Kimberly S. Anderson

Date: 11/19/2004

Case Style: Estate and Family of Brent Anderson v. Kimberly Anderson

Court: Court of Common Please, Franklin County, Ohio

Description:

The Estate and Family of Brent Anderson sued Kimberly Anderson for the wrongful death of Mr. Anderson, who was shot eight times by Ms. Anderson at their home in Wapakoneta in September 2001. Ms. Anderson claimed that she was defending herself from her estranged husband who, she claimed, was threatenting her.

Outcome: Plaintiffs, verdict for $540,000.00.

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Anderson family refiles wrongful death suit

By Shelley Grieshop - The Daily Standard

August 29, 2003

The family of Brent Anderson has refiled a civil lawsuit seeking monetary compensation for the shooting death of their son in September 2001.

The family seeks “vindication” for Brent Anderson, a former Celina attorney, “and seeks to hold Kimberly Anderson accountable for the killing,” reads a statement to the media from the family’s attorney, Dale K. Perdue of Columbus.

“Brent’s family cannot permit the one-sided story presented at the criminal trial to be Brent’s final legacy,” Perdue told The Daily Standard on Thursday. “They want the record set straight that Brent was a kind, sensitive and caring man who did not deserve to be gunned down in the prime of his life.”

Brent Anderson’s wife, Kimberly Anderson, 38, of Wapakoneta was acquitted of a trio of murder charges during a seven-day criminal trial in Defiance County in October 2002. Neither she nor her attorney, Rob C. Wiesenmayer of Wapakoneta, returned calls from The Daily Standard seeking comment on the recent filing.

Perdue’s media release also states: “Family members believe the jury acted on sympathy, not on the facts. ... the jury saw a mother of four children and simply could not bring themselves to convict Kimberly Anderson.”

The civil lawsuit claims Kimberly Anderson shot Brent Anderson intentionally to end his life. A period of time elapsed between the first non-fatal bullet fired upon Brent Anderson and the seven subsequent shots, it states.

“During this time, the decedent (deceased) was in mortal fear for his life and experienced physical pain, suffering and severe mental anguish,” Perdue wrote.

The family filed a similar lawsuit weeks after the shooting, but dismissed it in March, citing personal reasons. Perdue beat the court deadline to refile the suit by five days.

The recent lawsuit lists Brent Anderson’s brother, Kevin Anderson of Cincinnati, as plaintiff. The lawsuit seeks a total in excess of $50,000 and “special, compensatory and punitive damages” on behalf of the couple’s children, Erik, 5, and Ryan, 3, Brent Anderson’s daughter from a previous relationship, Justine, 14, as well as Brent Anderson’s parents and siblings.

Brent Anderson was the son of Warren and Betty Anderson of Celina. He also is survived by four brothers and five sisters.

Kimberly Anderson has retained custody of the couple’s two children, as well as two other children from a previous marriage, since the shooting two years ago.

Throughout the trial last fall, Kimberly Anderson testified that she argued with her estranged husband that Labor Day weekend after telling him she suspected he had molested one of the children. She said he chased her into an upstairs bedroom where she shot him eight times in self-defense.

The recently filed lawsuit counters Kimberly Anderson’s claims of self-defense. Perdue states evidence at the trial shows Brent Anderson was never physically violent or abusive during the couple’s three-year marriage. He also notes Kimberly Anderson had both a telephone and a loaded gun when she pursued her unarmed husband into a walk-in closet after already wounding him with the first shot in the bedroom area.

In May, Kimberly Anderson filed a motion to seal all records relating to the criminal case. Her attorney, Alan Konop of Toledo, argued that his client was trying to “get on with her life” and deserved her right to privacy.

Perdue notified the court in a letter objecting to the motion on the grounds he intended to refile the civil suit and would seek access to all information and evidence in the case.

On Aug. 8, Auglaize County Common Pleas Judge Frederick Pepple denied the expungement of Kimberly Anderson’s records and upheld the right of public access to information in the high-profile case.

Kimberly Anderson feels blessed now

Wapak woman ready to resume family life after murder acquittal

By Shelley Grieshop - The Daily Standard

October 30, 2002

During a birthday party Tuesday evening for her 3-year-old son, Kimberly Anderson said it struck her how very blessed she was.

"If it had been the Lord's will to send me to prison, I would have accepted it and I was ready," she said. "But as I watched Ryan blow out his candles, it occurred to me that things could have been very different, he might be celebrating without his mommy."

