A wife and daughter testified to years of abuse at a recent hearing in a felony domestic violence case stemming from a March arrest on Bobwhite Circle in Saugus.
An 8-year-old girl, holding a squeeze ball and accompanied by a victim advocate, testified during a preliminary hearing earlier this month to years of being hit frequently by her father with an open hand, a wooden spoon, a steel spatula or “anything he could find,” according to the July 18 minute order in Judge David Walgren’s courtroom in the San Fernando Superior Court.
Ashok Godula, 36, of Santa Clarita, was arrested March 8, and the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office has charged Godula with felony domestic violence and a misdemeanor count of willful cruelty to a child.
Walgren held Godula to answer both charges.
“It didn’t hurt that much,” the child said of her father’s strikes, ranking most of them as a “4 or 5,” on a scale of 1 to 10 — “but it did hurt,” according to the court transcript.
Godula’s wife later testified the abuse began months into their 12-year marriage while the couple still lived in India, but he stopped hitting her face when they moved to the United States, according to the court transcript.
After the couple moved to Saugus, according to her testimony in court records, Godula would threaten her with deportation.
Godula’s daughter also testified that her father threatened her and her mother. She would also tell her mother to call the police, according to testimony from Godula’s wife.
She faced constant threats, she said, adding the abuse had cost her friendships, as well. Ultimately, the concern for her daughter’s well-being is what drove her to contact police, she testified, according to the court transcript.
“‘I will make sure that you end up in mental hospital, and then I will cancel your visa,’” the wife said on the stand through an interpreter, recalling the threats that she said motivated her to stay quiet about the abuse, according to the court record.
When home alone or with their daughter, she said, her husband threatened her if she didn’t stay in front of the video cameras he had set up in the house, which she wasn’t allowed to leave.
She also presented photos of bruising on her legs from the alleged March assault, according to the transcript.
She testified that, when she told her family in India about the alleged abuse, she was told that, as a woman, she has to “tolerate all these things,” including sexual assault, according to the court transcript.
During a trip to India four years ago, when Godula’s wife told her family about the abuse, she said Godula turned both their families against her, and both sides agreed to separate her from her daughter, which is why they came back to the United States, according to her testimony.
“And if he was abusing you, why did you come back with him?” Jacob Glucksman, Godula’s attorney, asked Godula’s wife on the stand, questioning why she moved back to California with him four years ago after the couple lived in Wisconsin.
“I don’t have any other option,” she said. “I have no support. Where will I go? Where should I go?”
She said on the stand that the most recent incident that led to the criminal charges involved her husband becoming violent with both her and her daughter over the child’s failure to return a library book on time.
She said it was hard enough to report the incident when she did, adding she had to wait until he was napping to call the police on March 7.
Walgren assigned the case to Judge Hilleri Merritt for Godula’s arraignment, where Godula pleaded not guilty Friday, according to L.A. Superior Court records online.
Locally, if anyone is experiencing domestic violence, they can contact the SCV Child & Family Center for more information and support services at 661-259-9439.
