Her too!
By Carolina Soto
This is the story of Roberta Ronique Bell, serving a life sentence for a violent crime I do not believe she committed. Roberta was vulnerable to and a victim of the United States' culture of rape. Rape or rape culture is when sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture. She was a child of 13 when she first suffered abuse and manipulation by someone who raped her for many years and involved her in a violent crime. She was extremely vulnerable, a young woman that the law should have protected, but now is incarcerated for life.
In their haste to prosecute the killers of a police informant, the federal police swept Roberta up and prosecuted her. They completely disregarded her position in this story, her helplessness regarding the perpetrators of the crime and her innocence as established in a state court.
Many people believe that the main motor behind mass incarceration is the drug war and only people manipulated by the drug war deserve our attention and love. There are, however, many people convicted of violent crimes that deserve compassion and understanding. In the information and websites that I have shared with you, you will find a sensitive, hardworking woman who has parented as well as she could from prison, has a long list of achievements, and is not a threat to society. She, if freed, will contribute to society. Likewise, many sisters are still behind the prison walls convicted of violent crimes who need our help, compassion, and understanding of who they are today after so many years behind bars.
Roberta was raped at 13 years old and became pregnant. She was the charge of her Grandmother who decided that Roberta and her infant be returned to her mother's care in another state. Her mother was a crack addict who allowed her dealer and lover, David Tyler, to rape her fourteen-year-old daughter when he wished in exchange for drugs and the support of Roberta and her infant daughter, Ashley. Roberta did not use drugs, but held Tyler's drugs and drug money when needed. She married J.T. Bell at age sixteen, escaping Tyler and her mother. She had two children with J.T. Bell. Still obligated to Tyler, through her mother, Roberta returned to Tyler when he demanded. He kept her and her baby from homelessness and hunger and her mother from being on the corner, turning tricks for crack. Discovering his wife's infidelity, Bell savagely beat her and left her to raise three children by herself. Bell returned frequently to brutalize Roberta, once badly breaking her hand, hindering her new job as a legal secretary in Joanne Kehr's law office.
David Tyler asked Roberta to drive to his brother in another city and bring him $2500 for a drug deal. Roberta complied. The brother, Willie Tyler, asked her to pick up Doreen Proctor and drop her off at another drug dealer's house. Roberta complied and dropped off Doreen Proctor, who had come along freely, and left the car to connect with a drug dealer. Roberta then left for home.
Doreen Proctor's body was found on the side of a country road in Adams County, Pennsylvania, on April 21, 1992, shot in the head and chest, badly beaten, and stabbed repeatedly. Roberta said that Tyler came to her home, beat her, and insisted she say he was there the entire night.
Roberta Bell was acquitted of the murder in state court.
In June 1995, federal agents arrested Bell and charged her with witness tampering, intimidating a witness, and using a firearm. Prosecutors asserted that she fired the first shot at Proctor, a charge that Bell has continued to deny. Vindicated once, the federal government tried Roberta for the same crime in Federal Court and convicted her.
What is wrong with this?
The government case repeatedly refers to Roberta as David Tyler's girlfriend, but we know about their relationship. For Roberta, this was not a love interest. Tyler was her handler. Roberta Ronique Bell was a child brought up by a crack-addicted mother and a vicious drug dealer. This is what I mean by rape culture. The FBI proceeded as if there was nothing more than a love relationship. Roberta's age, herstory, and manipulation were all "normal" for a young black woman (especially one that had three children by age nineteen), pointing more directly to her guilt. To me, sexual assault and harassment are procedural and state mechanisms that are supposed to prevent rape culture, but instead reproduce and reinforce it. The system prosecutes and violates women of color, black trans women and all girls who struggle to exist daily.
Police, Federal Agents and the Court
If you were in Roberta's shoes, do you think you could go to the police for protection?
Police are still there to serve the purpose of policing. Police contribute to sexual violence. After police brutality, sexual misconduct is the second most reported complaint against cops. And then, the people they arrest, regardless of the reason for arrest, are put in jails and in prisons, making them vulnerable to sexual violence by people who work in jails and prisons. And so, police perpetrate sexual violence.
