Messy Move Out

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:01]Plaintiff Mickalene Pelone says once she moved in with the defendant, he became verbally and physically abusive.

[00:00:07]Mickalene claims the day she told her ex she was leaving, he held her against her will. So, she's suing for mental anguish, bills, and personal property.

[00:00:18]Defendant John Baluski says the problems in his relationship with Mickalene stem from Mickalene's excessive drinking and aggressive attitude. John denies ever assaulting Mickalene and is countersuing her for harassment and lost wages.

[00:00:32]All rise.

[00:00:34]This court is now in session.

[00:00:36]The honorable Judge Greg Mathis presiding.

[00:00:42]You may now be seated.

[00:00:44]Start with you.

[00:00:46]Um hello Judge Mathis. I'm here today for John Baluski to leave me alone.

[00:00:52]First off, your honor, I would like to say something. If she wanted me to leave her alone, I have proof that she could have left me >> about money.

[00:00:59]It's not about money at all cuz you all in the wrong place. You might need to go to see Dr. Phil >> And and money.

[00:01:06]your relationship and you wanting to get out of a relationship and him not wanting to let you out and Basically, I want my property back.

[00:01:15]>> Okay, I see you're suing for that. All right.

[00:01:17]>> Mental anguish.

[00:01:19]>> I brought her property right here. Okay.

[00:01:21]Good enough. I thought he was opening up a store there or something like that.

[00:01:26]This is all the stuff she left behind at my at my apartment.

[00:01:29]>> ma'am. You tell me about this case. You all obviously became involved with each other. Yes, I met John Baluski January of 2007 through MySpace. We had a relationship. Everything was great until July. When we moved in together, everything changed. He um became physically, verbally, and mentally abusive. Your honor, that is not true.

[00:01:51]He uh would not let me go by my family.

[00:01:53]He would not let me go out with my friends. He made >> What would he do to prohibit you? He would just um say I could not go. He said he would not if I would go to my parents' house as soon as I would get there, 10 minutes later he would be calling every half an hour to make sure I was there.

[00:02:07]Um he would only let me wear certain clothes. The clothes that I was not allowed to wear anymore, he destroyed them. Okay. Sir, what do you want to say to all of this? At the beginning of the relationship, yes, it was fine. Then it started being that she kept on drinking a lot more, kept on getting more aggressive with me, kept on getting aggressive with me and my daughter with my 2-year-old daughter.

[00:02:28]Um You never tried to prohibit her from seeing her relatives >> No, Your Honor. or ordering her around as to what she should do with her life.

[00:02:38]All right, he says he didn't, ma'am.

[00:02:40]>> Okay.

[00:02:41]We moved in together. I brought a lot of my property with me. Um When on July 13th, me, him, my sister-in-law, my niece, and his daughter, we all went out for pizza.

[00:02:53]We got home. He started accusing me of stirring up guys, cheating on him. I decided, "Hey, I'm going to leave."

[00:02:59]>> I left. I went to go spend the night at my brother's house for the evening. Like within >> Yes. a couple of weeks of moving in again?

[00:03:06]>> Yes. Yes. Yes. It got really bad.

[00:03:08]>> Go ahead. Um Saturday morning, I woke up. I went to the apartment. I told him, "I'm leaving him. I'm going to call my dad to tell him to come and get my stuff." My sister-in-law did call me.

[00:03:17]She said, "Is everything okay?" I said, "No, Ja will not let me leave."

[00:03:21]Um he was holding me without my will. I do have pictures of the marks he left me if you like to see them. By holding you Yes.

[00:03:30]I have pictures.

[00:03:32]Okay. Sir, let me hear your response to this. Okay. With the statement with me holding her and grabbing her, that is not true. She showed me these pictures and basically told me yet When did she attempt to move out or indeed move out?

[00:03:44]Uh it was about 3 weeks after after When is that? Like the second week of July?

[00:03:49]Yeah, actually it was All right. Now she has the exact dates that shows me these pictures and they are indeed hand marks of someone holding another person.

[00:03:59]>> Yes, but those those aren't familiar, your honor.

[00:04:01]>> just coincidence that it's the same day that you all moved out?

[00:04:06]>> And that's not familiar, your honor.

[00:04:07]Good enough.

[00:04:09]Go ahead.

