WCNC: A frightened domestic abuse victim begged a judge to protect her family on Friday. The judge was asked to keep the family safe after the NewsChannel-36 I-Team asked the court system some tough questions, like why the abusive ex-husband was not being required to stay away.As Thomas Price Jr. dodged WCNC's cameras Friday in Greensboro, his ex-wife, Heather Thompson faced them. She finds the courage to face the cameras these days, even though she has photographs in her mind that will haunt her forever.
More than 14 years ago, Price nearly beat Thompson to death. Those crime photos show a bruised, battered and beaten woman -- not the woman we now see.
But today, Price walks free again and Thompson says she will live in fear again.
"The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior," Thompson said.
Price terrorized Thompson from behind bars with letters.
"... I can't wait to see the fear in your eyes... before I kill you!" he wrote.
Price even threatened to kill their children. Price was then moved to federal prison, but that eased his release restrictions to not include a restraining order. After a NewsChannel 36 investigation, a hearing was scheduled to change that.
The hearing was at the federal courthouse in Greensboro on Friday. WCNC was in court and so was Heather Thompson.
"He agreed to six months GPS and curfew, and three years no contact with me and the kids," said Thompson. "I would've recognized him on the street," said Thompson after seeing Price for the first time in 14 years. "We didn't make eye contact."
She says it was chilling to hear is voice again. "He didn't say a whole lot, but that bothered me a little bit because the last time I heard his voice was that night and he was telling me that I wasn't going to live to see my kids," Thompson said.
"That voice haunts me," she added. "I do feel empowered right now because every step of the process that I have pushed for to get more restrictions on him, it was empowering, you know. I won today. We won."
Links: Read Full Post about Heather Thompson's story & WSOC-TV's News Story & MSNBC Article