A woman who suffered a brutal case of domestic violence had the courage to share her story with those in attendance of the 15th Annual Domestic Violence Breakfast & Briefing.
"Janet Paulsen did everything we ask of a woman in her situation,” Hall County Solicitor Stephanie Woodard said. "She filed police reports about her abusive husband, documented his firearms, then filed for and was granted a temporary protective order (TPO). But that didn’t stop Paulsen’s husband from shooting her six times and leaving her for dead before turning the gun on himself on a quiet suburban street in Acworth in November 2015."
Nearly four years after that attack, Paulsen sat before a crowded Brenau Downtown Center audience and shared her story as part of the 15th Annual Domestic Violence Breakfast & Briefing. The event is presented each October, Domestic Violence Awareness Month, by the Hall County Domestic Violence Task Force. Hall Sheriff’s Deputy Collette Sprague also was honored as the Domestic Violence Officer of the Year.
During her presentation, Paulsen detailed an escalating cycle of emotional abuse and threatening behavior at the hands of her alcoholic husband. Finally, when she discovered he’d been drinking and driving with her then 13-year-old twin boys, she told him she was leaving and filing for divorce. He threatened to kill her. She had every reason to believe him. Paulsen detailed the evening of the attack, how he lay in wait at her home, armed with the only one of his dozens of guns the police were unable to confiscate due to gray areas in state law. Now, just weeks after he violated the TPO and was able to bail out of jail on a misdemeanor charge, she lay in her driveway clinging to life and paralyzed from the waist down.
Her story of survival and resilience captivated the audience as they saw pictures of her recovery and rehab at The Shepherd Center in Atlanta. It was there that she learned adaptive water skiing, an activity that allowed her to regain pieces of the active lifestyle she led before her attempted murder. Recently she returned from Norway, part of Team USA’s gold medal team.
She also shared her efforts to help close a loop hole in state law that allows some domestic violence perpetrators to keep their firearms in spite of a federal law (known as the Lautenberg Amendment) that prohibits it. It is a provision that could have prevented her attack and has the ability to prevent what happened to her from happening to others.
About Gateway Domestic Violence Center
Gateway Domestic Violence Center is a nonprofit organization founded in 1982 to help make a positive impact on the fight against domestic violence in Hall County. Gateway’s mission is to help create an environment for safe, healthy, self-sufficient growth and violence protection for victims of domestic violence. Gateway provides many free and confidential services to those in need including emergency shelter and transitional housing for battered women and children, classes and support groups, programs for children, occupational therapy and legal advocacy. To learn more about Gateway Domestic Violence Center call 770-539-9080 or visit gatewaydvcenter.org.
