Help an abuse victim relocate.

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Herbert Calvin Mataele raped my child.

In April of 2022 I caught video documentation of the sexual assault happening in my home. I immediately called the police and Mr. Mataele was arrested.

I had to take my child to the hospital for a rape exam. She was poked, prodded and photographed. She had to take emergency contraception. She was 14, with a diminished mental capacity that placed her closer to 8 years old.

Mr. Mataele was 55.

She also had to do a forensic interview, all the while she was terrified that she would be in trouble too. That she would be punished for Mr. Mataele’s arrest. That she was somehow to blame for what he did to her.

He confessed to the crime and said he was sexually attracted to my child.

He was charged with 10 felonies. two counts of object rape and eight counts of forcible sexual abuse.

I sought out an attorney so we could also file a civil suit against him.

Mr. Mataele had been hired through DSPD services as a caregiver. He was paid by state funding to care for disabled children.

He was a man in a position of trust and he betrayed us in one of the worst possible ways imaginable.

Yet even with his confession and the video documentation, no attorney would take the case. They all stated that cases like this were too hard to prove.

It took 17 months of constantly contacting attorneys and being turned away before someone gave us a chance, only to have them tell us a few months later that the likelihood that anything would come of it was slim.

At that same time Mr. Mataele was nearly released from jail.

The state had handed the case over to a different D.A. I was contacted just before the hearing and was told that they had offered him a deal without even speaking to us beforehand.

He had pleaded down to a single lesser felony charge of 'attempted' object rape. He expected the deal to be accepted then, allowing his release.

My child and I provided victim impact statements and I begged the judge to reconsider.

Mr. Mataele also spoke to the judge and to me, he spouted all this crap about how he had benefited from therapy while in jail and how much good he could still do if he just got out of jail. How he had helped my child with her schooling and was trying to take credit for her good grades at the end of the previous school year.

How he was looking forward to going back to church and being involved with the community again.

How afterwards he said to a reporter that the DA had told him my child never appeared forced in the videos.

It makes me sick to think about him just leaving jail and going on about his life like he hadn’t completely emotionally and mentally damaged an already vulnerable child.

A child who now has screaming night terrors, has developed an eating disorder and picks at her body until it bleeds. How she’s lost pride in how she looks and stopped caring for herself, especially her hair because she doesn’t want people to notice her anymore. She is now someone who can’t go out without a panic button and an adult, either me or a close family friend, who is the only adult outside of our family that she trusts.

Who has made absolutely no progress with her mental health care because she doesn’t trust that she won’t be hurt again.

She’s terrified of him just showing up at our home when he’s released, or of running into him when at the grocery store or somewhere else in our neighborhood.

And even with the knowledge that he’s still currently locked up, she looks over her shoulder everywhere she goes.

She had wanted to go back to Brick-and-Mortar school at the end of that school year, but now stays in online school because it helps her feel safer.

In October 2023 the judge gave him 18 more months.

A total of 3 years in jail for the lifetime of damage he caused.

It was then that I had the thought that moving would be the best thing for us.

I’ll take her away from the apartment, the city, even the whole freaking state if it means helping her feel safe.

But I don’t have the money to do it on my own. I’m disabled and can only work so much. Also I can’t leave her with a caregiver too often because the separation anxiety makes her lash out physically.

I’m working as much as I can, saving as much as I can and I’ve managed to put some money aside, but it’s nowhere near enough to move us and we're running out of time.

We have whittled things down to the barest minimum of the usual monthly expenses (rent, electricity, phone bill and internet), along with medical bills and payments to the attorney.

We do not have any luxuries. No eating out, no streaming services, no movie theater visits, FanX, Lagoon or anything else like that. If it isn't absolutely necessary we've gone without for the last 6 months.

And still we're lucky of we have $100 left over at the end of the month.

I don’t know his exact release date, but my best guess would be around the first of May 2025.

He is going to get out of jail and we can’t be here when he does.

A year may seem like it’s a long way away, but it’s not. It really isn’t.

Please, help us.

Below I have included 3 KSL articles about us and our case.