My family was living in Spring Hill, FL in March in a house that we were basically renting from my mother-in-law and sharing with my husbands brother.
My oldest daughter, who had just turned 5, confided in me one morning that her uncle, David Altobella, had been sexually assaulting her and showing her graphic pornography the entire time we had lived there (which was only about 4 weeks at the time, if memory serves me correctly), and had started sexually abusing her when he had stayed with us at our apartment in Altamonte Springs, FL when she was only 3 years old.
Needless to say, I was absolutely shocked and angered. It was all I could do to not kill that pig myself.
Instead, I called my husband, who was helping his mother move possessions across country from Los Angeles (where she had just lost her job), and of course, he was outraged. He told me to call his mother, Beverly DeRoo, and tell her what happened.
Well, this is where things start to get really nauseating. She seemed unconvinced, and said it was "convenient" that this had all happened while she and Dan were both gone. She begged me not to call the police, and said the second she got back to Florida, she would take both my daughter and her son to have lie detector tests and psychological testing, and if she thought he was lying, she would turn him in herself.in the meantime, she told me, she would have David leave the house and stay somewhere else. Unfortunately, her earlier statements to me showed me that she was already on the defensive for David, and if I didn't call the police, attempts would be made to sweep it under the rug.
I had my sister call the police, and they came to the house to interview my daughter with a man from Children and Families. They interviewed her out of my presence, and she told them even more horrific things than she had told me.
She had a forensic interview with a police Child Protection Team member at the sheriffs office, as well as a forensic Medical Assessment, and the consensus from everyone she talked to in the department was that she showed advanced sexual knowledge for her age, she had given a clear descriptive history of sexual abuse and exposure to pornography (that is a quote from the police report, which I still have a copy of and would love to scan in page by page so everyone can read for themselves the atrocities he committed on my daughter).
They got a warrant, and arrested him sometime in April. After the police got involved, my wonderful mother-in-law Beverly DeRoo kicked all of us out of her house (except for David, of course). The girls and I had to spend the next 12 weeks at a battered womens shelter, while my husband went to stay with a friend back in Orlando.
We were waiting for some kind of resolution, but contact was made with me by a victims Advocate Mary Johnston who worked for either the DA or the State Attorney (I don't remember for sure). She basically let me know that it probably wouldn't be resolved any time soon, so my husband moved us to an apartment in Winter Haven, FL and we waited.
I kept regular contact with Ms. Johnston about how the case was progressing, and at first, she made it sound very promising. My daughter had already expressed interest in talking to the judge herself about what happened to her, and that coupled with the damning evidence in the police report, I thought we had a pretty slam-dunk case. Was I ever wrong.
We moved back to Cincinnati after about a year in Florida to be closer to my family and so I could go back to college. I continued to try and maintain contact with Ms. Johnston, but now it was starting to become increasingly difficult to get ahold of her.
One of the last times I spoke with her, she asked me, if they were to offer him a plea deal, what would be the least amount of punishment I would be willing to settle for? I told her I would love it if he could spend the rest of his life getting corn holed in a Florida prison, but at the VERY least, even if he never did another days jail time or community service or anything, I wanted him to have to register as a sex offender, because that's what he is, and people need to know that wherever he goes.
Well, she called me sometime later to tell me that he had gotten away with a slap on the wrist. 4 Years Probation with a charge of interfering with Parental Custody (I think, not 100% sure), which means that he DOES NOT have to ever register as a sex offender, and he was also given some kind of deal that will take it off of his record all together once he completes his probation.
Can someone PLEASE tell me how the hell that happened? It's been 3 years, and we are all still a pretty big mess about the whole thing. My husband went almost out of control with depression to the point where I thought he was going to kill himself, he felt so guilty for not protecting his daughter.
My daughter was heartbroken, because her grandmother (who she thought the sun rose and set on) didn't believe her and her uncle (who she also loved very much) abused her in the first place. He used to offer her candy to do the things she did with him, or he would tell her he would get sad and cry if she wouldn't participate.
There are SO many more details to this case. My mother-in-law was arrested herself in the course of the case for destroying evidence (she drove all the way to Tamp to dispose of the incriminating DVD that David watched with Dylan). She used almost every penny she had getting a lawyer to defend him, when she knew he was guilty.
I have not been able to get in contact with anyone at the State Attorneys office since I was told the case had ended. They told me about some victim of violent crimes fund that would help us get on our feet, but I never got anymore info about it, despite repeated calls.
I'm just sick about it. I know there probably isn't anything I can do about it now. I would love to take Beverly and David to civil court, but I don't have the money to file the case. It's getting to the point where I am tempted to try and get us on Judge Judy, so everyone can see who these people are and so we can recover some of what we lost when she kicked us out. We had just given her all of our money to move into her house when all of this went down, so we were flat broke.
I would love it if someone would please tell me if I have any legal recourse against Hernando County, or Beverly and David... I just feel so screwed, like justice was so totally NOT served, and it makes me sick just thinking about it.
Please let me know if anyone has any ideas, or if you have more questions, feel free to ask and I will answer them honestly and completely.
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