Lorain/Elyria, OH
Wife: Cop was abusive
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ELYRIA — On May 16, 1984, Laura Earl said “I do” when she married Lorain police officer Corey Earl.
Wednesday she said “I do” again, this time when her attorney asked her if she thought her estranged husband — currently in the county jail for violating a temporary protection order — would cause her harm.
“I’ve been married to Corey for 23 years. He’s aggressive, controlling, extremely jealous. He has rage. He has been abusive,” Laura Earl told county Domestic Relations Magistrate Rene Zafarana during a hearing on whether the protection order barring Corey Earl from coming near her — and prevents him from carrying a gun — should be kept in place. “Corey has said many, many times to me that nobody will ever have me except him.”
Zafarana is expected to decide in a few weeks whether the protection order should remain in effect.
Corey Earl has been on paid medical leave from his job with Lorain police since Aug. 20, when he reportedly went to the Amherst home he once shared with his wife in the early morning with a handgun in his waistband. Laura Earl told police that she awoke to find him standing in the doorway.
He then reportedly went into the bathroom and said he was going to kill himself, a threat she said Wednesday that she’d heard before during their marriage and something she’d always talked him out of doing.
Laura Earl said she thought her husband — who filed for divorce from her in March — was going to kill her and then kill himself. She said she spent about 30 minutes convincing him to give her his gun.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen his eyes like that, wild,” she said.
The Aug. 20 incident was the third time Laura Earl called Amherst police on her husband.
On July 6, she complained that he had thrown items and threatened to hit her. A few days later, she said Wednesday, Corey Earl ransacked her home, dumping out her possessions, taking his television and snapping a crucifix on her wall in half.
She also told the magistrate that Corey Earl threatened to “smash her face” and kill her.
Laura also contacted Amherst police on Aug. 13 about text messages that Corey Earl had sent her.
Corey Earl was arrested Saturday for allegedly violating the temporary protection order that barred him from carrying a gun and from coming within 500 feet of his wife. Amherst police have not released details of that incident, but they have said it didn’t involve a gun.
He was ordered to undergo a third mental health examination Wednesday before he can be released from the county jail. If he passes the examination, he will be released, but he will have to wear an electronic ankle bracelet to monitor his movements.
Corey Earl wasn’t at the hearing, but his attorney, Jonathan Rosenbaum, attacked Laura Earl’s credibility, saying she was lying to get their home in the divorce and to ruin her husband’s career.
His client, he said, had done nothing wrong.
“His only mistake is he still wants to be married to her,” Rosenbaum said. “Why, I’ll never understand.”
He also questioned why Laura Earl never told Amherst police nor Lorain Police Chief Cel Rivera about the threats she said Corey Earl made to kill her or an incident earlier in the year when he allegedly threw her to the ground when he found her drinking in a bar while taking an antidepressant.
There was no evidence that Corey Earl had tried to harm her or even threatened her, Rosenbaum said.
“The fact that she chooses to say she’s afraid is not legally sufficient (to justify the protection order),” Rosenbaum said.
Laura Earl said she kept quiet about a lot of what Corey Earl had said and done to protect him.
“I was afraid that Corey would lose his career,” she said. “I was going on promises made to me.”
Both Rivera and Amherst Police Chief Lonnie Dillon had told her they would make sure that Corey Earl would get help and stay away from her. They also told her, she said, to change the locks on her house.
But Dillon later testified that he never told her to change the locks. Another Amherst officer said Laura Earl told him she first learned about protection orders from him, even though she had already said she was aware of them. That same officer denied telling her that she should give her estranged husband a key to the new locks, as Laura Earl said he did.
Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.
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some one should really listen… the staticis show that a lot of officers are in fact very abusive and that there wives do in fact cover it up due to fear don’t judge him cuz he wears a badge I have personally dealt with alot of lorain cops a lot of them are bad!!
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Thank heavens the Chronicle has taken a stance to educate everyone about women who are battered and abused by cops. On the surface, this cop was well liked, but underneath his facade, he hid a deep dark secret of a monster “lurking” which was exposed by the Chronicle. Thanks again, for your fine journalism and dedication to social issues.
