10-30-02: Kimberly Anderson feels blessed now

10-30-02: Kimberly Anderson feels blessed now

Wapak woman ready to resume family life
after murder acquittal

By SHELLEY GRIESHOP
The Daily Standard

    During a birthday party Tuesday evening for her 3-year-old son, Kimberly Anderson said it struck her how very blessed she was.
    "If it had been the Lord's will to send me to prison, I would have accepted it and I was ready," she said. "But as I watched Ryan blow out his candles, it occurred to me that things could have been very different, he might be celebrating without his mommy."
    It was two weeks ago today, when 12 Defiance County jurors acquitted Anderson, 38, of aggravated murder, murder and voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of her husband Brent Anderson on Sept. 2, 2001. She maintained that she shot the Celina attorney in an act of self-defense to protect herself and the couple's children who were present in the rural Wapakoneta home the day she shot him.
    During an interview this morning with The Daily Standard, Anderson spoke frankly about many aspects of her life before the shooting, after her arrest and now.
    "There are no winners here, I loved Brent, too. He was fun-loving, a real charming guy. That's why I fell in love with him," she said. "I never meant to take his life, I just meant to stop him from taking ours."
    Since the trial, Anderson said the constant nightmares she experienced following the shooting have disappeared and so have the negative messages she had received periodically through cards and letters.
    "I've gotten flowers and cards from people I don't even know who sympathized with me and what happened," Anderson said.
    A safety plan put into place the day of the shooting was terminated two days after the trial and Anderson now may spend time with all her children without supervision.
    "It was uncomfortable," she said describing the months she was not able to be alone with her own children.
    She also called it a blessing that she was not jailed immediately after shooting her husband of two years. She considers herself lucky to have not been separated from her children as most parents typically are following an incident so serious, she said. She feels she was free from the beginning because she was honest with authorities.
    "I told them exactly what happened that day and they believed me that the shooting occurred in self-defense," she said. "I had no motive, nothing to gain from his death."
    She said at one point, hours after the shooting, her father tried to warn her that "they might keep you," meaning she may be jailed yet that night for her husband's death. She said she responded, "I haven't done anything wrong."
    Anderson said she feels pressure from the surrounding communities and Brent Anderson's family and friends was what stirred the Auglaize County Prosecutor's Office to file charges against her.
    "It was very political," she said.
    She cites her faith in God as the sole factor that kept her going during the last year after she was indicted in December 2001. When asked if she felt she "got religious" from the whole experience and is now touting God instead of providing answers, she replied:
    "I've been a Christian since I was a child, but like anyone else I turned to God when I needed help," she explained. "I've seen God's hand in my life and he's been protecting us all along."
    Anderson came close to offering a plea bargain during the jury's seven-hour deliberation. At one point, jurors asked the judge to give them a definition for preponderance, which indicated the seven women and five men were closely examining the two most serious charges of aggravated murder and murder.
    "Alan (Konop, her defense attorney) said, as my attorney, he needed to tell me it might be wise to offer the prosecution a plea right now," she said. "I told him all 12 jurors will have to decide that I'm guilty and I am not going to make the decision to send myself to prison."
    Anderson said Auglaize County Prosecutor Ed Pierce was standing next to Konop, ready to discuss a plea bargain that may have sent her to prison for six months, when she firmly said "no."
    Kimberly Anderson said she has sympathy for the loss felt by the Brent Anderson family, but she doesn't think they understand what was happening to Brent the months before his death.
    "He was mentally ill. I felt he had a mood disorder and I had tried to get him to go to counseling for it," she said. "He didn't have any coping skills."
    She believes his family and friends may feel guilty because they, too, were not able to get him help for his depression.
    She claimed she probably didn't know Brent at all during their short marriage, and that he told her many untruths during the last three years of his life. She firmly believes, as she testified in court, that he was abusing their children. She testified repeatedly that she confronted him that Labor Day weekend afternoon about her suspicions of child abuse, and that is what started the incident. She claimed he chased her upstairs in a fit of rage to stop her from making the sexual abuse claims public and ruining his career as an attorney.
    "Before that day, I really didn't think that it (abuse suspicions) was true, but after Erik said it in front of Brent and I saw Brent's reaction, I realized he was a desperate man," Kimberly Anderson said.
    She said the couple's children, Ryan, 3, and Erik, now 4, were both on the first level of the home when Brent Anderson chased her upstairs to the master bedroom where she fired the first shot. When she fled the room after firing seven more shots into Brent Anderson's body in a walk-in closet, she could not immediately find Erik who was hiding in the living room.
    "I said, 'Run Erik,' and grabbed Ryan at the bottom of the steps," she said. She found Erik and the three made their way outside where she called 911.
    Anderson said the children know what happened that day and continue in counseling just as she has.
    "They know I shot Daddy with a real gun and he is in heaven. They saw his rage that day and knew he was bad," she said.
    During the yearlong pending divorce proceedings, Kimberly Anderson's attorney warned Brent Anderson and his divorce attorney that she was considering the filing of a restraint order to keep him away from her. She also said she discussed using children's services to exchange the children for visitation to avoid any confrontations. She said Brent Anderson refused, fearing he would be disbarred if a protection order was issued against him. He also did not want to face the embarrassment of exchanging his children through a third party, she said.
    A wrongful death civil lawsuit filed by Brent Anderson's brother, Kevin Anderson of Cincinnati, in Auglaize County Common Pleas Court remains pending against Kimberly Anderson. Kevin Anderson also is seeking custody of his two young nephews, an action Kimberly Anderson said she doesn't understand.
    "None of the Andersons had a bond with my children before. Why they want them now, I don't understand," she said. "Is it for the best interest of my children or to hurt me?"
    Kimberly Anderson said her days are brighter now even though she cannot return to her job with Lincare of Lima, where she was a practicing respiratory therapist. She was placed on paid leave for three weeks by Lincare following the shooting, and then terminated "because of the publicity to the office," Anderson said she was told.
    She now is turning her hobby of faux painting into a career. Court and attorney fees were phenomenal, but her parents have helped out with those expenses, she admitted.
    Kimberly Anderson said she believes the truth is in front of everyone now and it is up to each individual to believe it or not. As for her, she believes she did what she had to do to defend her family.
    "Brent died at my hands and I have to deal with that," she said.

