Posted on 06/09/2004 7:46:23 PM PDT by floriduh voter
The 44-year-old woman asked for a court's protection from her husband and cited domestic problems involving touching, demonic beliefs and biblical commandments.
As Pinellas Circuit Judge George Greer looked over her request Thursday, he noted again that something was missing: The woman had listed no incidents of violence in her petition.
"I have read, reread and reread it," Greer said. "Unless I knew what had occurred, I don't think I would have done anything differently."
Helene Ball McGee died Wednesday afternoon, stabbed multiple times in her Dunedin home. Her husband, the man she tried but failed to get an injunction against, was charged with her murder.
Greer reviewed Mrs. McGee's request for an injunction Feb. 26. He said he denied the petition because she did not complain about any physical violence, which the law requires for a judge to issue a domestic violence injunction.
"I saw no violence," Greer said. "I saw no real fear of imminent violence."
Mrs. McGee wrote in her petition that her husband, Bobby Lane McGee, got angry because she refused to sleep with him. He told her she was "possessed by the devil because I will not follow the Bible and fulfill a wife's duties," she wrote. She complained that he touched her without permission and made her touch him.
"He wrote a letter stating he wants to change my name to Celene because Helene is from hell and must be destroyed," Mrs. McGee wrote. "I am afraid he will act on these threats and try to kill me because my name is Helene."
A court hearing on her injunction petition was scheduled March 5, but notice about the hearing was never served to her husband. It is not clear why the notice was not served. Another hearing was scheduled for April 2.
A deputy serving the notice for that hearing Wednesday heard sounds coming from Mrs. McGee's house at 2473 Treemont Way. He called for other deputies, who found her body inside.
Sheriff's spokesman Cal Dennie said McGee, 43, ran out the back door and submerged himself in a canal behind the house. He was wearing a camouflage outfit and two empty knife sheaths when a police dog found him.
Mrs. McGee was a nurse for the contractor that provides health care at the Pinellas County Jail. McGee worked recently as a cab driver.
Records show the couple married Jan. 17. It was at least his sixth marriage and her third.
Within weeks of the marriage, deputies were called to the house for family trouble. On Feb. 3, Mrs. McGee told deputies the couple had argued and he had written a threatening letter that accused her of sleeping with a detention deputy.
According to the deputy's report, Mrs. McGee said her husband wanted sex 10 to 20 times daily and told her she was not following the "commandments" of marriage.
Mrs. McGee also told deputies that McGee had burned her collection of angels, icons, crosses and other religious items.
Deputies returned to her house Feb. 26 after another argument. Photographs of her ex-husbands and family members had been torn from frames and burned in the fireplace, along with 30 pairs of her shoes. The house was ransacked, and telephone lines were cut.
That day, Mrs. McGee petitioned for an injunction to protect her from domestic violence. The next day, she filed for divorce.
On March 3, deputies stood by at her house while she got some clothes. Her 16-year-old daughter went to live with relatives. Mrs. McGee also moved.
Janice Hill, a sheriff's employee who monitors the jail's health care contract, said Mrs. McGee, who had worked at the jail since August, was staying temporarily with another nurse.
Mrs. McGee finished her nursing shift Wednesday at 3:30 p.m., Hill said, and apparently went home to get some clothing. She was found dead a short time later.
State records show McGee has been arrested once before. In 1993, he was fined after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor domestic battery charge in Hernando County. The victim was Elahe Toutailepo, 18, his fifth wife.
He punched her and threatened to kill her during a marriage that lasted eight months, according to court records. McGee's fourth wife had been scheduled to testify in that trial as a victim of previous domestic violence.
Records show McGee's marriages lasted from eight months to six years. It could not be determined Thursday whether he has children. McGee's family did not respond to a request for an interview.
Kathi Gilbert, McGee's first wife, went to school with him at Largo High in Pinellas County. They married when she was 18 and he was 20. They were married two years.
"He decided he didn't want to be married," Gilbert said. "He was never violent. He was physically small and insecure, kind of had a lack of self-confidence."
She said he was the oldest of several boys in a religious family. He worked various jobs and once was an aerobics instructor.
Records show he changed his name in 1995 from Robert Elvin Lane Jr. to Bobby Lane McGee. He has lived in Clearwater, Hernando County and Hawaii.
McGee's Dunedin neighbors say they were afraid of him, especially after getting a seven-page letter that was stuck on their mailboxes about a week ago.
