Domestic Violence Victim Must Pay Imprisoned Husband Who Attacked Her
WOODSTOCK, Ill. (CBS) -- A woman known as a vocal advocate for the rights of domestic violence, and a victim herself, has been ordered to pay thousands of dollars to the man convicted of trying to kill her.
As WBBM Newsradio's Dave Berner reports, Carolyn Mahoney, 70, was beaten in the face with a blunt object, and then locked in the garage of their Bull Valley home, where two cars were idling. Her ex-husband, Billy J. Cox, also 70, was convicted of attempted murder and aggravated battery in the attack in 2007, the Northwest Herald reported.
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Since the attack, Mahoney, formerly Carolyn Cox, has become a known for her advocacy and public speaking on behalf of domestic violence victims, the newspaper reported.
But this week, McHenry County Judge Gerald M. Zopp found Mahoney in civil contempt of court for failing to transfer an IRA account in her name over to Cox, the Northwest Herald reported. To avoid a 90-day jail sentence, she was ordered to pay back $75,852.76 to Cox, the newspaper reported.
Cox was a millionaire businessman who founded the successful agricultural firm Exacto Inc. He married Mahoney in 1961, and their net worth was estimated at $10 million, the Tribune reported in 2007.
Defense attorneys at Cox's trial claimed that Mahoney had been injured by falling out of bed, but she said she had never fallen out of bed before, the Tribune reported.
After being convicted, Cox was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He is serving his sentence at the Dixon Correctional Center.
This past June, Mahoney accused Cox in a civil lawsuit of soliciting fellow inmates at the prison to kill her, the Tribune reported.
