The face of domestic violence
Khristine Elliott
The Enquirer
John Bontempo of Battle Creek always carries several wallet-sized cards featuring color photos of his youngest daughter, Jenny, in his pocket.
One side of the card shows Jennifer Bontempo-England, a former Battle Creek resident and Battle Creek Central High School graduate, smiling and looking happy.
The other side shows her cut, bruised and bloodied face. Her hair is caked with blood.
The photo was taken after she was pronounced dead at the age of 30.
She died at the hands of her husband, Austin England, in their Fowlerville home on Aug. 3, 2002, Bontempo said. Red lettering on the card above the second photo states, "The face of domestic violence."
Below the picture are local phone numbers to call for help.
"I just came up with the idea. To me, a picture is worth a thousand words," he said. "We all (family members) still carry the original cards with us."
Bontempo gives the cards to anyone he bumps into who asks about or mentions domestic violence, whether it's at a grocery store or at work at the Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center, he said.
He calls it the "Jenny In Your Pocket" campaign and gave the Federal Center's Family Advocacy Program permission to use Jenny's photos and print the double-sided cards.
About 8,000 of the cards have been printed since the campaign began at the Federal Center in October for Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
The cards have been given to and are available to Federal Center employees, many of whom ask for more cards to provide to their church, family and friends, said Bontempo and Mary Asmonga-Knapp, Family Advocacy Program manager at the Federal Center.
The campaign encourages people to carry the card in their pocket or purse and show it to anyone who may be a victim of domestic violence or knows someone in an abusive relationship, Asmonga-Knapp said.
Bontempo said before he showed the original version of the card he made to Asmonga-Knapp, he showed it to Jenny's mother, Diane Miles, and their other daughters, Denise Bontempo-Brew of Battle Creek and Susan Keith of Ohio.
Although it took awhile for Miles to get over the shock of the photos, the entire family approved the campaign before he went ahead with it. Miles, who was very close to Jenny, died three months ago.
He means to shock people with the card as a way to raise awareness that domestic violence is bad and can lead to death, he said.
Although it's painful to talk about Jenny's death, it's important to do so even with strangers because domestic violence can happen to anyone, Bontempo-Brew said.
Jenny was friendly, fun-loving, outgoing, adventurous and family-oriented, her sister and father said.
She was in the abusive relationship for nearly nine years and was killed by her husband only a month and a half after they married, Bontempo said.
"What was so devastating about this crime was Jennifer left two children behind who were witnesses," he said, adding that while she lay dead on the floor, her husband forced their son and daughter, then ages 6 and 3, to help clean up the blood.
England plea bargained to second-degree murder and is serving a sentence of 30 to 60 years in prison, Bontempo said.
Their other sister, Susan Keith, adopted Jenny's children, Jacob and Josie, now ages 9 and 6. They now call Keith "Mommy" and call Jenny their "real Mommy," Bontempo-Brew said.
Bontempo will retire from the Federal Center in April, and he plans to move to Ohio to be closer to his grandchildren.
"Jenny In Your Pocket" cards also were given to SAFE Place, the local domestic violence program and shelter, for use with its clients, said Asmonga-Knapp. She plans to have more cards printed for the campaign.
"I think they are a family of great courage, and I feel so honored that John even chose to share Jenny's story with me," she said.
"This was a very grisly and traumatic event, and the way they have reached out to help others and to tell her story is just a very courageous act."
While the campaign started at the Federal Center, the Bontempo family hopes to expand it, but they're not sure what to do next, Bontempo-Brew said.
One future goal is to put the campaign on the Internet, Bontempo said.
"We started it here, but we're just hoping that it carries itself wherever women are being abused," Asmonga-Knapp said.
Jennifer McEldowney, executive director of SAFE Place for about a month, hasn't seen the card, but she said it's admirable that the Bontempo family is willing to share their tragic story to help other people.
"I think it's extremely courageous and for some reason there seems to be this stigma around domestic violence, that you should be ashamed," she said.
"But these are victims of crime that have no reason to be ashamed and that are not to blame for what's happened to them."
Research shows that the time when a victim is separating from an abusive relationship is the most dangerous, McEldowney said.
That was the case with Jenny, who was fatally beaten when she was in the final stages of moving out of her Fowlerville home and moving back to Battle Creek, her father said.
She had thrown her husband out of their house three weeks before, he said.
The extended family knew Jenny and her husband had problems, but she asked them to stay out of it so they could work it out, Bontempo said.
"Jenny was stubborn and if we pushed too hard she would back off," Bontempo-Brew said, adding they knew of verbal abuse, pushing and some calls to the police department, but the violence did not escalate beyond pushing until the fatal attack.
They learned later that Jenny had trained her son to call the police and take his younger sister to a neighbor's house if their mother was beaten severely, Bontempo-Brew said.
"Nothing can bring Jennifer back to us. Nothing can erase my memory of holding her sobbing children as we buried their mother," she said. "By telling Jenny's story, we hope to help others.
"Maybe her story will help someone leave an abusive relationship. Maybe her story can help prevent another family from needlessly burying a loved one."
Khristine Elliott covers news and Neighbors features. She can be reached at 966-0675 or kelliott@battlecr.gannett.com
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