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Court asked to protect baby’s mom from dad

Conley accuses Mills of roughing her up at RTA hub.

Statement from Stacey Doss at Dayton vigil for Baby Vanessa

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By Lou Grieco and Mary McCarty, Staff Writers Updated 8:33 AM Tuesday, July 27, 2010

DAYTON — Baby Vanessa’s birth mother, who is supporting the child’s adoption, filed a petition for a domestic violence civil protection order Friday, July 23, against the child’s father, Benjamin Mills Jr.

Andrea Conley’s petition states that she was downtown in the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority hub when Mills came up behind her and grabbed her. He let her loose after she screamed, and she had someone escort her to her bus, according to the sworn statement she gave.

“Benjamin still stayed outside the bus trying to talk to me,” Conley wrote. “I was fearful and scared that he could of followed the bus and was going to grab me when I got off at my stop.”

No incident report was filed with Dayton police, and Mills does not currently face criminal charges stemming from the allegation. The protection order is civil, though violating one can lead to criminal charges.

A hearing on the allegation is forthcoming.

Conley could not be reached for comment Monday, July 26. A spokeswoman for Legal Aid of Western Ohio, which is representing Mills in the custody case, declined comment on the protection order.

“The truth continues to unfold,” said Stacey Doss, the California woman who has raised Vanessa since her birth and wants to adopt her.

“It makes you wonder: what does he do in private?” Doss said.

Conley, 31, and Mills, 29, have a long history of agitating each other. Both have been convicted of domestic violence against the other, and both have had protection orders against each other.

Mills was convicted of misdemeanor counts of domestic violence four times before he was involved with her, according to records from area courts.

In 2005, he was indicted on felony charges of domestic violence and abduction after an assault on Conley, in which he pulled her hair out, choked her and punched her in the face, according to police.

Conley later gave notarized affidavits to Mills’ attorneys, recanting her story and claiming her injuries were the result of consensual rough sex, according to court records.

Conley did not show up for Mills’ trial. The jury acquitted him of abduction but convicted him of domestic violence. He served eight months in prison.

In March 2007, Conley pleaded guilty to a fourth-degree misdemeanor count of domestic violence against Mills. That same month, he swore out a protection order against Conley, stating that she swung a knife at him, threw it at him, and threatened to kill him.

In December 2007, she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of violating that protection order. The next month, a judge made it a condition of her probation in a cocaine possession case that she not have contact with Mills.

But she did so at least three more times, and pleaded guilty in August 2008 to three felony counts of violating his protection order. Between conviction and her sentencing, Mills called Dayton police twice to report she was making phone threats to him, according to police reports.

Conley finished her probation in that case June 15.

Doss, who referred to Conley as her “soul sister,” in a statement read at a recent vigil, said “she has her issues as do most people, but I’m proud she’s doing her best to be a better mother and a better person. I continue to be frightened for her. She is in a lot more danger than she acknowledges.”

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