FARMINGTON, Maine (WMTW) – Agnes Barden’s abuser is out of jail Wednesday morning.

By the time he is released, she will have fled with her daughter. She says it’s her only option.

“I’ve got a whole life to get out,” Barden said.

She says her husband abused her for years and that she finally went to the police when her husband threatened to burn down their house and kill her and their daughter.

Court documents show he pleaded guilty to domestic violence terrorizing and illegal gun possession. Despite having previous convictions, he will be released after spending less than a year in prison.

“I was very adamant about it on the day of sentencing and they still let him take a plea,” Barden said.

When he heard he was going to be released, he panicked and turned to lawyers for advice.

“It tells us we’re on a high mortality list,” Barden said of the advice a lawyer gave him. “That we have… if he is released, there is a high probability that he will return home and try to harm you and your daughter. You are not safe there.”

She has a protection from abuse order against him, he will have to follow the terms of probation, and local law enforcement has given him some safety measures, but she doesn’t think it’s enough to protect her and her daughter. A lawyer told him he needed an escape plan.

“It puts all these ideas in my head about how to teach my daughter to jump out the window and run to the nearest neighbor and teach her not to protect you and tell her that her life is more valuable than yours … and this is a seven-year-old, you’re telling me I have to tell her these things,” Barden said. “It’s terrifying.”

Although her husband is prohibited from owning guns, that has not stopped him from acquiring them in the past.

“I’m going to make sure he can’t find us because my daughter and I are not a statistic,” Barden said. “I will not allow it.”

She has packed all her things and she and her daughter are hiding.

“I don’t understand why our system is the way it is,” Barden said. “I think there needs to be a change.”

Prosecutors say sometimes a plea deal is the best case scenario.

“A lot of it is not about keeping the victim safe, it’s about keeping defendants out of jail,” said Shira Burns, executive director of the Maine State Attorney’s Office. “They want to see them rehabilitated.”

In Barden’s case, the defendant may have served a longer sentence if the case had gone to trial, but only if prosecutors were able to obtain a guilty verdict, which Burns says is difficult in violent cases domestic, where much of the abuse takes place behind the scenes. closed doors.

“Other factors when you look at plea deals are what the state can actually prove,” Barden noted.

District Attorney Neil McLean, whose district attorney’s office includes Franklin County, where Barden’s husband was charged, says the prosecutor in this case took a unique approach, seeking a longer sentence by filing charges for each gun and helping secure a period longer trial.

Barden says she would feel safer if her abuser had electronic monitoring, and some counties offer GPS monitoring for pretrial inmates, but when it comes to probation, that would be up to the Maine Department of Corrections , and Maine doesn’t. t have a statewide electronic monitoring program.

“Will the victim feel safe and actually be safe when the defendant is released,” Burns asked. “The criminal justice system doesn’t provide that.”

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