It was two weeks ago today, when 12 Defiance County jurors acquitted Anderson, 38, of aggravated murder, murder and voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of her husband Brent Anderson on Sept. 2, 2001. She maintained that she shot the Celina attorney in an act of self-defense to protect herself and the couple's children who were present in the rural Wapakoneta home the day she shot him.

During an interview this morning with The Daily Standard, Anderson spoke frankly about many aspects of her life before the shooting, after her arrest and now.

"There are no winners here, I loved Brent, too. He was fun-loving, a real charming guy. That's why I fell in love with him," she said. "I never meant to take his life, I just meant to stop him from taking ours."

Since the trial, Anderson said the constant nightmares she experienced following the shooting have disappeared and so have the negative messages she had received periodically through cards and letters.

"I've gotten flowers and cards from people I don't even know who sympathized with me and what happened," Anderson said.

A safety plan put into place the day of the shooting was terminated two days after the trial and Anderson now may spend time with all her children without supervision.

"It was uncomfortable," she said describing the months she was not able to be alone with her own children.

She also called it a blessing that she was not jailed immediately after shooting her husband of two years. She considers herself lucky to have not been separated from her children as most parents typically are following an incident so serious, she said. She feels she was free from the beginning because she was honest with authorities.

"I told them exactly what happened that day and they believed me that the shooting occurred in self-defense," she said. "I had no motive, nothing to gain from his death."

She said at one point, hours after the shooting, her father tried to warn her that "they might keep you," meaning she may be jailed yet that night for her husband's death. She said she responded, "I haven't done anything wrong."

Anderson said she feels pressure from the surrounding communities and Brent Anderson's family and friends was what stirred the Auglaize County Prosecutor's Office to file charges against her.

"It was very political," she said.

She cites her faith in God as the sole factor that kept her going during the last year after she was indicted in December 2001. When asked if she felt she "got religious" from the whole experience and is now touting God instead of providing answers, she replied:

"I've been a Christian since I was a child, but like anyone else I turned to God when I needed help," she explained. "I've seen God's hand in my life and he's been protecting us all along."

Anderson came close to offering a plea bargain during the jury's seven-hour deliberation. At one point, jurors asked the judge to give them a definition for preponderance, which indicated the seven women and five men were closely examining the two most serious charges of aggravated murder and murder.

"Alan (Konop, her defense attorney) said, as my attorney, he needed to tell me it might be wise to offer the prosecution a plea right now," she said. "I told him all 12 jurors will have to decide that I'm guilty and I am not going to make the decision to send myself to prison."

Anderson said Auglaize County Prosecutor Ed Pierce was standing next to Konop, ready to discuss a plea bargain that may have sent her to prison for six months, when she firmly said "no."

Kimberly Anderson said she has sympathy for the loss felt by the Brent Anderson family, but she doesn't think they understand what was happening to Brent the months before his death.

"He was mentally ill. I felt he had a mood disorder and I had tried to get him to go to counseling for it," she said. "He didn't have any coping skills."

She believes his family and friends may feel guilty because they, too, were not able to get him help for his depression.

She claimed she probably didn't know Brent at all during their short marriage, and that he told her many untruths during the last three years of his life. She firmly believes, as she testified in court, that he was abusing their children. She testified repeatedly that she confronted him that Labor Day weekend afternoon about her suspicions of child abuse, and that is what started the incident. She claimed he chased her upstairs in a fit of rage to stop her from making the sexual abuse claims public and ruining his career as an attorney.

"Before that day, I really didn't think that it (abuse suspicions) was true, but after Erik said it in front of Brent and I saw Brent's reaction, I realized he was a desperate man," Kimberly Anderson said.

She said the couple's children, Ryan, 3, and Erik, now 4, were both on the first level of the home when Brent Anderson chased her upstairs to the master bedroom where she fired the first shot. When she fled the room after firing seven more shots into Brent Anderson's body in a walk-in closet, she could not immediately find Erik who was hiding in the living room.

"I said, 'Run Erik,' and grabbed Ryan at the bottom of the steps," she said. She found Erik and the three made their way outside where she called 911.

Anderson said the children know what happened that day and continue in counseling just as she has.

"They know I shot Daddy with a real gun and he is in heaven. They saw his rage that day and knew he was bad," she said.

During the yearlong pending divorce proceedings, Kimberly Anderson's attorney warned Brent Anderson and his divorce attorney that she was considering the filing of a restraint order to keep him away from her. She also said she discussed using children's services to exchange the children for visitation to avoid any confrontations. She said Brent Anderson refused, fearing he would be disbarred if a protection order was issued against him. He also did not want to face the embarrassment of exchanging his children through a third party, she said.

