Freeborn County Crime Victims Crisis Center

Holly Wahlstrom encouraged others to attend the walk on October 15,2025.

I called for assistance with a domestic abuse case that has been extremely painful and complicated. I was open about my situation, the violence and emotional abuse I’ve been subjected to, the complicated (and unjust) divorce I’ve been going through, as well as the major financial challenges, health problems and hospitalizations I’ve had as a result of it all. When I first spoke to the gal there, she was incredibly kind, sympathetic, and supportive. She had all sorts of suggestions of how “we” could move forward with my case and get help and justice. She offered ideas of what might be able to be done legally and gave me the name of a lawyer she thought would be great for my situation. It was the closest to hopeful and understood I had felt about it all since my entire difficult situation began. Then I called a few days later to set up a time to come into their office. I spoke to the same woman I had before and absolutely nothing had changed. However, she acted like a completely different person towards me. I was immediately told that they didn’t have time to put into my case and that I should see if Austin or Rochester had time for me (I live in Freeborn County). This woman also suggested I was only pursuing an OFP to punish and get “revenge” on my abuser. She told me I should just “focus on the positive and move on.” Unlike a few days earlier, she repeatedly told me she wasn’t a lawyer and couldn’t give me legal advice—which I reiterated I was not asking for from her—but would tell me she knew what the courts would or wouldn’t do in my case. Due to my health problems and frequent hospitalizations, I had needed to file continuances in the divorce case—which I had told her about before. When I talked to her this next time, she treated me like I was completely in the wrong for needing to file those continuances. My abuser had also been violent with our pets and stole some of them. I told this woman it was extremely important to me to get them back. Instead of any sort of kindness, she told me I didn’t need to have more pets and that the court wasn’t going to give them back to me. It was devastating. She also brought up things completely unrelated to my case and that she knows nothing about and proceeded to treat me like a criminal. I was on a quick break at work when I had made this call. How she spoke to and treated me and the discouraging and outright mean things she said to me had me in tears and made the rest of my shift challenging. It was upsetting enough that I contacted my therapist about it. My therapist was appalled that someone working at a victims’ crisis center would speak to someone in my position the way this woman spoke to me and strongly suggested I both speak to this woman’s supervisor and file a complaint. I have not done so yet because I’m skeptical it will matter. I called this place for help. Instead, I was treated like I and what’s happened to me doesn’t matter and was dealt yet another painful and insulting blow. The severe abuse I’ve endured isn’t worth their time.