I am proud to publicly offer my personal endorsement of Anthony Farrington for district attorney.

For years, I struggled living in a domestic violence situation with my children and pets in Lake County. My job knew about it, my kids' school knew, my neighbors knew. It was a humiliating and lonely time for me. I didn’t stay in the situation because I wanted to, but because I had to stay at that time. Domestic violence is not only physical. In fact, it is physical after periods of financial, emotional & mental abuse. Coercive control plays a huge role in why many victims of domestic violence stay for as long as they do.

Eventually, I realized that I needed to get out of the situation and fast, that he wasn’t going to just change into this different person and I wasn't being a great parent by staying with an abusive partner regardless of the reasons why.

I started calling the police for help on a regular basis. Sometimes they would show up and other times they would not. Nothing good would ever come from calling the police for help, at least not for me. Dispatch was rude and the police didn’t have the ability to help even though they wanted to and encouraged me to keep contacting the DA’s Office. I felt helpless and even suicidal at times.

It was on me to find a way out of the situation I was in on my own. As such, I needed to hire an attorney to help me, and so I hired Anthony Farrington. He listened to me. He heard me and understood how difficult my situation was. He knew it wasn't as simple as just leaving.

I wasn’t fighting this battle alone anymore, I finally had someone who believed I could get out of this with my children. The court had let me down time and time again by allowing my abuser to contact me and violate the restraining order with no repercussions. I would report the violations, but once they got to the District Attorney’s office under Susan Krones nothing was ever done, so my abuser continued to contact me for years until I had finally escaped his grip.

Enough was enough. After obtaining a three-year permanent domestic violence restraining order, I had no choice but to let the protective order expire, and in doing so, I made a personal decision not to testify in a criminal matter that was filed years later.

I needed to get my peace back and this was a decision I had to make. The courts and the District Attorney’s Office were not helping anybody. They were unorganized and unprofessional at best.

It appeared to me that the District Attorney’s Office was treading water and about to drown. They allowed my abuser to repeatedly traumatize me even more through the court system.

In 2022, I finally had enough of the back and forth between the court and the District Attorney’s Office, and gave up trying to fight for my peace, or boundaries and/or any kind of “justice.” My abuser moved out of state and today continues to contact me on a weekly basis, but now I have the skills after many years of therapy to deal with it and my children are safe with me thanks to Anthony's persistence in working so hard for us.

During trial and throughout all the law enforcement calls and inaction by the District Attorney’s Office, Anthony never gave up. He was tenacious and always had myself and my children’s best interests at heart; and even though he fought an uphill battle for us, he made sure my children and I were as safe as we could be. He always took my calls and called me back.

He genuinely cares about the citizens of Lake County, our children and our well-being. He would make an excellent district attorney, one that we could trust to fight for victims of domestic violence by giving them a strong voice followed by action.

He will be a district attorney who will stand up to criminals and hold them accountable. He will help the police get the backup from the DA’s Office they desperately need to get things done in this county.

Ashley Martin lives in Clearlake, California.