On July 19, 1998, I was beaten down by a group of bounty hunters. I heard a loud bang at my door early in the morning around 5 o’clock a.m. I heard yelling and banging on my door telling me to open up police, and one of the men flashed a badge. I asked them to please let me get some clothes on. I then went to the door, and I left the chain lock on the door. The men then forced their way into my home. Pushing me aside, they started going through my kitchen drawers and closets. They were calling me obscene names. They were throwing my dining room chairs around on the floor. I asked them to please allow me to get my daughter, who was only five years old at the time, and alert my mother, but the men ignored me and proceeded to the second level of my home.

I then ran to the phone, and I dialed 911 for the first time. With guns drawn, they proceeded to enter my daughter’s room. I asked them not to enter her room with the gun, and they refused. I then stood in front of them, and I was beaten in my face and knocked down a flight of stairs. We attempted to call 911 again and decided to flee our home for safety. As we were leaving the front entrance, another group was stationed outside my door. One of the women who was hiding behind the bushes began to attack me by beating me in the head and face and knocking me to the ground. Another woman started kicking me and pulling my hair. While doing this, they were using racial slurs. Another man came and pepper sprayed me at close range several times. Because they heard the sirens from the ambulance and police cars, they proceeded to run, stating that we should get used to it because they’d be back tonight.

After my release from the hospital, I went to the local Commissioner’s Office to file a complaint. He was not cooperative, as he assured me that the bounty hunters had more authority than the police. He had already been made aware of the incident and had attempted to delay the process by refusing to send the paperwork to the district attorney’s office to see if charges could be filed. I had to call the local police department myself to file a report. After questioning local officials regarding the situation, the district attorney’s office did eventually get a copy of the complaint. I have never gone to visit my brother in Prince George’s County jail, nor at the time did I know the whereabouts of my brother. He was later arrested in Pennsylvania. To date, the bounty hunters were never questioned, and we don’t know if an investigation ever really took place because Sergeant Hardester of the DA’s office in Upper Marlboro, Maryland reported that in the middle of his investigation, the case was referred back to the City of Laurel for reasons "unknown."

Since the incident, some of the hardships that I have suffered include losing my job at a major university because of the obsessive absenteeism for medical care for myself and my daughter. It was my dream to be able to finish my education there. My daughter’s college education would’ve been paid for, as well as my own. I have suffered from a broken nose, eye disease and post traumatic-stress disorder and had to receive antidepressants. My daughter suffered from a damaged cornea. She has psychological problems and has never slept in her bedroom since the incident. My daughter, my mother and myself all now suffer from paranoia and post-traumatic stress disorder. I am now forced to survive on a lower paying job with no medical benefits.

My daughter is in special education now, whereas previously she was not. She’s had speech and reading comprehension problems, such as stuttering, and she continues to struggle with reading comprehension. She has problems focusing on her school work. I have to gather the pieces of my life and try to continue on while the bounty hunters continue to victimize other families and innocent children. My daughter had never seen a real gun before this violent episode, and she had never been sprayed with pepper spray before, nor had she ever seen her mother get beaten to a pulp before. And now as a child, she has the worries of an adult because she needs a weapon to defend her home, herself, and her mother. All she had to worry about before was just being a five year old child. I never feel safe at home. I feel as though I’m constantly being watched by whomever.

I pray that I will some day be free of these ill-feelings. And so, I beg you to use my daughter as an example for other children across the country and help to stop these malicious gang-like acts. My family and I were lucky because no one was killed, but people across the country are getting killed. A bounty hunter made a statement that they had more authority than the police officers. Well, how could that be when they receive their licensing from a mail order service. Even as I speak to you here today, there are families somewhere in the U.S. getting terrorized and victimized by bounty hunters. This bill is desperately needed because these bounty hunters’ actions should be closely monitored, and it will save lives and also protect the civil rights of innocent people.

Chinelle G. Moore