Hecker

Robin Hecker is the first to admit that she doesn't make good choices when it comes to men.

But Butler County Assistant District Attorney Rick Bosco said it was Hecker's decision to stand up to a former boyfriend in the courtroom that helped prosecutors negotiate a 3-6 year prison sentence for the defendant who had broken bones in her face in two places.

"She's a very brave woman,” Bosco said.

Hecker appeared in court Tuesday prepared to testify against Martin P. Patterson Jr., the one-time boyfriend she knew by the name “Pimp.”

But as jurors were assembling to hear the case, Patterson, 49, pleaded guilty to one count of felony aggravated assault and was immediately sentenced by Butler County Judge Timothy McCune.

Outside the courtroom, Hecker gave a celebratory arm pump, and this message to other domestic violence victims in the community: “You can get away.”

Hecker, who had been raising her son as a single mom, said she spent years without dating for fear of exposing her child to an abusive man.

“Let's just say I don't have the best taste in men,” she said. “So I've gone eight years without so much as a dinner date.”

Just weeks into dating Patterson --- who is a repeat felon who had only recently been released from jail -- she said she knew she'd made another wrong choice.

Patterson, she said, seemed to anger quickly and threaten often.

“He was just looking for an excuse to hit me,” she said. And, according to court records, he found one Jan. 28.

While watching television inside Hecker's Mercer Street home, where he was living for the past few weeks, the channel flickered.

Hecker said it was a flukey thing that sometimes happened because of the home's reception dish. But Patterson believed she was causing the problem to keep him from watching his favorite television show: “Little Women of L.A.”

An argument over the television remote led to violent words and then violent acts.

“He punched me in the face closed fist,” Hecker said. “I felt myself blacking out but I held on the dresser to keep from falling because I didn't want to be on my knees at this man's feet.”

Patterson broke her orbital bone with one punch and her sinus bone with another. He grabbed on to her arm hard enough to leave permanent scars, then busted her lip in a final blow before she grabbed a pair of scissors and threatened to defend herself.

“They were the dullest scissors in the house. I would have stabbed him in the neck,” she said.

Hecker's son at that moment walked into the room, ending the fray. Seeing his mother bloody and clutching scissors, he grabbed on to her.

After the police filed charges against Patterson, Hecker attended the hearings, testifying when called on and she said she successfully requested a Protection From Abuse. By the time Patterson is released, Hecker said she won't be as easy to find.

“I'm moving out of this county,” said Hecker, who was born and raised in Oregon and only moved to this area in 2003.

Patterson made no statements during court and afterward his defense attorney, public defender Terri Schultz, said only, “The plea agreement was the right resolution for my client.”