E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
NBC Miami
Naomie Breton, back at her Lantana, Fla., homes talks about her ordeal of being set ablaze.
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - A woman who was set on fire at a gas station says she's being victimized again, this time by hundreds of dollars in car towing fees levied by the state of Florida.
Naomie Breton, 34, has to pay $340 for having her car towed from the gas station where police say the father of her son set her on fire Monday, television station WPBF of Palm Beach, Fla., reported.
"I think it's a disgrace," Breton told WPBF. "It's not like I had a choice of where my car went to. I was on fire. So therefore, my car is here now and I have to pay you to get what's mine back? That's not right."
Adding insult to injury, Breton also is on the hook for the $363 towing bill -- plus the $25-a-day late fee -- owed by the man accused of attacking her, Roosevelt Mondesir, WPBF reported.
Both his and her names are on the car. Mondesir, 52, is behind bars at the Palm Beach County Jail, being held without bail on a charge of attempted first-degree murder.
Boynton Beach police said they responded to a 7-Eleven at 7088 Lawrence Road and found Breton with severe burns to her face and body, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by NBCMiami.com. Parts of her shirt were still on fire on the ground, it said.
Store surveillance video showed the woman running into the convenience store, screaming as she tried to shut the front door. She could be heard telling a man to leave her alone, and then a man pulls her out of the store. Moments later she ran by outside ablaze.
Breton had driven to the gas station in her Mercedes to meet Mondesir for their "time-sharing exchange" of their 4-year-old son, for whom they share custody, the affidavit said. As she waited at the gas pumps in her car, Mondesir arrived in a Jaguar and Breton realized her son was not in the car, the affidavit said. She wanted to get back in her car to leave, but he got out of his car with a red gas can and began dousing her body and car with gasoline, according to the report.
Breton was burned over 12 percent of her body and was released Tuesday from Delray Medical Center. Breton told the Palm Beach Post from her Lantana, Fla., home that she wouldn't have been attacked if Palm Beach County Judge Thomas Barkdyll had granted her a restraining order in late May.
“They said there wasn’t enough physical evidence,” the single mother of three told the Post.
She told the Post that she and Mondesir had been together for eight years but that he became verbally abusive and violent after she did not give him a definite answer to a Valentine’s Day marriage proposal.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
Leave a Comment:
Let me see she has 3 kids and then decides he is not the man she wants to marry. Does anyone besides me see something wrong here.
Yes, exactly! She must have been deceiving this guy to get what she wanted from him and it backfired. If you play with fire, don't be surprised when you get burned and receive a towing bill for the car that you drove to the scene of the incident.
OMG you guys! You got it!! She had three kids, so she should have said yes! Probably knew he had some issues, but what the hell! She WAS deceiving him!! She deserved to be burned up like that, beause it's like you said, Gomer, she was "playing with fire" (OMG that was so funny! You made a pun!). She knew what to expect!!
OMG! You two are right on the case! She OBVIOUSLY is ONLY in anything for the money! Probably doesn't even have a job...on welfare...why that dumb @!$%# that tried to kill her probably paid for everything! And she has the nerve to refuse his hand in marriage?
OMG Goober! You are so correct! Something's wrong here!
Give the poor woman a break.
By her logic, she should not be billed for her medical treatment either. The attack on her was terrible, but she needs to sue the guy who set her on fire.
If she is driving a mercedes and he is driving a jaquar, I don't think she is so poor that she can't afford a small towing fee to get her car back. - But I would definitely sue the Moron boyfriend for compensation.
The article doesn't give the year of the Mercedes. At one point in my life I was supporting myself and my children, taking the bus to work and back home daily. My boss owned a 20 year-old Mercedes which he sold to me for $300. Yep, I was driving a Mercedes but that didn't make me wealthy!
31 deleted, TreeFort-5841064 with some extrapolation racism:
You're suspended for a week for violating #5 of the Code of Honor.
Thank you, tyler.
