From Deseret News archives:
5 victims describe harrowing passages
Mothers, children tell how they've created new lives
She is a diversity court advocate for the Salt Lake City Prosecutor's Office now, but she's been on the other side.
"I can relate to the victims," she said. "I know the system is very scary."
Eight years ago, Koenig says she was a very different person the victim of domestic violence and experiences with which she and her children are still dealing.
She was married to her abuser for a short time. Even when she was pregnant, her husband was verbally and physically abusive. She would go to the doctor and hope someone would ask about her well-being, her injuries. No one did.
She had a bushel of reasons why she couldn't leave. "I went through every reason you've heard," she said.
But she had a small epiphany when she gave birth to her first child, and though it took her another year to leave, it was an important moment in her life.
The brand-new mother was standing in her hospital room holding her child because the father was lounging on her bed watching television. As she tried to talk to the doctor, her husband kept turning up the volume of the television so he could hear it over the sound of their voices.
Later, after what she calls a "major incident," she called the police on her husband for the first time. Her children weren't home at the time, but officials told her if she stayed with him and the children were exposed to violence, she would lose them.
"That's what opened my eyes," she said. She left with an infant and a 13-month-old in tow.
Her children are 8 and 9 years old now. Koenig has remarried, to a man who has adopted the children.
In the long run, she created a better life, but there are still challenges.
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