Barnes

I. FACTS

A. The Events of August 14, 2007 Barnes worked as Polk’s secretary at Pittsburg High School. She and Polk had a sexual relationship, but she did not consider it to be consensual because she believed her job was at stake. On the morning of August 14, 2007, Barnes told Polk she was going to report his misconduct to the school district. According to Barnes, Polk responded by threatening to kill her and her family. Meanwhile, Barnes’s husband learned of the affair, threatened Polk, and told Polk he was on his way to the high school. After speaking to Polk and her husband, Barnes left her home to go to the school district offices, which are near the high school. She took her 11-year old daughter Aliah with her. On the way, she received a call from her husband, who reported that he had been in an automobile accident near the school district offices. When Jeannette Barnes got to the scene of the accident, her husband approached her car, got in the driver’s seat, and drove away with her and Aliah still in the car. He began to scream at his wife and hit her with a closed fist. Eventually Jeanette Barnes was able to escape from the car and run to a nearby police station. One of…