Brigitte Harris case

Of Americo-Liberian descent, Brigitte Harris was born on June 6, 1981.[4] When she was 2 years old, she was abandoned by her mother in their Park Hill, New York apartment, and she went to live with her father on Bay Shore, New York.[5] Her father later moved back to his home country of Liberia, and Brigitte moved around with relatives. She was physically abused by her grandmother. "In that house we were slaves and if we disobeyed, grandma hit us with a stick," said Harris. Brigitte also claimed she was sexually abused by her cousin "My cousin forced me to perform oral sex on him." [3] During a family trip to Liberia, Brigitte confronted her mother and pastor about the abuse from her relatives but Eric Goodridge denied the allegations, claiming that she was crazy.[2] By the age of 17 Brigitte moved out. When she was 26, Brigitte had been living on her own for years and worked as an airport security guard.[3]

After several years of not seeing their father, Brigitte's sister, Carleen, called Brigitte because their father Eric Goodridge wanted to talk to them. When Brigitte arrived, she saw one of her nieces sitting on Eric's lap. Brigitte and Carleen argued about her sister letting their father stay in her house, considering what he had done to them as children. Eric (Brigitte and Carleen's father) told Brigitte about his decision to take his granddaughters with him to Liberia against their will. On July 28, 2007, Brigitte Harris decided to see her father alone in her Rockaway apartment to reason with him and try to convince him not to take the girls. Brigitte asked her father to get help. After the conversation became heated, Brigitte handcuffed her father and gagged him with a towel to prevent him from screaming. Then, using a scalpel, she removed her father's penis. She called 9-1-1, and let them know he was still alive and needed help. She told the operator that she was on her way to the police station, but she never showed up.[2] Instead, she called her sister and told her what she had done. Carleen (Brigitte's sister) advised her to come to her home instead of going to the police. When she arrived, her sister called an ambulance. After seeing her with the scalpel in hand and still in shock, they decided to check her into the Richmond University Medical Center psychiatric ward.[3] Brigitte's sister Carleen hired defense lawyer Arthur L. Aidala to represent Brigitte,.[2] She told the lawyer details about the sexual abuse that occurred throughout her childhood. She claimed he told her how, in some African cultures, fathers have to take their daughter's virginity. "He said he was doing it because he loves me and that is how fathers show love to their daughters," Brigitte said. Carleen also decided to break the silence and finally admitted that she was sexually abused by their father as well, but was too afraid to speak up. She set up a website called savebridget.com to raise money for her sister's legal defense.[6]

Two years after her arraignment for second-degree murder, Brigitte went to trial in September 2009. She testified in her own defense that she had researched the 1993 castration case of Lorena Bobbitt.[8] Prosecutors maintained that Brigitte had intentionally handcuffed her father, stuffed a towel down his throat, then used a scalpel to remove his penis.[8] She threw the severed penis under the Rockaway Boardwalk in Far Rockaway.[5] Brigitte argued that her motive for the killing was not revenge, but an act to prevent Goodridge from taking his granddaughters to Liberia and molesting them.

On September 30, 2009, Brigitte's jury found her guilty of the lesser included offense of second-degree manslaughter. One juror reported that "None of us felt that she deserved to get any murder charges or anything. So we decided on second-degree Manslaughter."[9]