Trumbull County Administration Building, 4th Floor 160 High Street, NW Warren, Ohio, 44481 New York University School of Law 40 Washington Square South New York, NY 10014 January 19, 2017 Dear Mr. Watkins: We are members and supporters of the Domestic Violence Advocacy Project and the Black Allied Law Students Association at New York University … More Open Letter to Prosecutors #41

Prosecutor Dennis Watkins Trumbull County Administration Building, 4th Floor 160 High Street NW Warren, OH 44481 Dear Prosecutor Dennis Watkins and Attorney Stanley Elkins, Imagine yourself in Bresha Meadows’ shoes. Imagine if your father was constantly abusing your family and threatening you with a gun. What would you do? It would be his life or … More Open Letter to the Prosecutors #40

Prosecutor Dennis Watkins Trumbull County Administration Building, 4th Floor 160 High Street NW Warren, OH 44481 Dear Prosecutor Dennis Watkins, I write to you to with grief knowing that Bresha Meadows has now spent 146 days in jail and that she will remain imprisoned over the holidays. Bresha endured unrelenting, unimaginable terror and violence at … More Open Letter to Prosecutors #39

Prosecutor Dennis Watkins Trumbull County Administration Building, 4th Floor 160 High Street NW Warren, OH 44481 To Prosecutor Dennis Watkins and Attorney Stanley Elkins: I am writing to you all as a survivor of domestic violence, someone who witnessed it regularly in childhood. People like me are rarely represented in campaigns against domestic violence, media, … More Open Letter to Prosecutors #38

Prosecutor Dennis Watkins Trumbull County Administration Building, 4th Floor 160 High Street, NW Warren, Ohio, 44481 To Prosecutors Dennis Watkins and Stanley Elkins: Your decision to once again postpone the hearing for Bresha Meadows is unconscionable. A 15-year-old girl has been incarcerated for 117 days without a hearing! A girl who has suffered untold physical … More Open Letter to Prosecutors #37

Prosecutor Dennis Watkins Trumbull County Administration Building, 4th Floor 160 High Street, NW Warren, Ohio, 44481 To Prosecutors Dennis Watkins and Stanley Elkins: We are Peer Educators at the Center for Anti-Violence Education (CAE) in Brooklyn, NY. We are a group of young women and transpeople, ages 12 – 19, who believe that violence is … More Open Letter to Prosecutors #36

To Prosecutors Dennis Watkins and Stanley Elkins: I am writing because I have been shaken to the core by the story of Bresha Meadows. This past week has seen the passage of her eightieth day in jail as she awaits her sentencing hearing. Eighty days. Each one of them does further harm to this child … More Open Letter to Prosecutors #35

Dear Prosecutors Dennis Watkins & Stanley Elkins, The answer to the loss of one life cannot be found in ending another. Prosecuting Bresha will continue the injustice upon her by a system that decided it could not or did not have to protect her. I don’t know the exact path to take, but the way … More Open Letter to Prosecutors #34

Prosecutor Dennis Watkins Trumbull County Administration Building, 4th Floor 160 High Street, NW Warren, Ohio, 44481 Dear Mr. Watkins, I just read about Bresha Meadows and I was so moved by her story that I chose to share my own story as an adult survivor of child abuse. Ms. Meadows is a strong young lady … More Open Letter to Prosecutors #33

To Mr. Dennis Watkins, I am writing you to get Bresha Meadows out of jail before her trial begins. Bresha Meadows acted in self defense when she used a gun to kill her father while he slept. I was also abused when I was Bresha’s age and if I had access to a gun I … More Open Letter to Prosecutors #32