Simone Biles recently exposed the FBI as unsympathetic and turning a blind eye to multiple rape testimonies of young women athletes on the US Olympic Team. They are high-profile celebrities, unlike Roberta. Rape culture is so pervasive in advanced capitalism that without enormous money, resistance to rape culture, let alone victim compensation, is impossible.
Supreme Court member Judge Clarence Thomas, accused by Anita Hill of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior, is now probably the most powerful court member. The allegations of sexual assault by Christine Blasey Ford against Justice Brett Kavanaugh are still fresh in our minds, while the attempts to overthrow Roe v. Wade are now in progress. The highest court in the land perpetuates the culture of rape. Will the court acknowledge that women have any rights over their own bodies? Could the supreme court create conditions that enable safety and resistance to violence and oppression - or provide reparations to women who are the victims? Rape culture is the everyday vocabulary of movies, the media, friends and family. I hesitate to speak about it, even when I cry inside for Roberta, the unspeakable horrors that she endured as a child and continues to endure in the prison system for life.
According to Roberta:
"Although my heart has always been in the right place, my head was not. I went through some things as a teenager, that no child should ever have to endure. Some of these things I haven't even discussed with my children because I didn't want them to have to deal with it without me there. It all played a part in some of the very poor choices I made in life. All of which I am very sorry and regretful for. All I need is one chance; just one window of opportunity to open and I guarantee my best efforts at making a difference in people's lives and contributing to society in a positive way."
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I am advocating for the release of Roberta Ronique Bell #08116-067 from Dublin Federal Prison in CA. She is a victim of rape and rape culture, not the perpetrator of a crime. She made mistakes and has been in prison for twenty-five years, beginning with her conviction when she was twenty years old. She is serving a life sentence plus ten consecutive years. I believe she is innocent, I believe she deserves another chance. If I did think she was guilty of murdering a witness twenty five years ago, I would advocate for her release based on the person she is today. She Is an energetic, loving, faithful, motivational mother whose kindness, hard work and clarity have won many hearts in the prison administration and among her incarcerated sisters.
I am also advocating for the many women that have been incarcerated seemingly forever. They deserve a review of their cases in light of who they are today.
What can we do?
In NY there are two pieces of legislation: the Elder Parole and the Fair and Timely Parole bills. Click on the link and support them, find your senator and write them a note of support. These two bills will give people that are serving long sentences an opportunity to be fairly considered, on a case-by-case basis, to come home and be reunited with their families and communities and give them an opportunity to continue to contribute and give back.
Today the population of women prisoners that have been physically, mentally, or sexually abused is between 72% and 86%. Many of these women have been a party to or committed violent crimes. These are people that can, and do change.
Please refer to The Can-Do Foundation's twenty-five women most deserving of clemency page and look for Roberta's long list of academic and social achievements while in prison. Sign the petitions.
My heart and vision for Roberta are that she be released from prison and receive therapy to help her and her children reunite and work through the extreme trauma of her life. Unfortunately, our social standard will leave her children to support her.
There are only 5,000 signatures on Roberta Bell's clemency petition; she needs at least 7,500 signatures for the change.org petition to get a reaction from a decision-maker. Please sign a petition for Robert’s clemency appeal here and share widely by email and social media.
Write to Roberta Bell expressing support and concern. Roberta R Bell #08116-067 FCI Dublin 5701 8TH ST - Camp Parks Dublin, CA 94568
Write a letter to the President of the United States in support of Roberta R Bell #08116-067, clemency pending case # C184602 here. Urge the President to grant Roberta clemency.
Another woman very deserving of clemency is Michele West. Please read a dispatch about her here and sign her clemency appeal here.
Pictured: Roberta Bell with her daughter (l) and Roberta Bell graduating (r)
One of “the real women of Orange Is the New Black,” Carolina Soto is one of the founding members of the Re/Creation writing workshop at Restoration Plaza. Unlike the fictionalized Yoga Jones, Carolina has a long history of work in social justice and advocacy, and is a seasoned painter and visual artist. Since beginning her work in the Re/Creation writing workshop at Restoration Plaza in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, Carolina has increased her confidence and aptitude with both the written and spoken word, composing speeches and essays for her advocacy work and as well as written memoir. In particular, her essays and memoirs illustrate her vast capacity for empathy in her descriptions of people with whom she shared time inside. She now splits her time between living in New York City and the Dominican Republic.