A wrongful death civil lawsuit filed by Brent Anderson's brother, Kevin Anderson of Cincinnati, in Auglaize County Common Pleas Court remains pending against Kimberly Anderson. Kevin Anderson also is seeking custody of his two young nephews, an action Kimberly Anderson said she doesn't understand.

"None of the Andersons had a bond with my children before. Why they want them now, I don't understand," she said. "Is it for the best interest of my children or to hurt me?"

Kimberly Anderson said her days are brighter now even though she cannot return to her job with Lincare of Lima, where she was a practicing respiratory therapist. She was placed on paid leave for three weeks by Lincare following the shooting, and then terminated "because of the publicity to the office," Anderson said she was told.

She now is turning her hobby of faux painting into a career. Court and attorney fees were phenomenal, but her parents have helped out with those expenses, she admitted.

Kimberly Anderson said she believes the truth is in front of everyone now and it is up to each individual to believe it or not. As for her, she believes she did what she had to do to defend her family.

"Brent died at my hands and I have to deal with that," she said.

Brent Anderson's family has own view

By Shelley Grieshop - The Daily Standard

October 30, 2002

Brent Anderson's sister responded this morning to statements made by Kimberly Anderson during an interview with The Daily Standard.

Pam Anderson of Connecticut, Brent Anderson's older sister, acted as spokesperson for her family.

Concerning the statement Kimberly Anderson made saying she had no motive to kill her husband, Pam Anderson replied:

"By Kim's own account of the day of the shooting, she confronted Brent with accusations of child molestation. I believe that it's reasonable to assume that it wasn't just Brent who might have had his emotions aroused on that day. The difference between Kim and Brent (that day) was that Kim had a gun and Brent didn't. It had been a long and difficult divorce with a near-constant battle over custody and finances."

Pam Anderson also commented on Kimberly Anderson's statement that she never meant to kill her husband. If she had the phone and the gun, why, Pam Anderson asked, didn't she just call the police?

"Brent's body was found in a kneeling/sitting position slumped against the wall of a closet. I challenge Kim to give a clear public step-by-step account of exactly how Brent came to be in a closet with at least eight bullet wounds from Kim's gun, if he was the aggressor in the alleged argument."

Kimberly Anderson referred to her husband as having a mental illness. Pam Anderson said her brother underwent a psychological evaluation during the custody suit and was found well within the normal range.

"The courts found him healthy enough to award him joint custody of his two children (during the couple's separation). In addition to that, at the time of his death he was a practicing attorney, working every day with judges and other attorneys in the Mercer County court system. Surely somebody other than Kim would have noticed (if he had a mental problem at that time)."

Kimberly Anderson said charges were brought against her because of pressure from Brent's family and the community. Pam Anderson said it was the letter of the law that caused Kimberly Anderson to be charged.

"Kim was indicted by an Auglaize County grand jury. Brent's family and friends couldn't influence the grand jury because they had no way of knowing who was serving on that jury. The grand jury indicts on the basis of evidence that is put before it. Kim had an opportunity to testify before the grand jury and they heard her version of events, but they still indicted her."

Auglaize County Prosecutor Ed Pierce also was contacted by The Daily Standard, but was unavailable for comment at press time today.

Wife shoots hubby for child abuse

Doctor warned Anderson against confrontation, didn't report sex abuse allegations

By John Fike - LimaNews.com

October 12, 2002

DEFIANCE - A Lima doctor did not report to Auglaize County Children Services when Kimberly Anderson told him that her son might have been sexually abused.

Dr. Wilfred Ellis was one of 13 witnesses to take the stand Friday in the trial of Anderson, who is accused of murdering her estranged husband, Brent Anderson. Brent Anderson was shot and killed Sept. 2, 2001, in rural Wapakoneta. Anderson faces charges of aggravated murder, murder and voluntary manslaughter. The trial was moved to Defiance to ensure an impartial jury.

Ellis told jurors he had a phone conversation with Kimberly Anderson the night before the shooting. Anderson said her 3-year-old son had told her that his dad, Brent Anderson, put mustard on his penis and licked it off. Ellis said he advised Kimberly Anderson to take the child to his pediatrician on Tuesday, after Labor Day, and also told her not to confront Brent Anderson on the issue. Anderson testified Thursday that she confronted Brent Anderson about it because she couldn't believe the allegation was true.

