On a normal weeknight in 2016, Jeanette McCue brought her 13-year-old son home from sharpshooter practice at his 4H camp. She found her husband, Mike McCue, asleep in an armchair. He had a plate of food on his chest with some leftovers still on it. He was snoring, and it sounded like he was passed out.
"I hit his leg to wake him up," said Jeanette, "and that's when I realized he was drunk or high or both."
Jeanette, a nurse, was familiar with her husband's temper. They had been married for 13 years. Mike was a truck driver when they married, but went to work at a distillery after being convicted of driving while under the influence.
Upon waking, Mike beat Jeanette until she was black and blue. Mike started beating her in the shower, and then he pulled a gun. He shot, and she survived because he missed. Her clothes from the night are still in police evidence. They show where the bullet passed through. She thinks he was too drunk to aim, but he got close. When she was leaving, her husband beat their son for the first time. Jeanette was abused by her husband before, but this was the last straw.
"It just so happens that rock bottom has a basement," she said.
Her son called 911 and her husband ran. While Jeanette was in the emergency room, Mike drained their joint checking account. Jeanette received an Emergency Protection Order from the local judge and went back to work. Her face was still bruised and swollen. She had warned her boss before coming into the hospital where she worked, but he was still shocked when he saw her. He asked if she was sure she wanted to be at work that week.
But Jeanette had to work to take care of her son. She was suddenly a single mom with a single income and an empty bank account.
Once Mike was arrested, Jeanette decided to get a divorce. She was directed to the Legal Aid Society of Louisville, where an attorney named Cassie Chambers was assigned to her case.
"One of the most impressive things about Jeanette," Chambers said, "is her situation happened and she immediately took steps to change her life."
Jeanette felt confident that Mike would go to prison for charges related to the attack.
"We hoped it would be pretty cut and dry, and he would be charged and sentenced," Jeanette said.
But she was about to run into a loophole in Kentucky law, wherein the petitioner for a divorce, or the person who wants the divorce, was required to pay for the court-appointed attorney if the spouse was incarcerated and couldn't pay on their own. This occurred even if the petitioner was a victim of domestic violence. The court-appointed attorney billed her for about $200.
"Unfortunately, when it's up to the attorney's discretion on what he charges," said Jeanette, "it could be food on the table or getting divorced. And moms and dads are going to pick food for their kids over divorce."
McCue was about to run into a little known aspect of Kentucky law, wherein the petitioner for a divorce, or the person who wants the divorce, was required to pay for the court-appointed attorney of the incarcerated spouse.
In Jeanette's case, the Legal Aid Society of Louisville was able to pay her bill.
"People just didn't realize the way the legal fees from divorce can affect survivors of domestic violence," said Chambers, "and particularly low-income survivors. If they're low-income, the extra legal bills make a difference."
With Jeanette's support, Chambers decided to publicize her case in order to bring attention to this loophole in Kentucky law. In January of 2018, Chambers published an opinion piece in the Lexington Herald-Leader in which Jeanette was identified as "Jane." Chambers told Jane's story, and then made a case for passing legislation that would require the state to pay for court-appointed attorneys in cases of domestic abuse.
"The law requiring courts to appoint a guardian ad litem for an incarcerated person is not inherently bad," Chambers wrote. "Incarcerated people should have fair and adequate representation, even in civil matters. The issue is about who should bear the cost of this system."
Within days, State Senator Morgan McGarvey, a Louisville Democrat, read the paper and took up Chambers' call. He proposed Senate Bill 68, an act to "clarify that a victim of domestic violence is not required to pay the legal fees of the abusive spouse in a divorce action when the spouse is incarcerated for crimes against the petitioner."
According to the legislation, this is the only condition where this law can be used. The incarcerated spouse must have pled guilty to charges related to domestic violence or be convicted of such charges. In such cases, the fee for the court appointed attorney is paid for by the Finance and Administration Cabinet. In other cases, Sen. McGarvey thinks the system of court-appointed attorneys for incarcerated persons is a good one. If someone is incapable of protecting their own interests, the court will appoint a protector at no cost to them.
"This is not something we intended to be in the law or knew about," said Sen. McGarvey, referring to cases of domestic violence. "We wouldn't have known had she [Jeanette] not had the courage to speak up."
State Senator Ralph Alvarado, a Republican, agreed. "I think it was ridiculous," he said of the loophole. "I'm glad someone caught it, I wasn't even aware it was out there."
"The law requiring courts to appoint a guardian ad litem for an incarcerated person is not inherently bad," Chambers wrote. "Incarcerated people should have fair and adequate representation, even in civil matters. The issue is about who should bear the cost of this system."
While Sen. McGarvey was filing his bill, Jeanette decided to go public with her real identity. She thought it might be better to put a face to the story.
"Once McGarvey picked it up, I turned around and said, 'I don't have to be Jane anymore, it can be Jeanette,'" she said. "There was no point. You either face what happens to you and go on or you can hide behind a Jane. I'd rather just go on and face it and get it over with and realize that it was part of my life."
On January 29, three weeks after the bill was filed, Senate Bill 68 was amended to include the title "Jeanette's Law." Jeanette went to the General Assembly in Frankfort to speak to the committee before the final vote. She talked for two minutes, and then the Senators voted unanimously to pass the bill. The House also voted unanimously to change the law. On March 27, Governor Matt Bevin signed "Jeanette's Law."
It is uncommon in Kentucky to have a unanimous vote in both the House and the Senate to pass a bill. It is especially uncommon for Kentucky's current Republican Governor, Matt Bevin, to sign a bill introduced by a Democratic state Senator. But Sen. McGarvey managed to get nine co-sponsors for Jeanette's Law, seven of whom were Republicans.
"First thing I did was get a bipartisan group from across the state to cosponsor the bill in the Senate to send the signal that this issue is above politics," Sen. McGarvey said. "Before we had a committee vote, I went and personally talked to every member of the committee in the Senate and in the House who had concerns about what the bill did, and I addressed their concerns one by one."
Although the votes were unanimous, legislators still had questions. Some worried about the costs of the bill. But part of the reason for the bill's success was its narrow scope. According to the Legislative Research Commission, the fees are not yet estimated, but Sen. McGarvey believed the cost to the government would be low, given that fees for court-appointed attorneys are capped at $500.
"It really isn't a partisan issue," said Chambers. "When you're dealing with people's safety and making it easier for them to leave relationships that are making them unsafe, it's something people on both sides of the aisle can support. Domestic violence is a problem in our state. We should all work together to fix what we can."
For Chambers, there are still issues to fix in the Kentucky courts. "Jeanette's Law" only exempts a petitioner for divorce from paying their spouse's attorney fees in the case of domestic violence victims.
"It's still extremely difficult to be a poor person in rural Kentucky courts," said Chambers.
"It doesn't cover the case of the poor person just stuck with the fee," said Chambers. She has heard stories from Eastern Kentucky of people stuck with $1,200 legal bills in a divorce who make $16,000 a year. According to Chambers, some courts won't divorce a couple unless they pay the fee.
"It's still extremely difficult to be a poor person in rural Kentucky courts," said Chambers.
McCue hopes that for some women Jeanette's Law will be a small sign of hope.
"You know, it won't help me anymore," she said, "but I hope it can help other women going through the same thing."