A short four-month relationship between Republican state Rep. Steve Marino and Democratic state Rep. Mari Manoogian has turned into a multi-year nightmare.
On Friday, Manoogian won a personal protection order against Marino, who she alleges has been verbally abusive toward her since their late 2019 breakup. Manoogian’s petition also alleges that Marino was physically abusive during their short-lived relationship.
Manoogian had endured the abuse for over 21 months before she finally could stand it no more and had no choice but to confide in the House Democratic leader. She disclosed evidence of some of the abuse she experienced in her court filings, including text messages from Marino that contained physical threats and very specific details about the ways in which he hoped to see her die.
“It has escalated to a point where I fear for my safety and for Steve’s own safety,” Manoogian wrote in her petition to the court. “I believe he is mentally unstable and that he might try to cause harm to himself or to others as the truth of abusive behavior comes to light and he is held accountable for the things he has said and done.”
Manoogian also claimed that Marino has gone so far as to threaten to harm his own dog if she did not spend time with him.
Evidence provided by Manoogian indicate that Marino has threatened her in both face-to-face encounters and over text message, creating a specter of potential violence that now hangs over Manoogian at all times. “He told me that I better hide because he was going to sit by my desk and ream me a new asshole until he leaves the House,” Manoogian said in the court documents. The threat fostered in Manoogian a nervousness about entering the Capitol building and has made it difficult for her to conduct work on behalf of the people in her suburban Detroit House district.
A judge granted her the requested protection order on Friday, which bans Marino from entering the same buildings as Manoogian, but that apparently doesn’t mean much to Marino’s House Republican colleagues. While he was stripped of his committee assignments this week, state Speaker Jason Wentworth is still allowing Marino to enter the Capitol to vote and conduct official business.
In doing so, Wentworth is essentially condoning Marion’s behavior and putting the onus on Manoogian to protect herself from a man who recently said that he was making it his “life mission to destroy” her.
This is what women have to deal with every single day. Manoogian stayed silent for 21 months until she was so afraid that she had to say something. She’ll undoubtedly face harassment from horrible Republican supporters and this saga will likely be noted in stories about her for the rest of her career, no matter what she accomplishes or how high she rises. That Republicans are willing to endanger her life in order to add an extra vote to their majority on legislation this fall says all you need to know about the sheer cravenness of that Neanderthal cult.
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