Donna’s Story

Donna’s unusual personal background is what ultimately led her to Victims’ Safe Harbor Foundation, Inc. She grew up in Northern Virginia and moved to Florida in 1987 to attend UCF as an undergraduate student. Shortly after graduation, she married and became a mother to two beautiful daughters. While married, Donna trained exotic animals, including big cats, and co-owned a women-owned company that facilitated educational shows to raise awareness about endangered animals. However, revelations about her marriage appeared after her husband’s forced dissolution of her company. Upon separation and divorce, Donna faced adversity and domestic violence, particularly through the family law judicial process. Donna persevered, obtained her state certified general contracting license, and ran her own 8(a)-certified, woman-owned company. Ultimately, with the litigation lasting over 20 years, Donna was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder due to the abusive litigation. She obtained a PTSD service dog to assist her, and her incredible support system has allowed her to make tremendous strides towards healing. It is because of her personal experience with abusive litigation that she developed her expertise in judicial terrorism® and identifying the judicial terrorist®.

Donna attended law school to gain an educated perspective on the injustice to which she and her daughters were subjected by the protracted litigation and to learn how to bring the litigation to an end. However, she learned that abusers utilize the judicial system as a legal weapon against their victims for continuing abuse long after separation and divorce. While in law school, she published two articles on domestic violence and women’s rights. She also co-authored a law journal article on the use of absolute privilege by abusers against domestic violence victims in judicial proceedings with her husband, Dayton King. Donna registered two trademarks for the terms judicial terrorism® and judicial terrorist® to help educate others on abusers’ use of the judicial system for domestic violence. As a PhD student, she had the opportunity to teach and present diverse topics and articles, including a paper titled “The Frequency of Coercive Control Legislation: Legislating against Non-Violent Forms of Domestic Violence,” which lends its findings to her dissertation research that also looks at coercive control in the context of intimate partner homicides. This idea was born after Donna presented to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime regarding risk assessments for domestic violence victims because not all victims experience abuse in the form of physical violence but may, in the end, be just as much at risk of death. Her dissertation, “I Decide when You Die: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Prior Reporting of Physical Violence for Intimate Partner Homicides by Heterosexual Spouses in Florida,” was published as a book by Routledge in 2024 under the title, “Voices of Intimate Partner Homicide: An Exploration of Coercive Control and Lethality.” Donna’s personal background and passion for research and education provide a unique perspective for her goal to help victims/survivors, as well as to educate the public, judiciary, lawyers, and advocates on how abusers utilize the non-violent tactics of coercive control for ongoing domestic violence, especially within the judicial system.