Denise Rankin has learned a lot about taking her voice back in the past two years. It started two years ago when she learned about the abuse her ex-husband, Jeffrey Allen Rankin, had inflicted on their two children. Since then, her voice has grown in volume, especially in the past two months, when she stood in front of the Barton County Commissioners to inform them of the Barton County Attorney’s fumbling of their case which resulted in Judge Richard M. Smith ordering the dismissal of 11 of the 31 charges against her ex-husband because the speedy trial law had been violated following the State’s request for a continuance.
It rang probably it’s loudest Tuesday afternoon at Rankin’s sentencing hearing, when she was given the opportunity to read aloud a statement to Judge Smith in advance of his handing down the sentence for the two charges Jeffrey Rankin pleaded guilty to in a plea bargain back in February. In that statement, she detailed the manipulation and conditioning she was subjected to from the time she entered into her relationship with Rankin when she was 19 years old, the physical, emotional and sexual abuse she endured from the start of their marriage, and the physical and emotional abuse of her children at his hands which she then felt powerless to stop, until the day she learned that his abuse of them had crossed a line she could not keep quiet about.

Journey was a ‘nightmare’
Tuesday afternoon, following the hearing, in a meeting room at Great Bend’s Family Crisis Center, she and her personal attorney, Stacia Boden, met with the Great Bend Tribune.
“I’m happy. It’s finally at an end,” she said. She expressed relief that Smith had delivered the maximum sentence he could under the circumstances. There were many ups and downs and tears shed on the nightmare of a journey to that day.
Following the reading of her statement and the children’s statements, there was a moment when the defense attorney, Benjamin Fisher, stated he was both shocked and appalled that the abuse she described had not been reported to the authorities. It’s judgment like that may keep victims of abuse from speaking out and finding help, she said.
“They say that an abused person has to leave seven times before they finally get enough courage to stay gone,” she said. “When you love somebody, you overlook their faults and you’re programmed to believe it when they say, ‘oh, I’m sorry, it will never happen again.’”
It was Denise’s hope that taking her voice back and telling her story might somehow help others to find the courage to end their silence. At the very least, she hoped that telling the judge about what her family had experienced at the hands of her ex-husband might result in a stronger sentence, keeping him from further manipulation and abuse in the community.
“I wanted the judge to know, and I wanted to give myself back my strength,” she said. “I wanted a chance to confront Jeff and let him know I am stronger now without him. Nobody knows what went on behind closed doors, but I do.” She also wanted to give voice to the many voiceless women she said he bragged about manipulating and terrorizing years before they met.

Rough road, but worth taking
Since Denise decided to take a stand for her children and herself, the road has not been easy. She’s struggled, working two jobs because the state has told her she makes too much to qualify for assistance. Hard words to hear when she couldn’t put food on the table.
The obstacles she has faced would have seemed insurmountable two years ago, and it makes her shudder.
“I don’t want to go back into that relationship, but if it would have been something else other than the molestation, I tell you cold-heartedly, that I probably would have gone back with him — because we knew what eggshells to walk on. And I can tell you, any other woman, being a victim, will tell you they’d rather walk on the eggshells than deal with the uncertainties.”
Uncertainties like how to navigate the day-to-day expenses of living, putting food on the table, and paying the utilities.
“They tell you that there are so many resources out there, but we were the typical blue collar family. I had a house, we had three cars. I had a nice job with health insurance. We had it all. That is what the rest of the world saw, but it was a different picture behind closed doors,” she said. “When I finally got up enough courage to leave because of what happened to my children, I’ve been penalized because of what we owned. If you have someone in that same situation, it is going to be a struggle.”
She has since legally divorced Jeffrey Rankin, and the family home was lost to foreclosure because of his refusal to sign off on the home, she said.
But, when Denise looks at her beautiful children, both of who contemplated suicide rather than continue to endure the abuse, there are no regrets.
“You don’t have to live in fear that no one will ever believe you, because there are so many people that are living their own little nightmares, that would grab your hand and let you cry on their shoulders and say I’ve been there. There is support out there. You just have to have the courage.”

Building new family
The changes of the past two years have meant shedding many family members and forging a whole new family. Denise can only say good things about the Great Bend Police and the Barton County Sheriff’s Department. She refers to them as her blue family. They always had her and her children’s back when Jeffrey Rankin was stalking them in person and harassing them over the phone during the time from when she grabbed her children and ran, and when he was finally taken into custody.
And she considers the professionals at the Family Crisis Center her extended family, too. They offered a priceless lifeline to her family when they needed it most.
But, she can’t help feeling that the justice system let her and her children down.
“I wish he’d have gotten more,” she said. “I can’t hold it against the judge for the lack of prosecution. But I would just tell anyone, after going through this experience, to not let the justice system dictate what you are going to do.”
The justice system will only do so much, she explained. She listened to the advice of Douglas Matthews, the Barton County Attorney at the time, and now the Assistant County Attorney. He told her she needed to keep quiet, because it was her case that she could hurt if she spoke to anyone about it.
“We went from our own personal prison of living with the abuse to another kind of abuse from the county attorney’s office,” she said. “We did what we were told. We lived in fear. We didn’t blow our horn. We were told to go home, only go to work or school, and we drew our blinds because we didn’t know when Jeff might get out.”
But, she added, keeping quiet didn’t help her to heal, and it never helped her children.
“Today, we are safe,” she said. “Jeffrey’s never going to do anything more to me or my children again.”
Rebuilding her network and learning again how to trust will take time, Denise knows. One fear remains — when he is released, and he will be someday, he will find some girl just as naive and trusting as she was when she met him, who may want to overlook his past just as she did.
“They need to know that you can’t just overlook the past. I hope and pray that there isn’t a next woman. I hope no one else falls into his trap.”