A Case of Spousal Abuse?

The wife was released on a bail of $50,000.

There's more to this story or she didn't do it...

(you could be right that it was a reaction to abuse... or not.)

nice set up for a police procedural book, except that it's real and, of course, tragic.

Cape doctor says killing followed abuse
'Battered woman' defense possible

By John R. Ellement and Raja Mishra, Globe Staff | April 10, 2007

BARNSTABLE -- Dr. Ann Gryboski and Patrick Lancaster could often be seen walking their three beagles around their quaint neighborhood here, a respected physician and skilled seaman living a seemingly idyllic Cape Cod life.

But a clearly shaken Gryboski appeared handcuffed yesterday in Barnstable District Court -- her lip swollen, a blood-red gash below her right eye -- to plead not guilty to charges of killing her husband of nearly three decades.

According to police, she admitted on video to shooting two rounds into his abdomen. But she said that it happened as she intervened in a violent family dispute, the last in a long string of physical and emotional abuse dealt by Lancaster, according to her statements to police and her lawyer.

The lawyer, Kevin Reddington, suggested that Gryboski, 51, might use a "battered woman" defense, a rarely invoked but legally legitimate reason for killing someone in Massachusetts.

"This woman is just such a sweet, gentle, professional doctor and a great mother," said Reddington. "She's suffered terribly in her domestic life. I think it's a textbook case. Some people call it battered woman's syndrome, but I prefer to refer to it as self-defense."

Lancaster, 50, was found dead of gunshot wounds at the couple's Barnstable home on Sunday about 12:30 p.m., after Gryboski called 911 to summon police. Her husband was pronounced dead at the scene, and Gryboski was arrested.

Reddington and Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe said that, based in part on Gryboski's bruised face when she appeared in court, his office agreed to seek an unusually low $50,000 cash bail for the doctor, who is charged with first-degree murder. She posted the bail yesterday afternoon and was released from custody.

"There are some mitigating factors surrounding this event," O'Keefe said, citing Gryboski's bruised face as evidence of those factors. "There was a dispute, obviously, between a husband and wife. It ended tragically as sometimes occurs."

O'Keefe said Gryboski has been licensed to carry a firearm since 2003. Reddington said she obtained the permit in order to legally transport her husband's hunting rifles. On Sunday, police recovered a black handgun inside the couple's house near Lancaster's body.

Gryboski, who graduated from Tufts University School of Medicine in 1986, was an able physician with a caseload of more than 2,000 patients and a spotless medical record, according to colleagues and state records. She had recently assisted Cape Cod Hospital with reviewing its quality standards. Her patients were contacted yesterday to reschedule appointments. Reddington said it was not clear when or if Gryboski will resume practicing.

"Right now she has a lot of friends and family that are supporting her and making living arrangements with her," said Reddington. "I think she is just going to take some personal time and just try to adjust to the emotional trauma that she is going through and sort this all out."

Lancaster worked as a builder, fisherman, and charter boat owner. For a month in 2001, he worked as an engineering and maintenance employee and instructor for the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, according to academy officials. Though the stint was supposed to last for two months, he left the position early, though academy officials would not say why.

According to the police report, on Saturday night Lancaster attacked Gryboski while the two were driving on the Cape with their 2-year-old grandson in the back seat. She was left with a "reddened and bruised right eye and prominent bruising to her face and mouth," the report said. "Her lip was also swollen, bruised , and cut."

The final confrontation began the next day, after their son, Christopher Lancaster, saw his mother's battered face and approached his father, according to Reddington.

"Christopher was not too pleased about his mother's appearance," he said.

Gryboski, in an interview with Barnstable police, said she shot her husband after she tried to intervene in the confrontation between father and son.

"As she attempted to intercede, the deceased began coming towards her," said the police report. "She fired two shots striking him in the side and torso."

Gryboski also told police that this weekend's violence was not the first time she had been abused by the man she married in 1979.

"She stated her husband has been both physically and mentally abusive to her and her children for many years and that the violence has been escalating," the police report says.

After shooting her husband, Gryboski dialed 911, police said, telling the dispatcher, "She needed the police as she had just killed her husband."

Reddington said Gryboski never complained to police about being battered by her husband, and never sought a restraining order or filed for divorce. Nevertheless, he said that Gryboski suffered terribly at the hands of her husband.

The couple lived in an elegant four-bedroom house in a quiet Barnstable subdivision since 1994.

Neighbors interviewed yesterday said they often glimpsed the couple walking their dogs, but never saw Gryboski suffering from unexplained injuries nor did they ever hear loud arguments coming from the house.

"Honest to God, I never heard anything bad from there," said next - door neighbor Dianne Hayes. "If people knew, somebody would have said something. And I never heard anything."

Hayes was a patient of Gryboski.

"I don't think there is anybody that didn't like her," she said. "She was a very good doctor and she was a very nice person to talk to."

One family friend, Thomas Knapp of Centerville, who was in court to watch Gryboski's arraignment yesterday, said Lancaster had a volcanic temper and was not well liked among the charter boat industry. He said he once heard Christopher Lancaster say "he hated his father."

State courts have upheld the right of battered women to use lethal force in self-defense after the so-called Framingham Eight case in 1994, in which eight battered women in prison challenged their convictions. Seven were eventually freed, and the Supreme Judicial Court backed them on appeal. But the defense is rarely used and requires proof of abuse.

Victims' advocates said that battered women sometime s feel that force is the only protection left to them. "There has to be a lot of anger, and feelings that this is the only way she can resolve her situation at this time. It's unusual but not unheard of," said Lysetta Hurge-Putnam, executive director of Independence House, a nonprofit based in Hyannis that assists abuse victims. "They think that they're going to die if they don't do something."

Boston Globe

I suspect that if she's out on $50,000.00 bond, there's at least one judge that doesn't think there's much of a case.

She may be claiming self defense.