Rogers County Woman Fears For Life After Ex-Boyfriend Released From Prison

A Rogers County woman said the justice system is broken when it comes to keeping victims safe.

Her ex-boyfriend went to prison for five years after trying to kill her twice, but only he only served 14 months.

"The system is broken, it is not right, it fails, we are so worried about stepping on the rights of somebody that doesn't give a damn about anybody else's rights, we're so worried about them, what about those of us who they tried to kill?" said assault victim Veronyca Barlow.

Barlow said she's at the end of of her rope.

She'd known her boyfriend, William Birdtail, since they were teenagers and had dated about a year when he attacked her the first time.

"My orbital bone cracked, jaw was broken, busted my lip open, three broken ribs, bruised kidneys, internal organs from being kicked," Barlow said.

She left him, filed a protective order and a about six weeks later, she said he broke into her house and woke up from a dead sleep to him beating her again.

"The second attack, my hand was broken in six places, black eye, busted mouth," Barlow said.

News On 6 ran a story on Birdtail when he went to court on the assault charge, decided he didn't want to go to jail and bolted from the courtroom, down three flights of stairs until deputies tackled him.

8/28/2015 Related Story: Rogers County Man's Bolt From Courthouse Lands Him In Jail

He pleaded guilty to attacking Barlow and the deputies and he was sentenced to a total of five years and was ordered not to contact her, but, according to her call logs, he called her repeatedly from the prison in Granite and also wrote her letters and sent cards.

"The inmates make their phone lists and present it and nobody calls to verify there's not a victim on that list."

Last April, she said she asked the district attorney to file violation of protective order but nothing happened.

She went to Claremore police in April when the calls started again, but, again, nothing happened.

Then, she got notified on May 26, that Birdtail was released from prison early. The website said he'd already been out for 15 days plus, he had active warrants in two counties.

The Department of Corrections said the website is wrong, Birdtail actually got released on May 26, the day she was notified, and they said the counties with warrants didn't let them know to put a hold on Birdtail.

The DA's office said they can't file charges without a police report, which they didn't have. 

News On 6 called Claremore police and they say they did prepare a warrant for 26 counts of violation of protective order just four days after Barlow came in two months ago, but a routing mistake didn't send it to the DA's office. They said they sent it there Wednesday.