Brutal murder inspires ex-cop to teach women to fight back

PORTSMOUTH

Don Haley stalked up to Juanita Brown, a nurse at the Autumn Care nursing home, grabbed her by the shoulders and yanked her close. Her eyes widened with surprise. She held up her hands, elbows out, leaving her body completely vulnerable.

This was absolutely not what Haley had just taught her to do.

Haley stepped back and looked at the other nurse assistants gathered around him on this recent afternoon. Remember, he coached: Crouch low like you're in a chair, elbows tucked in, fists tight. And when you throw a punch, twist it like you're dumping a glass of water. Hesitating could get you killed.

Haley, a Tidewater Community College professor who a year ago felt compelled to create a self-defense program especially for women, turned back to Brown.

"You have a daughter, right?"

She nodded.

"You want to see her tonight? Do it again."

Haley grabbed, and Brown dropped low, jabbing a solid blow to his chest.

"Don't think that, like Melissa Medina did, pleading for your life will stop a man from raping, murdering or torturing you," Haley said, turning back to the group. "I understand you love people.... But you want to go home to your kids."

Haley, director of the Administration of Justice program at TCC, speaks constantly of Melissa, a 15-year-old who was murdered and mutilated in Texas in 2001. He was called last year as an expert witness in the trial of the killer, who is now on death row.

The horror of what the girl endured kept Haley awake at night. As a former police officer in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake who also served in the Marines, he had seen death before. But not like that. He felt he had to do something.

"I thought, wait a sec. I'll train these girls on the side."

Haley, a 42-year-old former boxer, combines techniques from the ring with martial arts and moves from his police and military training. When he heard about the legal troubles of the founder of the video series "Girls Gone Wild," in which young women are videotaped exposing themselves, Haley decided to call his own self-defense video "Girls Gone Safe," a swipe at the porn industry, he said. He sells the DVDs for $20 each, a portion of which goes to charity.

After a shooting rampage earlier this year in a North Carolina nursing home where eight were killed and others were injured, the Autumn Care facility wanted to offer classes to make the staff feel more secure. The administrator had seen Haley teach before and called him.

"It's not like I need the money," Haley said. "I make decent money. It's not about me. The whole setup is to say that this is a little guy who's not in much shape and can do this - you can too.... I can make it so that size and height doesn't matter."

He made his charges believe that Thursday. The 5-foot-6-inch Haley stood in his sneakers, and only one of the nurses, several of them shoeless, was shorter than him.

In an hour and a half, Haley was chopped, kicked and flipped. He demonstrated how to fell assailants with the whipping of feet and fingers, how to fight off chokeholds and how to disarm someone. He even showed the home's elderly residents how to use a cane as a battering ram.

Sweat rolled from his trim frame, but he was smiling. The women were picking up the moves quickly.

"Low man wins!" Haley shouted, repeatedly, crouching to remind them. "Say it after me!"

Women in soft pastels screamed back, "Low man wins!"

One of the last moves was fending off a knife attack. Haley cautioned the women to always comply with demands for purses or car keys when threatened with a weapon. But if they are in danger, he said, they could dislodge a knife by chopping the attacker across the wrist and knuckles. He demonstrated by holding a pen and showing the women the technique.

Haley approached Teisue Mitchell. In a split second, she flicked her hands properly.

"Ouch!" Haley shouted, and the pen flew skyward.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Mitchell said, quickly grabbing his hand.

Haley couldn't have looked more pleased.

"No," he said. "You're making it worth it for me."

Denise Watson Batts, (757) 446-2504, denise.batts@pilotonline.com