Brent Anderson's family has own view

By SHELLEY GRIESHOP
The Daily Standard

    Brent Anderson's sister responded this morning to statements made by Kimberly Anderson during an interview with The Daily Standard.
    Pam Anderson of Connecticut, Brent Anderson's older sister, acted as spokesperson for her family.
    Concerning the statement Kimberly Anderson made saying she had no motive to kill her husband, Pam Anderson replied:
    "By Kim's own account of the day of the shooting, she confronted Brent with accusations of child molestation. I believe that it's reasonable to assume that it wasn't just Brent who might have had his emotions aroused on that day. The difference between Kim and Brent (that day) was that Kim had a gun and Brent didn't. It had been a long and difficult divorce with a near-constant battle over custody and finances."
    Pam Anderson also commented on Kimberly Anderson's statement that she never meant to kill her husband. If she had the phone and the gun, why, Pam Anderson asked, didn't she just call the police?
    "Brent's body was found in a kneeling/sitting position slumped against the wall of a closet. I challenge Kim to give a clear public step-by-step account of exactly how Brent came to be in a closet with at least eight bullet wounds from Kim's gun, if he was the aggressor in the alleged argument."
    Kimberly Anderson referred to her husband as having a mental illness. Pam Anderson said her brother underwent a psychological evaluation during the custody suit and was found well within the normal range.
    "The courts found him healthy enough to award him joint custody of his two children (during the couple's separation). In addition to that, at the time of his death he was a practicing attorney, working every day with judges and other attorneys in the Mercer County court system. Surely somebody other than Kim would have noticed (if he had a mental problem at that time)."
    Kimberly Anderson said charges were brought against her because of pressure from Brent's family and the community. Pam Anderson said it was the letter of the law that caused Kimberly Anderson to be charged.
    "Kim was indicted by an Auglaize County grand jury. Brent's family and friends couldn't influence the grand jury because they had no way of knowing who was serving on that jury. The grand jury indicts on the basis of evidence that is put before it. Kim had an opportunity to testify before the grand jury and they heard her version of events, but they still indicted her."
    Auglaize County Prosecutor Ed Pierce also was contacted by The Daily Standard, but was unavailable for comment at press time today.

SUBSCRIBE TO THE DAILY STANDARD

Phone: (419)586-2371, Fax: (419)586-6271
All content copyright 2002
The Standard Printing Company
P.O. Box 140, Celina, OH 45822