How about having a stable relationship (marriage) before having kids??
And if you have a Mercedes and a Jaguar, then you should have insurance that covers towing.
Or the money to pay a tow bill.
I am sorry for your injuries, but come on... responsible behavior is missing on both sides of this
It is really easy to blame someone else or the government, to cover up for poor judgeent.
You don't know what kind of life she has...she could have more money than you and I combines.
Your snob is showing.
judgement
How about 7 Eleven not having the cars towed, it was their call. Talk about heartless.
Why should their business suffer because of her issues??
Judge Thomas Barkdull III, 561-355-1523, previously ruled that a woman did not present enough evidence for a restraining order against an abusive boyfriend. That same man later soaked her with gasoline, set her on fire and tried to stab her to death at a gas station.
Once again our government at its finest.
This country is gone mad. victims are punished, the poor get poorer and the government gets richer every day. Obama says the economy is better. I guess it is in his neighborhood. The government officals don't live by the people they rule over. I think Florida's setting these fees so it collects money should be illegal. They don't tow, they have nothing to do with helping you yet they want a share of the money and don't care where it comes from. This man should be sent the bill and the victim should be giver her car back immediatly at no charge. The voters in Fla need to get off their butts and change some laws and loopholes the government is using to victimise people. He has a big fancy car so he can obviously pay for it. As for the judge who refused a court order to protect her, he should be charged with neglect for failing to protect her himself. After you've been killed you don't NEED a restraining order but unless the person has already attacked you they won't give an order of protection. That's what the order is for; to protect you from being attacked.
I don't think that anyone who is driving a Mercedes and her ex is driving a Jaguar is hurting to badly money wise and can likely afford to pay those fee's without much financial hurt. That being said however, it is part and parcal of a very bad trend being seen in this country of the victim being further victimized by those in authority. Fire departments that are letting houses burn because the owner doesn't pay a membership fee for the area or being charged for not having tags on your car when someone stole them and you didn't notice even when proof is on file that you renewed/paid for your tags for your car on time! Just two examples and there are hundreds more out there. One that makes me the maddest every time I see it is the orange tags on cars that have broken down on the side of the road. If the car is not blocking trafffic or otherwise causing a real hazard then it should have to be there for at least a couple of days before getting tagged. Anyone with a broken down car already has enough problems. I've seen way to many times where the flashers are still going on a car (if it's there very long with flashers the battery is going dead) and yet there will already be a tag on the car. The cop can stop to tag the car, but you wouldn't believe how many times I've seen cops go right on past a car that broken down with someone still there clearly in need of help. In one particular metropolitan area I was told by a reliable source that they saw at least half a dozen local cops go right on past them on the highway and it was only when a STATE highway patrolman happened by that they got help from the officials who are being paid to do that. Best recent example is in Colorado where the State caused a wild fire by not putting out a "controlled" burn properly, but aren't going to replace in full the homes and basic property that they caused to be lost to dozens, they are hiding behind some kind of administrative cap put in place for how much the state can be held liable for. Good luck even buying a trailer for that amount in Colorado not to mention replacing clothes, furniture, cost of temporary housing (hotels for some), etc.
The government and the business affected by her and her man aren't responsible to pay for taking care of the community at large..
Ok, some of you people with your comments are just morons! Seriously! Just because one person drives a jag or mercedes doesn't deserve the comments regarding the tow bill. Where is your compasion? This woman was in a public place, exchanging her four year old son, for a visit with his father. Just because the two of them drive a jag or a mercedes means they are 1. good at managing money or 2. have really high car payments.
The other point I would like to make. The tow company, the hospital, and the ambulance all provided services. They deserve to be paid for there services. Otherwise they will go broke. This woman most likely has health insurance. Her health insurance will cover the medical bills. Then she will have to sue her ex, for the tow bill and medical and pain and suffering! The restraining order is just a piece of paper, she may have a lawsuit there too!
Is it too late to give Florida back to Spain?
