"My name is Apphia Noel and I am a rape and domestic violence victim. 

 

My husband, Jesse Noel Sr., is successful in Hollywood and comes from an Academy Award winning family.

 

My husband is also a pedophile, rapist, and child abuser.

 

My two boys, Jess and Asher, ten and two, have been missing for 110 days.

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I have no information concerning their location, livelihood, or well-being.

 

They have been taken from me by their father, Jesse Noel Sr., with the help of powerful attorneys and an unjust criminal justice system.

 

Over the last two years, my boys and I have lived in terror of their father.

 

In 2016, our emotional abuse turned physical while filming a Marvel film in Georgia.

 

But after returning to LA, Covid hit, and our lives spiraled.

 

My husband’s alcohol abuse grew, along with his desire for live child pornography.

 

I, as well as others, have been witness to this addiction.

 

Jesse Sr. began to threaten my life with detailed descriptions of how he would kill me and where he would hide my body.

 

He would say "I'm going to bury you in the yard where no one will ever find you."

 

His abuse grew more and more violent.

 

This included rape, literally walking and standing on me, and suffocating me to the point of unconsciousness.

 

My weight dropped to 90 pounds and my son Jess started having seizures due to disassociation.

 

In April of 2021 I was cooking dinner when I heard my son Jess let out a blood curdling scream. I ran down the hall to find my drunk husband lying with his full body weight on top of my son, smothering his face with a pillow. He couldn't breath.

 

I grabbed my husbands ankles and yanked. I pulled Jess out and ran to the master bedroom. I locked the door.

 

I believe that if I had not been there that day, my son would have died.

 

I resolved that this man would never touch me or my sons again. On April 29th, 2021, I was granted a temporary restraining order for myself and my sons.

 

That should have been the end of our abuse, but it wasn’t.

 

My husband retained six powerful LA attorneys.

 

Jesse Sr. completely ignored the restraining order.

 

He stalked us, driving by our house over and over again, and sent people to follow me constantly.

 

He began calling my business colleagues, his friends contacted me, his brother threatened my life and the livelihoods of my friends.

 

I began waking up to dead animals on my door step. First two small sparrows who had been strangled. The next a skinned squirrel.

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My accounts were hacked, my mail forwarded to another address, my identity stolen.

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Prior to our hearing, my husband should have been arrested four times for criminal restraining order violations.

 

The Pasadena Police Department refused to make an arrest, falsely claiming my restraining order had expired. They parroted my husband's baseless accusations in their reports: "she has an undiagnosed mental health disorder". 

 

I remember the day my son Jess confided in me about the sexual act his father forced him to perform. I was horrified.

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I found drawings of his abusers, not just his father, but other men. My son later told me: "Daddy takes me to houses of people you don't know. I don't like it."

 

When I asked my son about one drawing in particular, he immediately fell into a seizure.

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I discovered my husband had been charged with rape NINE DAYS before I gave birth to my son Ash, yet the courts had chosen not to convict him. 

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On August 6th, 2021, we went to court.

 

California Judge Powell appointed child psychiatrist evaluator Dr. Diane Kelly, who has 40 years of experience testifying in Los Angeles courts.

 

Dr Kelly testified for an hour to the suffocation, physical abuse, bruises, black eyes, and emotional abuse endured by my ten-year old son at the hands of his father, Jesse Sr.

 

Her testimony was sealed the next day by Judge Powell.

 

For eight hours, Jess’s teacher and therapist waited to testify on his behalf. Judge Powell refused to let them take the stand.

 

I testified on my own behalf of the marital rape and physical abuse I was tormented with. The judge shamed me with eighty-nine invasive questions about a specific rape event - in front of my abuser and a room full of strangers!

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"I need you to describe the events as they happened.

We still haven't gotten to the point of how you get into the bed and your clothes are taken off, and apparently he has anal sex with you against your will"

Judge Powell to Apphia - Aug 6th Public Hearing

 

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Despite all the evidence and testimony presented, Judge Powell stated either I had been raped in the same way over and over again (which was true) or that I was "not credible".

 

Despite being told by many attorneys I had enough evidence for a five-year restraining order, I was denied a permanent restraining order by Judge Powell that day.

 

My husband was awarded full control of all of my real estate businesses, leaving me powerless and destitute.

 

Judge Powell ordered me to return my boys back to their abuser, only granting me one visit every two weeks.

 

Jess bravely continued asking for help. He spoke out to law-enforcement and others for himself and his baby brother Ash over seven times. Still, Jess and Ash were given no voice.

 

On August 12th, at a custody exchange, my son Jess cried out to police “...My daddy hurts me, he gives me black eyes, he gives me bruises...I'm so scared of Daddy!”.

 

The Pasadena Police Department allowed me to take my sons home, then filed a criminal report against me for doing so.

 

When I asked the police department for the body cam footage of this event, I was refused.

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Jess was so brave to speak out, but his cries fell on deaf ears. Once again, the system protected the abuser.

 

Judge Powell demanded I return my boys to their father or he would send me to jail. 

 

When I finally had my twice a month visit, both my boys would not stop crying. They smelled of feces and urine and on Asher’s legs were bruises in the shape of handprints.

 

These were the same bruises I had become accustomed to seeing on my own body. I was furious to see the same bruises my husband gave me, on my one-year-old’s tiny thighs.

 

On October 17, 2021, I made a quick decision to flee California with my boys and fly to a friend’s home in Fayette County, Georgia.

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On October 19th, I filled out a good cause form as requested by Detective Tudic from the Pasadena Police Department.

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We were so excited when, on December 15th, the Georgia courts granted us an Emergency Ex-Parte Hearing which gave me custody over my boys and jurisdiction in Georgia until I could present evidence of our abuse to a Fayette County judge. FINALLY, we would be free and protected from domestic violence.

 

On that very same day, Judge Powell and DA Investigator Jennifer Martin retaliated by filing a warrant for my arrest to have me "dragged back to California".

 

A protective custody warrant for my children was filed, already prepared with 99 pages of false accusations against me with no supporting evidence.

 

On December 20th, while I was out Christmas shopping for my sons, California’s child abduction unit and local police raided the home where I was staying and took my boys away without coats, shoes, or my son’s seizure medication.

 

I immediately tried to contact the Fayette court but was transferred back and forth between Judge Ballard and Judge Kreuziger for hours.

 

They later claimed that due to a court clerk error they had no idea I had been granted an Emergency Hearing to protect myself and my sons. They closed my case that day.

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Instead of the Emergency Hearing I had been promised, I was now on the run for my life, without my boys.

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I’ve read that it takes the average domestic violence victim seven attempts to permanently leave their abuser.

 

The moment I saw my son Jess being suffocated by his father, I made the decision to leave only once.

 

My husband and his family are powerful in Hollywood. They have influence and money that I do not have.

 

What has our justice system become that it would favor POWER over the cries of a ten-year old BOY?

 

For 110 days and counting, I have not seen or heard from my boys. I know nothing of their whereabouts or of their safety.

 

My entire life has been stripped away from me, but I don't even care. All I want is to save my boys and bring them home.

 

 

Jess and Ash,

 

I won’t stop coming for you. I will never stop fighting to give you a voice.

 

Mommy loves you. "

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Apphia