Battered Wife Recorded Brutality of Ex-Husband.
BANFIELD: When the first blow hits, the typical reaction is shock. When the second blow hits, survival kicks in. But nowhere in the manual of being beaten to a pulp does an instinct kick in to roll tape. That is, unless you are Mayor Marni Sawicki of Cape Coral, Florida. Because when her ex-husband was trashing her and thrashing her around a Miami hotel room with her teenage son on the other side of the door, she somehow had the wherewithal to hit record on her phone.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (muted) I don`t need you. You (muted) ruined my (muted) life. You ruined my (muted) life.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stop it. Damn you. You hit me.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (muted) you. You ruined my (muted) life because you`re so wrapped up in your own shit.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don`t hit me.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (muted) hit me again.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don`t hit me.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (muted) do it again. Do it again.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You`ve already hit me enough.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn`t (muted) hit you. Look at my (muted) face. Look at my face.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You`ve hit me enough.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at my face. Who hit who?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leave me alone.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take your shit. You (muted) whore. Here`s your Michael Kors shoes from your (muted) pimp.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leave me alone.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your (muted) pimp. Here`s more pimp shoes. You (muted) whore. Pimp! Pimp.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leave me alone. Leave me alone.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pimp!</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Leave me alone.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whore! Pimp!</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My kids.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (muted) you!</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My kids.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well maybe then you shouldn`t have done this to me. You called my kid a (muted) asshole one time. You don`t ever call my kid a (muted) asshole. You understand me? You don`t call my kid a (muted) asshole. Your girls are into (muted) cocaine and every other thing.</s>BANFIELD: Marni Sawicki was in Miami for the U.S. conference of mayors because she was a mayor and she brought the family along. And that recording was a big part of her husband`s conviction on domestic battery by strangulation. So were the pictures in which both Marni and her husband Kenneth Retzer show injuries. Court records show that Marni fought back during the attack, causing her husband to look like this at his sentencing, though, that was a different picture. Both Marni and her son addressed the courtroom.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I heard that he was just a monster and what he did was unforgivable.</s>MARNI SAWICKI, FORMER MAYOR, CAPE CORAL, FLORIDA: My children and I will never be able to forget that night where he once again called me horrific names, launched at me, strangled me and beat my head with your fist.</s>BANFIELD: In the end, Kenneth Retzer did not go to jail. He was, instead, sentenced to one year house arrest and three years` probation. He`s going to have to wear a GPS monitor for that one year and cannot come within 500 feet of Marni or her children. When the case wrapped up, Marni said she wanted to dedicate much of her time to advocating for domestic violence victims and that`s why she`s now live here with me tonight for this exclusive interview. Marni, wow!</s>SAWICKI: Yes.</s>BANFIELD: Wow! My first question -- I`m going to get to all the meat of this case, and the mission. How did you get your phone and hit record during that beating?</s>SAWICKI: You know, I think it`s one of those things that went, as a victim, fight or flight. You`re not really -- I had started to record six months prior our arguments. And it was really just for my own -- trying to get out of the relationship. And so I think that`s part of it. I just ended up -- I had been doing it for a while. And I just hit record.</s>BANFIELD: This where you started your tape wasn`t even the beginning of the beating.</s>SAWICKI: No.</s>BANFIELD: Help me understand, this was a 45-minute long beating?</s>SAWICKI: Yes.</s>BANFIELD: And how long into it did you finally get the phone and hit record?</s>SAWICKI: Forty five minutes I do. I don`t remember if I had it. I don`t remember if it was in my hand the whole time and then after -- if you listen to the entire video, I don`t even remember recording it. And saying -- I`m asking my son where`s my phone. And I tell the police, you know, get my son. He recorded it.</s>BANFIELD: That son was in the adjoining hotel room.</s>SAWICKI: Yes.</s>BANFIELD: Eighteen years old.</s>SAWICKI: Yes.</s>BANFIELD: His room is unlocked. That as we all know adjoining hotel rooms have two doors and yours is locked. He can`t get to you.</s>SAWICKI: Correct.</s>BANFIELD: He can`t do anything to save you, he can hear everything.</s>SAWICKI: Yes.</s>BANFIELD: What was he doing? What was he saying? What was he thinking?</s>SAWICKI: You know, it`s evident in the text between him and his sister that he was scared, you know. He`s writing, Madison, please come home. Please get back to the hotel. Ken is hitting mom, you know. I don`t know. I`m not equipped to handle this. You know, I can`t imagine what was going through his head. And he`s a quiet boy, so. And not until he banged on the door did Ken leave.