Judge Rejects Victim’s Plea to Drop Charges in Attack : Violence: Detroit woman’s boyfriend is accused of dragging her with his van and slamming her into a pole. She says she is to blame.

A judge rejected a woman’s pleas Friday to drop charges against her boyfriend, who is accused of dragging her with his van, slamming her into a utility pole and driving over her.

“Eighty percent of it was my fault. I jumped in the van,” Darlene Kincer said from the wheelchair she uses because she lost an arm and leg after the incident. She also lost her unborn baby.

“He didn’t do it,” Kincer, 32, told Recorder’s Court Judge Daphne Means Curtis. “I know what happened that day.”

Curtis said she didn’t have the authority to dismiss the charge of assault with intent to murder against William Powell. “And even if I did, I wouldn’t,” Curtis said. “Frankly, sometimes we have to protect people from themselves.”

Kincer said she is to blame. She said Powell, 35, was leaving the house Aug. 30 after arguing with her and she followed because she wanted him to stay. She said she grabbed his van and held on as he was driving away.

Witnesses have said Powell was holding Kincer with one hand.

The van sped off, turned a corner and slammed Kincer into a utility pole. According to witnesses, including Kincer’s 16-year-old daughter, Powell then backed the van over her legs.

Powell, who is free on $100,000 bond, has said it was an accident. A Feb. 14 trial date was set. Powell and his lawyer, Sharon Payne, left the hearing without commenting.

Curtis also denied Kincer’s request to lift an injunction forbidding contact between her and Powell. Curtis said Kincer may telephone Powell, but he may not try to reach her.

Kincer said the arrangement makes her feel they are “both in jail,” and the criminal case is keeping the couple from putting their relationship back together.

After the hearing, Kincer said she believes that her daughter’s account of the attack is the reason Curtis ordered Powell to trial.

“She don’t want no man in my life,” Kincer told reporters as she was being wheeled into the courthouse elevators.

Even if Kincer’s daughter changes her story, Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Mary Hickey said she still has plenty of witnesses to the daylight attack. “There are neighbors who saw what happened,” she said.

David Ford, a sociologist at the University of Indiana-Indianapolis, said Kincer’s defense of Powell, while extreme, is not surprising. “It’s a tremendously complex and perplexing issue,” said Ford, who also is the director of training for Family Violence for Indiana Law Enforcement Officers.

“What we have here is a severe felony, just short of murder,” he said. “This case is the worst instance and reinforces the worst stereotype. These people are usually not ready to face the reality of a relationship gone bad.”