As a doctor, Ellis is required by state law to report instances of alleged child abuse, he said on the stand. Under questioning by prosecutors, Ellis said he did not report what he heard from Kimberly

Anderson. He argued he was not required to report the story because he heard it from Kimberly Anderson rather than the victim, her son, and because he is not the child's physician.

"I had no way of knowing the truth of the accusation," Ellis said. He said he was acting properly in referring Kimberly Anderson to the child's pediatrician. "I do have an obligation to make sure the situation is properly worked up."

Ellis also said that, unbeknownst to Kimberly Anderson that night, Brent Anderson had been calling his office "making insinuations that weren't true." Ellis said he didn't want to get in the middle of their divorce situation.

Ellis, along with his housekeeper Jacqueline Parent, verified previous testimony that Brent Anderson once posed as a cable television repairman in an attempt to enter Ellis' house. Craig Oard, the son of Mike Oard who was a boyfriend of Kimberly Anderson at the time of the shooting, testified to verify other witness statements that Brent Anderson pretended to be interested in buying the Oard's house in order to gain entry. The house was for sale at the time, Oard said. Oard, Ellis and Parent all said they recognized Brent Anderson as the intruder or would-be intruder when they saw his picture in the newspapers after his death.

Kimberly Anderson's mother and former mother- and sister-in-law took the stand Friday to testify that Anderson was hysterical and crying when they found her on the lawn of her home following the shooting.

"She was hysterical, crying, rocking back and forth with the baby," said Patricia Nester, the mother of Anderson's first husband. Nester said she lives about an eighth of a mile from the Anderson house and was the first family member to arrive at the house. "I asked her what happened. She just looked at me. I asked her what happened again. She looked at me again and said, 'I shot Brent.'"

Patricia Nester, her daughter Kristin Ann Nester and Anderson's mother Sue Allen also testified that the Anderson children had been at the Nesters' house the evening after the shooting. Kristin Nester changed the diaper of 1-year-old Ryan. That diaper was later retrieved at the request of a sexual assault nurse and given to the Auglaize County Sheriff's Office as evidence. Detective Mike Eberle later testified that a pubic hair was found in the diaper.

Eberle, Detective Sgt. Dennis White and Deputy Brent Henschen each took the witness stand for the second time this week on Friday. Under questioning by defense attorney Alan Konop, the officers testified that Kimberly Anderson told each of them about alleged child abuse by Brent Anderson in statements made the day of the shooting. The Auglaize County officers did not mention Anderson reporting the abuse or saying she confronted her husband about it during testimony under prosecutors' questioning earlier in the week.

Konop's questioning also revealed that Eberle collected a full-size bed sheet from a crib in Brent Anderson's apartment 24 days after the shooting. Eberle said the sheet, which was crumpled up in the crib, had semen stains on it. Another sheet that appeared to match the semen-stained sheet was also found at the apartment but was not collected, he said.

Although Kimberly Anderson testified Thursday that she struggled with Brent Anderson as she shot him, Eberle said Friday that Anderson never mentioned the struggle in her report to police that afternoon. His testimony was backed up by that of Lynn Miller, the director of the Wapakoneta rescue squad. Miller was at the scene that day. Miller said Anderson did not have any blood stains, scratches or other physical signs of a struggle.

Patricia Knippen of Auglaize County Children Services testified Friday that she interviewed Kimberly Anderson the night of the shooting. Knippen took her and her two boys to Joint Township District Memorial Hospital so the boys could be examined for signs of sexual abuse. She also said that the sexual assault nurse at the hospital recommended getting the diaper that Ryan was wearing when brought home by his dad as possible evidence. Sue Allen and Kimberly Anderson brought the diaper to Knippen several days after the shooting because investigators did not retrieve it.

Ruth Baeumel, the hospital's sexual assault nurse, testified that she examined the Anderson children for signs of sexual abuse and no evidence was found.

Friday testimony:

Kimberly Anderson was hysterical at the scene of the shooting.

Investigators were asked to retrieve a diaper 1-year-old Ryan Anderson had been wearing, but Anderson and her mother turned it in after investigators did not retrieve it.

The child's diaper was found to contain a pubic hair.

Kimberly Anderson told investigators at the scene about allegations that Brent Anderson licked mustard off their child's penis.

Anderson told Dr. Wilfred Ellis about the alleged sexual abuse the night before the shooting. Ellis warned her against confronting Brent Anderson and suggested she take the child to a pediatrician.

Ellis did not report the alleged sexual abuse to children services because he believed it was hearsay and was proper in referring her to the pediatrician.

Kimberly Anderson showed no signs of struggling with Brent Anderson during the shooting.

Kimberly Anderson