For months, one thing after another kept happening to Claire. She was in a car accident. Then, the kitchen sink needed to be repaired. After that, her twin daughters, who were both disabled, fell ill and needed extra in-home care and therapies. Already stretched to the max with her budget, these unexpected expenses pushed her past what she could possibly pay on her limited Social Security Disability income. She began to fall further and further behind on her mortgage.

One day, Marta returned from work to find him and their baby missing. When he finally came home, he didn’t have the baby with him. “He was super drunk and just kept saying, ‘She’s gone,’ over and over again,” says Erica. Desperate, Marta contacted the police, and a search began—but they never found the baby. Marta’s abuser was charged with the murder of their child. “They interviewed him multiple times and his story kept changing,” Erica says. “[Marta] cooperated with the police and testified against him.” He was eventually convicted.

Chase and his team wondered if the same dealership might have procured judgments against other individuals using false evidence. “Our intern for the summer did a review and found 322 other similar cases,” says Chase. “The total judgments were close to $2 million dollars.”

“[Her abuser] would force himself on her and would tell her that, ‘You’re my girlfriend—this is what you’re supposed to do,’” says Grecia. “She thought it was okay and she blamed it on herself because one incident did occur in front of her daughter.” According to Grecia, Josefina became even more wracked with guilt when her daughter, who was very young and who loved her father, begged her, “Please don’t send Daddy to jail.”

As a veteran who served in the Navy during the Vietnam era, Gordon had seen more than his fair share of life's difficulties over the years. After his service ended, for a time, his life started to go off track. Due to substance abuse issues, Gordon lost his job. He started to rack up debt. Eventually, he lost his home.

She contemplated taking her two children and leaving him, but this option was fraught. “Her husband threatened her that if she ever left and took their son, he would track her down, kill her, and kill anyone who helped her leave,” says Kelsey Raves, Clinic Victim Justice Program (VJP) Staff Attorney.