Sue Bell Cobb - There Must Be a Witness: Stories of Abuse, Advocacy, and the Fight to Put Children First

Advance Praise for There Must Be a Witness

A powerful reminder that children and women are too often neglected and abused, and then have their injuries compounded by the indifference or failure of the institutions that should protect them but dont. There Must Be a Witness is also an object lesson that to get things changed for the better, we have to work and fight for what is right.

LILLY LEDBETTER, namesake of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

This is an important work on the critical challenges our country and legal system face. Too many children in this country have been discarded, marginalized and abandoned. With the analytical insight of a Supreme Court justice and the heart and passion of a loving parent, Sue Bell Cobbs book brings much needed clarity to the urgent issues we need to confront to protect our children.

BRYAN STEVENSON, founder, Equal Justice Initiative

I have waited for this story to be told by someone capable of leading the crusade that will open access and opportunity to all of Alabamas children. Sue Bell Cobb is that person. She has the heart of a child, a wealth of experience, and a deep understanding of what is needed for future generations to reach their full potential. Her new book, a powerful account, offers a window into a world too often shrouded from view and demonstrates the critical importance that we live in a society that is truly trauma informed.

KELLEY PARRIS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR The Childrens Board of Hillsborough County

This book is a must-read. It chronicles the stories of child advocates growing up in starkly different circumstances, and reminds us all that we are the product of our birthright: good and bad. For the children who do not have parents to advocate and navigate for them, we must all step up to that role. Chief Justice Cobbs experience resonates with my own, in many ways, and I, too, feel compelled to bear witness to the circumstances of children and work to shape policies that truly do put children first. The stories of this book will touch every heart and inspire action, which, of course, is exactly what the authors intend.

REBECCA LOVE KOURLIS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System

Sue Bell Cobbs witness to the needs of our most vulnerable children and the short-sightedness of past attempts to address these needs presents a powerful call to action. Her narratives demonstrate that our failure to adequately attend to the effects of abuse and neglect on children and families dooms future generations to the personal, economic and societal costs that flow from this trauma. Chief Justice Cobb persuasively summons us individually and collectively to advocate for these children who are without power and voice and in the process create a better world for all children and their families.

MARSHA TERNUS, former Chief Justice, Iowa Supreme Court

There Must Be a Witness emphasizes that care for underserved or abused children is not a luxury we can choose to affordit is a responsibility we should all share. The authors bypass the rhetoric and the anxieties that so often confuse this priority among Alabamians. Instead, Chief Justice Cobb and Cenegy use stories from Cobbs unprecedented career to plead for more proactive solutions. Beyond documenting examples of tragedy and triumph from Alabamas child advocacy services, the book doubles as a clarion call of whats possible for childrenand for the futurein the Yellowhammer State.

JOSH MORGAN, Host, Plural of You

This marvelous book brings to life the world of child advocacy. And while written by a judge, it includes a wide angle lens on child advocacy. It brings together the perspective of the judiciary, law enforcement, foster care, child welfare and the voices of children themselves. It should be on the bookshelf of every family lawyer, judge, prosecutor, police, child welfare worker, and student in social work and criminal justice. It is a hard topic with hard stories, and yet it is hard to put this book down.

KEVIN CORCORAN, PHD, JD Professor of Social Work, University of Alabama

This book chronicles the ordinariness of horrific abuse harming children of all classes and races. It also captures the remarkable resiliency of those many who move beyond the harms they have suffered to support and protect others. Sue Bell Cobb and Nick Cenegy provide readers with more than good reasons to work to improve the lives of children by finding new resources and marshaling communities to insist on better services for children.

JUDITH RESNIK, Arthur Liman Professor of Law, Yale Law School

NewSouth Books

105 S. Court Street

Montgomery, AL 36104

Copyright 2018 by Sue Bell Cobb and Nick Cenegy.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by NewSouth Books, a division of NewSouth, Inc., Montgomery, Alabama.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBN 978-1-58838346-4

Design by Randall Williams

Printed in the United States of America

To my beloved parents, Otis and Thera Bell,

who filled the well from which their children could drink forever,

And to Bill, my love,

and Caitlin, my greatest blessing

Contents

Table of Contents

W hat Ive seen in the courtroom has tested my ability to remain composed and professional; what Ive seen in government is arguably worse. Every judge, lawyer, police investigator, teacher, and social worker is dogged by a storyperhaps file cabinets full of them. They often sound like this:

There was this child... all the signs were there... we all knew she was being abused but she was afraid to say anything...to make matters worse, no one would come forward... no one would be a witness...

Or:

That little girl was brave enough to speak out against the person she loved... the adults who sat on the jury did not want to believe that she suffered such horrific abuse... It was one of the most frustrating experiences of my life. I had to excuse myself so that I wouldnt lose it right there in the courtroom.

There is a special community of people who work to better childrens lives. This book is my effort at bringing together some of those diverse voices. Choosing the stories was the hardest. It meant that some stories would remain confined in memory or in the sealed files of the juvenile court. I dont for a moment pretend that cases I presided over in my three decades as a judge have left me with scars nearly as deep as those who tell their stories here. Still, violence against our children wounds us all. Its infuriating when our system fails to identify or officially acknowledge a childs suffering in time to do something about it. There are few failures more frustrating than witnessing a child return to a home wracked by violence or sexual abuseyet it happened a few times in my courtroom, and it happens all too often in courtrooms across the nation. At such a moment, any consoling thought we have that the criminal justice system is working to make people safer evaporates in the reality that an innocent boy or girl is left with little more than his or her own ability to endure. Where the abuser should have suffered the consequences, the child is instead left to bear the full weight of her experience for the rest of her life, and she will forever ask why people would not believe her.