husband was a woman - PT Forums - The PT Cruiser Enthusiasts and Owners Resource

TangerineDream · #1 (**permalink**) 4th April 2003, 08:38 AM

Friday, April 4, 2003
Charge dropped in death of female 'husband'

By JENNIFER O'BRIEN, Free Press Reporter

CHATHAM -- Aside from the bruises on Elizabeth Rudavsky's body, she and her spouse, "Angelo" Heddington, looked like a typical young couple.

Angelo was stocky and strong from years of farm work. Elizabeth was a kind and trusting woman who loved animals.

Rudavsky, 27, loved her husband -- even after months of beatings, psychological humiliation and abuse and sexual torture.

Only after Rudavsky fatally stabbed her 30-year-old partner -- in a desperate act of self-defence for which she was criminally cleared yesterday -- did she learn there was no Angelo.

Her husband's name was Angela.

The police told her.

The twisted story of Angela Heddington's gender identity crisis came out in court yesterday, but it was only one element in an abusive relationship that left Rudavsky feeling she had no choice but to stab her spouse.

And as a result of an investigation leading to that information, Crown Attorney Paul Bailey said he had no choice but to drop a second-degree murder charge against Rudavsky yesterday.

"In my 32 years with the attorney general, I have never seen a case remotely close to the horrible facts in this case," Bailey said yesterday.

"My duty is to withdraw the charge," he told Superior Court Justice Joseph Donohue.

Rudavsky was charged with killing Heddington after Chatham-Kent police were called Sept. 21, 2002, to the couple's home at 100 Harvey St.

Soon after the investigation began, it became clear Rudavsky, covered in bruises, cuts and scars, was also a victim.

Donohue said yesterday he "wholeheartedly" endorsed withdrawing the charge.

"In a case of clear self-defence, it is only proper to withdraw the charge. A murder has not been committed," he said.

During yesterday's hearing, Rudavsky broke down several times, sobbing loudly as she sat between her lawyer, Fletcher Dawson, and her mother.

Bailey said he felt obliged to read the traumatic facts for the record.

"We need to make it plain to the public that even though Angela Heddington was stabbed to death, I am not prosecuting," he said.

Police and medical investigations brought forth overwhelming evidence Heddington had abused and tortured Rudavsky -- and had a history of similar types of abuse in at least three past relationships in which she acted as a man.

Information from Heddington's family painted a picture of a violent person who left her home near Chatham and had been pretending to be male since she was 14 years old.

"It soon became apparent the deceased had gender identity crisis issues and serious pathological sexual proclivities," Bailey said.

Police found "prosthetic male genitalia" under Heddington's clothing the day she died.

Throughout her seven-month relationship with Rudavsky, Heddington had never been "bare" in the light, Bailey said.

The two met while Heddington was living at a Glencoe-area farm while recuperating from a back injury and Rudavsky was travelling to farms to sell dog tags.

But Rudavsky lost that job along with another at an abattoir when Heddington began accompanying her to work and insisted on waiting for her outside the abattoir.

Heddington also made Rudavsky drink large amounts of water, then ordered her not to urinate. When she did, Heddington would beat her.

Heddington also exercised "food control," which included locking it up. Rudavsky, who weighed 200 pounds when the two met last February, lost 80 pounds by September. She also lost hair and developed acne, Bailey said.

Rudavsky was whipped with a horse crop, and beaten for "not answering questions quickly enough, not cooking supper fast enough, not sitting up straight and not acting like a lady," Bailey said.

In August, Rudavsky was admitted to hospital for four days -- and needed seven units of blood -- after being violated with a metal pipe.

A medical report shows staff noted significant bruising, swelling and life-threatening loss of blood, but Rudavsky said she'd fallen from a horse.

It was at least the second time she lied to cover up injuries caused by Heddington.

The night Heddington died, she had threatened to kill Rudavsky. As she had done many times before, Heddington wrapped her strong hands around Rudavsky's neck and began to choke her.

But for the first time, Rudavsky broke free and ran toward the door, grabbing a butcher knife along the way.

She used the knife on Heddington, stabbing her in the abdomen, only after being cornered at the door, which was blocked with a bicycle, court heard.