</s>BANFIELD: So at one point -- I`m going to play a little bit more of this tape that you recorded because there was a lot of it. I mean a lot.</s>SAWICKI: Yes.</s>BANFIELD: At one point he`s demanding the ring that he gave you, your engagement ring?</s>SAWICKI: Yes.</s>BANFIELD: And the language he`s using -- we`ve seen some of it in the original tape. But he knows that your son is there at the door. Your son is banging on the door.</s>SAWICKI: Yes.</s>BANFIELD: He knows your son is there and this is what`s going on. Have a look.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me your (muted) ring.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get out of my room before I hit you in the face.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do it. I (muted) dare you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You`ve hit me enough.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hit you nothing. I dare you. (muted) give me everything you (muted) got bitch. Give me everything you got.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get out of here.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give everything. Give everything you got. You know why? Because that`s the kind of (muted) you did with (muted) and with (muted). You (muted) whore! You (muted) whore!</s>BANFIELD: I hope you and the kids are in intensive counseling after this. There`s another aspect to this story that is I think disturbing to many, frustrating to some. And that is the internet.</s>SAWICKI: Yes.</s>BANFIELD: And the victim shaming that`s gone on since this. And there is sort of a whole sordid history between you and Ken. And let`s be real clear, it doesn`t matter what you said to each other, what you did to each other in your romantic life. Nobody gets beaten like that and gets away with it.</s>SAWICKI: I agree.</s>BANFIELD: Nobody deserves it. You didn`t have it coming. Let`s put it right on the table. A woman doesn`t have it coming. And you can read whatever you want on the internet. But it is interesting to see your relationship. And this is where I have to ask you a tough question. He was your ex- husband in that hotel room. You had been through a volatile relationship with him, on again, off again, beatings that you say had happened in the past, an order of protection that you had sought. And you had finalized and left him. Why did you accept him back into your life, especially at that hotel with your children there?</s>SAWICKI: Yes. And that goes to the cycle of abuse. And it is. It`s one of those questions that I don`t, you know, therapy, as you mentioned, is where that I`m now learning crazy making and, you know, gas lighting and what those terms mean. But it`s a cycle. And they honeymoon and they, you know, tell you what you want to hear to bring me back.</s>SAWICKI: Yes, yes, yes. A lot of those injuries, he was hitting himself in the face and punching himself.</s>BANFIELD: You had also bitten his finger terribly. I think there`s a terrible injury to his finger prior to much of that horrible beating that you endured as well. So the next big question is, he left the hotel room and then returned several hours later to continue this assault?</s>SAWICKI: Yes.</s>BANFIELD: Why didn`t you call the police right then and there?</s>SAWICKI: I don`t remember any of that. And --</s>BANFIELD: Because he did. He came back and he called the police.</s>SAWICKI: He did.</s>BANFIELD: But you never called the police to say I nearly lost my life, this man just strangled me and I`m black and blue.</s>SAWICKI: If you see and hear my kids talk, they will tell you that I looked out of sort and disoriented and in shock. And I just cried and sat on the bed and said I`m sorry to them over and over and over.</s>BANFIELD: Your two adult children didn`t call the police either. Why not?</s>SAWICKI: My son at that point, after he banged on the door, Ken left. My daughter was returning to the hotel as quickly as she could. And he had said, you know, find your own way home. I didn`t, you know, think he would come. My daughter is like, he`s coming back. And I just -- I`m at a mayor`s conference, 250 of my fellow mayors.</s>BANFIELD: Real quickly. He has got a GPS monitoring for one year. And then what?</s>SAWICKI: Three years probation.</s>BANFIELD: What about for you? After one year of GPS monitoring, what about you?</s>SAWICKI: Yes. There`s -- they end. In fact, the GPS, nobody has asked me my address or where I work.</s>BANFIELD: So if he comes near your home or your kids` homes?</s>SAWICKI: I don`t know how that goes off.</s>BANFIELD: GPS doesn`t have that registered?</s>SAWICKI: Correct, yes, it does not.</s>BANFIELD: Seems like the system is missing a few links.</s>SAWICKI: It is broken. It is broken.</s>BANFIELD: Marni, thanks for sharing your story. And, you know, I`m so sorry that you`ve had to go through this. And I think the fact that you`re a mayor, has put it in the spotlight. And you continue to put it at the spotlight. It shows that it does -- this kind of thing happens across all socioeconomic status. It happens everywhere. Now looking back, you cut those ties and you don`t go back.</s>SAWICKI: You have to have the courage, though, to do that.</s>BANFIELD: I hear you.</s>SAWICKI: You know, that`s the tough part. That`s the part we need to work on.</s>BANFIELD: Madam mayor, thanks for being here. Appreciate it.</s>SAWICKI: Thank you.</s>BANFIELD: Good luck on your mission, you know, spread the word about domestic violence.</s>SAWICKI: Thank you for having me.</s>BANFIELD: It`s laudable and it is a message that needs to be spread. Thank you.</s>SAWICKI: Thank you very much.</s>BANFIELD: Appreciate it. Coming up, a former Virginia Tech student. Not looking at the academics here. Looking at the mugshot here. Because he is accused of luring a 13-year-old girl out of her home, 13, and then killing her. His attorney says he didn`t do it. But the details from the courtroom, you`ll be the judge next.