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Educate?! Spare me, this is nothing more than typical Enquirer-type sensationalism. This is a domestic issue that involves a family made up of adults and children, nothing more. Nobody’s business but the family’s. For this paper to spew on and on is ridiculous.
If this is “dedication to social issues” (”social” meaning society) why don’t we report on all of society’s, EVERYONE’s, domestic issues including the reporters and yours Brenda?
I’m not supporting either person in this article, as I, like everyone else, have no idea what is true or not based on the great reporting of events, I, nor anyone else, was there. We only hear the allegations made by parties involved and their attorneys. But for you to single out this policeman as your poster child for battered women, policemen, and the link to all things wrong in society would be comical if not for your obvious issues relating this story to your own problems.
My best wishes to the family, as this must be hard enough to have to live through, only to be made worse being dragged through the papers and public then to read assinine comments by people like Brenda.
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Sure, lots of men act all sweet and decent in public, then at hme they are monsters (you know, no one really knows what goes on behnd closed doors) My ex ran a local business for years complaining to customers about me buthe was the one spending my paycheck to impress his married mistress, where is the justice there? Just another man lying, his firiends and customers believing but all the while, he is a vicious lying sinner. Some day, the truth will come out, or else he will get the proper punishmnet from the only one who will know the truth and be the one to hand down the final judgment. Amen. The same will happen here, have your divorces, days in court, etc., there is only one who knows the truth.
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thank you laura and god bless you for finally coming forward.I always knew something was wrong with this man,laura is saying the same things i’ve seen him do many times before.please judge protect her and her children.[check for steroid rage,he always was kind of muscular].
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The nicest thing I’ve seen is the support Chief Rivera, is showing for this officer. If Corey had followed the Chief’s moral example, he would not be in the situation he is in. Earl should have emulated the chief, but now, he should be enamored that his boss has stuck up for him. Rivera is the moral compass for the department, and in the end, Cel will do what he believes is right as always.
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Oh God if it ain’t the hewoman man haters club !
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john coachen…promise you he is emulating his crooked chief more than anything. the lorain police department is in shambles because of him. you must not know anyone in lorain!!!!!!!!!!
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This isn’t and definitely shouldn’t be an issue of “men haters”. This is a very private matter that only involves a family. No one else is or was hurt here but “all” of them.
All men are not bad. Women act very foolish and unwise too but you never see their devious acts in the paper because we as women can be very deceptive. Remember, “the fall of man”, Adam and Eve.
I was harrassed by calls and attempted night time knocks at the door by one of Lorain’s finest, Officer Corey most certainly was always respectful and always had a smile. I feel for his wife, his children and him. Where’s the justice for the women Stanley affected?
My children and I was abused for years by my ex and no one helped me, but me. I left and didn’t look back now I thank God above for the wonderful husband I have today.
To the Earl Family: There is a future of hope, of true love and true happiness. Right now it may not seem like it but keep your head up, there is. I pray God will guide you and give you peace in all you do. Let your concience be your giude. Officer Corey you’ll be ok. If your marriage was meant to be it will work out and if not there will be a better tomorrow.
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Give me a break, Occie Berger. If you claim You “knew something was wrong with this man” and that “Laura is saying the same things i’ve seen him do many times before”, then why didn’t YOU report it to Corey’s superior a long time ago?
Some of you people with your comments just take delight in bashing somebody’s who’s already down. I feel sorry for Corey as he had to deal with this kind of mentality day in and day out on his job for years.
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i would not doubt what happened to laura, i was engaged to a cop and my life at one point was in a crazy faze, he lied he cheeted he took from me and my daughter, finally i stood up to him one day and laid it out in front of him now were married and NO i cant say he stopped cheetin but now in his life he is facing some of life’s dealings and he I THINK finally oped his eyes,,
as for the news papers they are only trying to make a pay check and get their name know they make it interesting for the average joe to read it… just remember laura i dont know what u truely went through but just keep your head up high it will work out for you
GOOD LUCK AND GOD BLESS.
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