Tonight, we're taking a deeper look at some of the hurdles facing domestic violence survivors who try to seek help through the lens of a woman going through a divorce from a Toms River police officer who says she's repeatedly experienced domestic violence and requested restraining orders multiple times with no success.

She reached out to NJ Spotlight News when she saw the story of New Jersey State Police Lieutenant Ricardo Santos, who authorities say killed his ex-girlfriend Lauren Semanchik and the man she'd been dating before taking his own life earlier this month.

Semanchik's family says she feared for her safety and tried unsuccessfully to get help from local police.

Both incidents are calling into question how authorities handle domestic violence allegation when it involves a member in blue.

Senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan is with me now for more.

Brenda.

Hey, Brianna.

Not long after we reported the Semanchik murder case, NJ Spotlight News got an unsolicited e-mail from Shonda Tomorrow stating she's a victim of domestic violence in the process of divorcing a Toms River police officer, Victor Tomorrow.

Shonda Tomorrow is 48 with two daughters and claims her estranged husband allegedly subjected them to psychological and economic abuse while they shared the marital home in the Ocean County community of Beachwood.

She said he made her fearful by allegedly locking up shared resources and monopolizing economic assets.

And she also alleges her estranged husband's been shielded by law enforcement because of his employment as a police officer in Toms River.

It wasn't until Shonda and her daughters received help from a domestic violence advocacy group that they were able to move out.

She says that's when the alleged abuse finally stopped.

By then, she'd made numerous reports with the local Beachwood Police Department and filed nine requests for a restraining order.

Nine.

She says all were turned down.

She asked to tell her story.

We decided that he was going to stay in the basement.

I was going to stay in the bedroom until the divorce was final.

And then that's where it pretty much started.

He when we first moved back, he changed the code to the garage so we couldn't get in.

He removed my access to the cable and then he removed the access to the Internet.

He's got this wooden fortress that he built around the Internet router and changed the password.

So now we don't have access.

He put a digital safe on the wall just to hide the family TV remote.

It's just it's sickening like that.

This is what is going behind this guy's closed doors.

It's really disturbing.

It was alarming behavior.

You know, every time I would go to work and I come back, there would be something new.

One day, my daughters called me and said, "Hey, Mom, he's putting a padlock and secondary lock on the laundry room door.

We can't do the laundry anymore."

He removed me and my mother from the Verizon marital account.

He closed out our joint bank accounts.

He cashed out our stocks.

And all of this time, my attorney is sending letters like saying, you know, your your client keeps canceling things, closing things out, and it's got to stop.

And it just kept continuing.

And my attorney referred it as childish behavior.

I did each time something was taken away, like resources were taken away.

You know, maybe police reports.

They basically were protecting their brother in blue.

They just didn't seem to really take my or validate my concerns.

At that point, how did you feel?

I was upset.

Like I was nervous.

I was in fear.

We slept with pushing our nightstands in front of the doors because even when I was reporting these incidents, the Beachwood municipal or Beachwood Police Department wasn't forwarding these complaints to Tom Zur.

And when I questioned Beachwood as to why nobody contacts his PD, they say that they have a small department and it's a performance deficiency, that they had to retrain them.

What needs to be done when a law enforcement officer is involved in domestic violence and they go through training twice a year.

They have training twice a year on domestic violence, four hour blocks.

They know what they're supposed to do.

But again, they're just trying to protect him all the long.

Me and my daughters have to be mentally and physically exhausted by his actions.

I was really forced to move out because I couldn't take this anymore.

I was just in fear for my safety.

I didn't know what the next plan was.

Nobody was contacting me.

My reports or my complaints from the municipal court judge decided that they were sufficient enough to be indictable crimes.

They forwarded up to the Oshkosh County Prosecutor's Office.

The Oshkosh County Prosecutor's Office just sent me a generic letter.

No name, no number saying we're not pursuing this.

No advocate, no resources.

And basically the judge, I told him about the history prior to that because he asked.

And the judge basically ended the phone call with, "Ma'am, you are not in fear.

You're inconvenienced.

And get yourself a cell phone, get yourself some internet, and get yourself an attorney and call it a day."

What did you think at that point?

I left crying because it was just trying to be validated, trying for somebody to understand what you're going through, trying to protect your children at the same time, trying to do the right thing, and nobody listens to you.

And this was like the ninth time.

You feel helpless.

You want to give up.

So I had no choice.

I had to leave.

I had to leave.

I was not sleeping.

I was in fear.

He was still carrying a gun.

And Jackson PD was the only police department that forwarded that report to Tom's River.

And I still never received a call.

Never.

What do you want?

I want accountability.

I want to be validated.

And I know there's other victims out there that are probably going through the same thing, either past, present.

I know.

I know that somebody else read those articles and said, me too.

And I think that it comes down to, is, we have these laws, but nobody's enforcing them.

Brianna, we did reach out to the police departments involved in this case and to Shonda's estranged husband, Victor, tomorrow.

Both he and his attorney refused to comment on pending legal matters since the divorce litigation continues.

Beachwood Police Chief Daniel Altman stated, "We recognize the gravity of all matters involving domestic violence.

Out of respect for the privacy and safety of those involved, we cannot release specific details on this case.

We can confirm, however, that any time a person who meets the classification of a domestic violence victim contacts our department and requests to apply for a restraining order, they are provided that opportunity.

And that was no different in this case."

Now, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office stated, "To suggest that the Beachwood Police Department and the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office failed to properly investigate these allegations is simply untrue.

It should be noted that our investigation into this matter was also reviewed by the attorney general's office.

With regard to whether a restraining order should have been issued in this case, the prosecutor's office has absolutely no involvement in that process.

The decision to grant or deny a temporary or final restraining order lies exclusively with the courts."

Now, we didn't hear back from the Tombs River Police Department.

Bri?

Brenda, what strikes me about that was the statement there that they need to meet the classification of being a domestic abuse survivor or victim.

Was there anything being done to maybe broaden what that includes?

Because what this woman is saying certainly would constitute as abuse if not physical abuse.

Absolutely.

There is clarification that possibly might be provided.

Ora Dunn is a Republican Assemblywoman from the 25th District and she's pushing a bill that would redefine domestic violence to include psychological and economic abuse.

She's hoping that more specific instructions would give judges clear legal direction to grant alleged victims' requests for restraining orders based on actions that cause fear or serious alarm or distress that has a substantial adverse impact on a person's daily activities, Bri.

Really powerful, really emotional story, Brenda.

Thanks so much.

Thank you, Bri.

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