This browser does not support the Video element.
“Are ya packed?” Beaten, raped by her boyfriend, woman says MPS principal tried to run her out of town
"Are ya packed?" Beaten, raped by her boyfriend, woman says MPS principal tried to run her out of town
MILWAUKEE -- A Milwaukee woman said she was assaulted, beaten and raped by her boyfriend. Then, she says another one of his girlfriends tried to convince her not to press charges.
"Meeting this man tore everything up," the woman said.
Jason Cunningham
Shaken and fearful, the woman, the victim of an August rape, told her story Wednesday, February 15th -- miles away from where it happened along Sherman Boulevard. Jason Cunningham, a former boyfriend, is facing two counts of second degree sexual assault, use of force, one count of strangulation and suffocation and one count of battery, filed in September.
"He beat me with a belt for two-and-a-half hours, all over my body when I was freshly out of the shower," the woman said.
According to a criminal complaint, Cunningham got mad about a message from a friend. He grabbed the woman by the neck, beat and raped her.
"The district attorney started crying. His own lawyers said 'I couldn't even recognize you,'" the woman said.
Shortly after the brutal assault, the victim claims a woman posing as Cunningham's sister started visiting her. Court documents show the woman was the "go between" for the victim and Cunningham. She's accused of advising the victim "not to attend court, and to leave town."
Valencia Carthen
"She would come by and is like 'are ya packed? Got everything together?'" the woman said.
It turned out, the weekly visitor wasn't Cunningham's sister -- but his girlfriend. Valencia Carthen, the principal at Milwaukee Public Schools' Washington High School is facing one count of conspiracy to intimidate a victim -- a charge Cunningham is also now facing.
"Being a woman being abused, being in domestic violence, all these things we were talking about, so she was actually holding my hand and stabbing me at the same time. I truly feel like they were trying to take me out. Take my life," the woman said.
The victim said she has been out of town since Thanksgiving.
Cunningham and Carthen are due in court for their preliminary hearings on the intimidate a witness charges on February 21st.
Meanwhile, he has an upcoming jury trial set for March in the sexual assault case.