Abuser Accused of Making Woman Have Sex With Dog Allowed Name Change

• A Cape Cod person was convicted of assault in 2014 for torturing and abusing his girlfriend.
• The case garnered countrywide media consideration and prompted his target to become a survivor’s advocate.
• Many years immediately after his release, a spouse and children-court docket decide has allowed him to change his title.

In an extreme 3-working day 2014 trial in a Cape Cod courtroom, Justin Mustafa was accused of orchestrating a twisted week of drug-fueled torture in which he injected his girlfriend with heroin, consistently beat her with a belt, and pressured her to perform oral sexual intercourse on his pit bull.

Whilst a judge requested a discovering of not responsible on an animal-abuse cost, the Cape Cod male was finally convicted on assault and other fees, and sentenced to 6 many years in jail. The disturbing scenario garnered nationwide media consideration, and prompted his sufferer, Gabbe Rowland, to turn into an advocate for domestic-violence survivors.

Now, more than a 12 months following his release from jail, a community probate-courtroom judge has allowed the person to transform his identify in a move that Rowland suggests allows him dodge accountability and puts other females at chance of turning into his target. 

“Dependent on what he has done to me and other gals in my local community, it’s a issue of general public security,” Rowland advised Insider.

In November, Rowland appeared by cellular phone in Barnstable Probate and Family Court listening to objecting to the name modify. 

She informed the court docket she considered that if Mustafa — now Justin Curtis — was permitted to change his title, women of all ages would not be equipped to very easily unearth his past.

In court docket, while, Curtis, 33, argued that faith was the motive he was implementing for a name improve.

Curtis testified that he transformed to Christianity from Islam at the request of his mother numerous years back and that Mustafa is a title with Islamic roots. His mother has since died, and he needed to adjust his identify to prevent the “religious conflict,” he stated. 

On Tuesday, a decide ruled in his favor. 

Choose Angela Ordoñez wrote that since of her “challenging encounter,” Rowland’s dread that persons may perhaps not know Curtis’ felony heritage without figuring out his delivery title is credible. 

Curtis, though, isn’t really attempting to conceal the title improve and filed discover of it in The Cape Cod Instances and at the court’s probation workplace, as expected, she wrote.

“The Court understands the Objector’s concerns and reason for presenting an objection and commends her building her causes regarded,” Ordoñez dominated. “The Courtroom in the long run finds that Petitioner’s motive for seeking the title modify is realistic and not versus general public curiosity.”

Girl ‘in shock’ immediately after conclusion

The 7 days of abuse that Rowland endured at her partner’s fingers was commonly described in regional and international media.

Rowland gave interviews to The Cape Cod Periods and afterwards to other media stores, taking command of her tale by sharing the information of her abuse and healing — generally utilizing her serious name.

She claimed she and Mustafa started dating in 2011, but he was soon sent to jail on charges relevant to filming his ex-girlfriend naked with no her consent. He explained to her at the time the accusation was a lie designed up by a vengeful ex, and she believed him, Rowland claimed.

She stayed with him for the duration of the yr he was in jail. When he was launched in 2013, their relationship turned physically and verbally abusive, she mentioned.

But the worst was still in advance. It wasn’t until eventually soon after Rowland broke up with Mustafa that the abuse took an even a lot more sinister convert.

In June 2013, he picked her up from perform and injected her with heroin. About the subsequent week, he did it quite a few a lot more times, she claimed. Rowland claimed when she was sick and substantial from the medications, he would rape her and beat her with a belt. On a single celebration, she stated, he told her to undress then introduced his pit bull in and told her to give the canine oral sexual intercourse. She explained Mustafa then forced her to give him oral sex.

The Cape Cod Instances documented that at the demo Mustafa termed 1 witness — his grandfather, a previous neighborhood selectman and law enforcement officer who reported that he never ever heard any indicators of abuse coming from his grandson’s bedroom.

A concept left for Curtis at a quantity stated for his grandfather was not promptly returned. Other tries to track down Curtis were unsuccessful. 

Rowland stated she is therapeutic from the abuse and is operating to beat the stigma about domestic violence. 

She instructed Insider she’s nevertheless “in shock” that a person accused of these kinds of vile abuse was allowed to change his title after becoming convicted.

Rowland explained she felt the probate judge “was on my facet” when she advised her story in courtroom but thinks Curtis “did his research” and his religious declare confirmed his victory.

Rowland has a everlasting restraining buy towards Curtis, and paperwork supplied to her by the state Section of Corrections checklist his tackle in Falmouth — the exact same city exactly where she life. 

“They say he’s in Falmouth, the same town that I’m in, about two minutes absent,” she said.

Simply because there have been no official intercourse-criminal offense costs in her situation in opposition to Curtis, he is not registered as a intercourse offender and so shifting his name removes the most simply accessible link to the crimes he fully commited, Rowland mentioned.