McGee hand-delivered the same letter, with a photograph of him and his wife arm in arm, to the Clearwater Times last week. Wearing camouflage pants and holding a backpack, he appeared agitated when he spoke briefly with a religion reporter. McGee handed her an envelope and told the reporter that his message was spreading fast, then he quickly left.
The first two pages of the letter, which is signed "Bobby and Celene McGee," are handwritten and dated Feb. 27. Calling his wife "a deciple (sic) of the anti-Christ," McGee alleged that "Hell-ene" told him she just had sex with a deputy.
"When she first told me that, it ripped my insides out," McGee wrote. "It's hard for me to send this out because I love my wife, but God will sometimes use Satan to his advantage."
The following five pages, some of them dated in January, are typewritten religious quotations from the Bible and other sources, interspersed with McGee's comments. He urged people to help him and his wife "serve God."
"My past is remembered against me no more, so in the spiritual since (sic), she is my very first wife," McGee wrote. "She is very special to me because I feel God has made her just for me."
- Times staff writers Janet Marshall, Maureen Byrne and Graham Brink contributed to this report.
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/27379423.html?MAC=ce9f2777d2bc69c093df4f7e23bdd114&did=27379423&FMT=FT&FMTS=FT&date=Mar+13%2C+1998&author=JANE+MEINHARDT&printformat=&desc=Law+no+shield+for+slain+woman
WE HAVE REASON TO FEAR JUDGE GREER... floriduh voter
Helene trusted a judge with her life and she lost. How many times have we seen quotes from Greer "I didn't see, wasn't enough proof..." too many.
How does one "see imminent fear?" In 1998 when Helen was MURDERED 2 weeks after Greer refused a restraining order, did he have SPECIAL POWERS TO DIVINE WHAT IMMINENT FEAR LOOKED LIKE?
What was Helen supposed to do to convince Greer that her life was in danger? A song and dance with costumes and special effects???
ping to 81
We did have a non-specific meeting today however and will have another in the near future. I do have bumper stickers and business cards and some flyers received at the meeting.
Here at free republic, I've been posting material that has been emailed to me by other taxpayers who are following Terri's Fight, Jan Govan's campaign or both. Terri is not the focal point of Jan Govan's campaign but the handling of her guardianship file was a red flag that Jan Govan could not ignore or deny.
Judge Greer in my opinion cannot hold a candle to Jan Govan. Now we must convince the registered voters who actually go to the polls of same.
This info needs to be in the voters minds. Wonder if printing up flyers and putting it on cars at the mall would get the voters attention. My guess is that voters will stay home if we don't rile them up.
"I have read, reread and reread it," Greer said. "Unless I knew what had occurred, I don't think I would have done anything differently
Greer says that he "read, re-read, and re-read" Helen McGee's request for protection. How can Greer read her request if he is legally blind?
Maybe Greer went to the copy store and had her request into six inch letters and stood 20 feet away which is 200/20 vision. Otherwise, there's no way in 1998 he could have read.
I hope we can rile up the voters to go for Govan. Greer doesn't seem to value anybody's life or property and that's exclusively his job.
I see this as a quality of life issue. :oD
We have reason to fear Greer.
One can only hope.
Lord have mercy!
That would make a good protest sign.
Terri is also legally blind. Isn't it odd that her judge is legally blind too?
I also find it odd that Greer got over $20 thousand dollars in the 1998 campaign when he was running unopposed.
Well, here's another.
BUMP!
"WE HAVE REASON TO FEAR JUDGE GREER... floriduh voter"
No kidding! Certainly proof he has no perception of evil or insanity.
Just curious.....can't remember seeing anything about whether the individuals Greer rules against are usually female victims.
I want to start Wacky Quotes by Judge Greer. It doesn't matter the details of the case but to start a list of the stupid things he says when he's in hot water is my goal. It would make a great handout too.
If anyone sees any, post them on this thread and I'll consolidate them.
The sptimes.com has an archive of Greer. I'll be checking there this week and we should probably check the Orlando Sentinel and the Miami Herald. Cyn, how about the Jacksonville paper? I don't have that name.
Let's see how many dumb things Greer has said after he's made BIG JUDICIAL BOO BOOS.
This is a landmark. Post 100 on the Jan Govan Thread. Thank you, freepers for bumping Jan Govan to 100 posts!
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