Really??? I swear, Florida is the most INSANE place on the planet, only behind North Korea, Syria, and Afghanistan!! WTF is wrong with that state???
Why should the gas station owner or the towing company have to be responsible because she has poor taste in men? It's her car and, while what happened to her was horrible, her car is still her responsibility. You can't tell me that she has no other family anywhere who couldn't have gotten her car for her? Please, she needs to take responsibility for all her issues - don't palm it off on people who had nothing to do with it!!!
I am the first to admit my state is being ruled by bat sh*t crazies, but in this instance, FL did not have her car towed, the store where it was parked did. I'm actually surprised they didn't take the car since in the original story, he doused bother her AND her car with gasoline before setting her alight. Either way, it would probably be good press for the towing company to suck it up, and return her car free of charge. Also, I'd love to know the name of the towing company.
Whichever way they choose, people should know the kind of company they are dealing with and choose an alternate if they wish to.
oh grow up people....we have become a GIMME GIMME society...why is everything supposed to be free?
When you take your dog to the vet and it dies...you still owe a bill dont you?
When you go to the Dr and pay for an antibiotic you are allergic to ...you pay for that drug and another one too!
Shouldnt the man who performed the towing service receive his pay?
maybe it wasn't the towing company that the finger should be pointed at....
Non issue. Same thing happen to my mother, she was attack and her car was stolen and then recovered. We received a huge tow bill, we called the officer in charge of the case and city waves the bill in these situations. In the case where she was a victim of a crime she'll not have to pay. The tow people have no idea about her story until they are made aware, all they see is a car that has been towed. She needs to call victim assistance and they can help her with these things.
Couldn't the police have notified one of her relatives from her cell phone to retreive the car?? Can you give her more grief than she has???? What is wrong with this state???? THINK once in a while....
it's odd to me that the woman feels she has no responsibility in the matter. both she and her ex boyfriend are the legal owners so who else would she expect to get the bill for hauling it off?
Good lord, give this poor woman a break!
This is probably not Florda directly. I know every state is a little different, but every state I AM fasmiliar with has just about the same laws for "abandoned" vehicles. Since she was taken to the hospital, her vehicle was technically abandoned. It works like this (and not just Florida) the dispatcher, upon notification that a vehicle needs to be towed, they call the next tow truck on their list or just call all "interested" operators on the radio and the first one there gets the tow. Then they can charge whatever the law permits for the tow (usually MUCH higher than they charge you if you call them for a tow) and then add on prohibitive storage charges on a daily basis until they own your car unless you go looking for it. I loaned a 'friend" a car I wasn't using. He crashed it, not bad damage, but he was taken to the hosp for eval. MY car was towed. By the time I was notified, I owed over $750, I called to find out if I could work something out since I just found out that this bozo I had thought was my friend was no longer driving this vehicle, and they just laughed. That was California. In most states, it is a private party that rapes the public in these situations. JerseyKat made an excellent suggestion, that Florida is not alone in-- try the victim's compensation fund. With this publicity, hopefully they have already (or a pro bono lawyer if such still exist) contacted her to get the taken care of. That tow truck won't let go until the legal team or the cash gets to him. He would prefer that the bill exceed the value of the vehicle so he can just sell it (a $1,000 car, he'll sell it to someone desperate for $1,500 and keep it all because the bill was $2,000, and end up with a nice tax loss of $500.
There's a lot of nutty people on this board who keep trying to victimize the victim. It happens a lot with this inbred version of the GOP! Shame on you all!
well you have to pay for ambulance and everything if your taken to the hospital so i dont see how this is different. But whoever set her on fire should be liable for the fee's.
Florida. That answers all my questions.
"Breton told the Palm Beach Post from her Lantana, Fla., home that she wouldn't have been attacked if Palm Beach County Judge Thomas Barkdyll had granted her a restraining order in late May."
Oh yeah, that definitely would have kept him from attacking you!