I went to court on Tuesday. We were in Chicago, visiting my family, and I knew I wanted to attend court. I know that not much happens in court these days, but nonetheless I wanted to be there. I didn’t post about it on social media at all with the idea that it might be a surprise that I was there.
We got to the courthouse around 8:40am and set up shop at a table in the café right outside the courtroom. MB arrived at 8:48am and saw me right as he turned the corner into the hallway. This time, he wasn’t alone. He was with a woman, probably in her 30s, wearing a tank top and jean shorts. She used the bathroom and then they went downstairs together, where they hugged and then she left. I can only pray for her safety and well-being. I know that MB was with other women after me, and I know he abused them too. I know how he masks and comes off as charming. And I hope she’s ok. I hope she’ll be ok.
I doubt he told her what he was truly there for. I know he lied to other women in the past about why he had lawyers or why he had court dates. He even manipulated one of his victims to pay the $1,000 fine for violating my order of protection, under the ruse of needing money for rent.
Anyway, Court. I brought my fiancé with my parents and me. It was his first time seeing MB in person. As I sat at that table in the café, seeing MB in the hallway, I pulled out my phone and looked at the old photos. I pulled up the pictures of Kirby’s body and looked at them. I looked at the state of his body. At the wounds. The puncture marks on Kirby’s flesh from where MB had his dog attack Kirby. It is RIGHT that he is being prosecuted. It is RIGHT that he is being held accountable for his crime. Because that’s what he did. Mathew Berry, on June 23, 2020, broke the law, numerous times, when he abused and tortured my dog, ultimately killing him. He broke the law. And that’s what this case is all about. (more to follow with that thread in a moment)
In the courtroom, MB snuck in at the last minute and sat right behind my family and me. He was talking to another defendant as they share the same public defender. When it was his case called, his public defender announced that they were ready to move forward. MB left the courtroom. The victim’s advocate stood up and talked to the prosecutor. I know they were talking about me. The prosecutor asked, “Is she here?” to which the victim’s advocated responded that yes, I was there. The prosecutor said we could go talk in the side room for a minute. So we followed the victim’s advocate to a private room and waited for the prosecutor. He came in and explained the situation to us. It looks like at the next court date, set for October 3 (and officially labeled “Final Pretrial” in the court records), that MB will either plead guilty or set a date for trial. A trial likely wouldn’t happen until spring or summer of 2024.
And then that was that. We went home and my fiancé and I hit the road. As we were driving, I began reflecting on the whole case, the whole situation, and I had a realization. Something that hadn’t hit me before surprisingly, as naive as it sounds.
Mathew Berry is being prosecuted for abusing and torturing Kirby because he broke the law. This isn’t about me. This isn’t about him abusing me and how he abused and killed my dogs to do that. Sure, that’s part of the whole story, the whole truth, but this is about the fact that he broke the law. When the prosecutor gets up there and argues this case, he is arguing that Mathew Berry broke the law. His defense attorney has to defend him and try to show that he didn’t break the law. That’s the case. The case is Mathew Berry broke the law. And that’s the entirety of the matter.
Mathew Berry has tried to intimidate me from testifying. Either he himself, or somebody he knows, threatened me and tried to intimidate me from testifying. Well, you know how that went. I filed the police reports who themselves stated that MB having a third party contact me was in fact a violation of the order of protection. Which, I took screen shots of his comments (and the very long one even posted on this very blog), sent them to my attorney, and we brought it to court. We showed that evidence as proof that I needed to get the order of protection against Mathew Berry extended, and the judge agreed.
So then I started reflecting on the lawsuit. Mathew Berry owes me $162,338. That’s a LOT of money. And I was thinking about that case. Mat wasn’t exactly on top of it throughout that case. He kept putting things off and pushing things back until finally the judge granted our petition to default in judgement. I testified to what I had written in the lawsuit and Mat had to listen as I testified to the judge. And then the judge looked over the case and made his decision as to what the judgement should be.
Now, $162,338 is a LOT of money. And I was thinking about that. This wasn’t just a case of the judge seeing that Mat dropped the ball and awarding us a few thousand dollars because Mat dropped the ball and the judgement went to default. No. The judge awarded us the judgement of $162,338 because he saw the case through and through, saw all of our evidence, and ruled that Mathew Berry is liable for the abuse and deaths of my dogs, Kirby AND Daisy, and the emotional suffering he inflicted on me.
A judge has already seen this case and ruled that Mathew Berry did it. In civil court, and now it’s up for criminal court.
Mathew Berry broke the law. He broke the law when he tortured and killed my sweet dogs. And now he’s being held accountable for that. His only hope in intimidating me is to try and get any chance in there that he isn’t found guilty of breaking the law. It’s not a question of if he did this to me or not. It’s a question of proving that when he did these things to me and my dogs, that he broke the law.
I know what he did. I know what he did to me and to my dogs. The truth, and justice, will prevail.
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