[00:04:09]>> So, um I got out of the apartment, waited for the police to come so I could go back in and get my >> Did they come?

[00:04:16]>> Yes, they did.

[00:04:16]>> What happened? When they came, they would only let me take my clothing.

[00:04:20]They said I could not take anything else because it's a he said she said thing. I would have to take him to court. What are you asking for that is in dispute?

[00:04:29]As you see, he agrees that you own those.

[00:04:33]I'm disputing a sofa that was given to me as a gift. I have a letter from >> Who gave it to you, sir? Uh Judge Mathis, I have a letter. When was it given to you? Um right when we moved in.

[00:04:43]My My girlfriend from work Did you have a witness? Who gave it to you, your honor? My friend Joanne who I work with.

[00:04:48]I do have a letter from her.

[00:04:49]>> it.

[00:04:52]The letter also states that it's ours from a gift to me and her. Okay, does it state that, ma'am?

[00:04:57]No, it's given to me. Doesn't say. All right, good enough. Outline where it says it's given to you. Your witnesses want to speak? Come on up. Anyone? No, not yet.

[00:05:05]>> No, not either one. All right.

[00:05:09]And it was a sofa and as you look, what else? Um a TV stand, a shower tower, shower curtains, TV stand was a early birthday gift to me. I have a witness.

[00:05:20]>> Shower curtains, what else? A 32-in TV.

[00:05:23]All right.

[00:05:25]Sir, do you have these things?

[00:05:27]>> Yes, I have all those gifts that was given to both of us and in the meantime of us living together. From whom? From either her or her mother or her sister.

[00:05:36]>> Name the Name the ones.

[00:05:37]Huh? Name the ones. My queen. My queen.

[00:05:39]>> you the TV? Sorry. Who gave you the TV?

[00:05:42]>> My queen's sister. Okay, is she here today? Yes, she is.

[00:05:45]>> All right, she doesn't want to talk. So, she can't say one way or the other.

[00:05:49]Um, how do you know it was for you only?

[00:05:52]Well, that she basically stated to me and my mother. I have a I have a Let's see if that's >> witness statement right here. Your counter claim $2,270 for what? Well, basically one is one is for the harassment that I got from her driving past my apartment building, all my neighbors seeing it in front of my 2-year-old daughter, making her cry, driving past my house with my ex-girlfriend, calling me names, screaming at me. All right.

[00:06:18]>> a witness statement right here.

[00:06:19]>> of stuff would she say? I just verbally cussing at me, saying that that um to my mother and my daughter that she's going to kick her butt.

[00:06:30]Did you ever call the police about the threats? No, I did not.

[00:06:33]>> the police about the threats. Get a restraining order about all the harassment.

[00:06:36]>> The restraining order to deal with the restraining order, I can't get off of work before 4:30 before they get off. I work long hours, hard hours.

[00:06:44]>> live with the harassment instead of having it stopped.

[00:06:47]I did. It must not be worth your time.

[00:06:49]>> worth It wasn't worth losing a day's >> your $2,000 worth of trouble, sir, if you can't take a few minutes to go and have it stopped.

[00:06:58]>> Yes.

[00:06:58]>> Um, I do have a restraining order against him.

[00:07:00]>> You have one?

[00:07:01]>> Yes, I do, your honor. Would you like to see a copy of it? When did you get it?

[00:07:04]>> And I do have proof >> you have to get one on him?

[00:07:07]>> If she got me a restraining order against me, why would she keep calling me?

[00:07:10]>> talk, sir.

[00:07:10]>> Excuse me. I have a restraining order because um he keeps on calling my parents' house 30 times. My cell phone's ringing.

[00:07:17]Um, the weekend of his birthday, Saturday >> know when that was. August 10th or 11th.

[00:07:23]>> Oh, '07?

[00:07:24]>> Yes, I do have a voicemail from it.

[00:07:25]>> your mother here?

[00:07:26]>> Yes, it is.

[00:07:27]>> want to tell me about that? Yes.

[00:07:29]Your name is your name first. Go first.

[00:07:31]He's been repeatedly calling our house and um I did call the police. They did come to my house and they I look at my caller ID and and there is proof. We have paperwork on that that he is repeatedly calling our house.

[00:07:47]>> the house repeatedly? Sir, at that time, when I was calling the house, we were working things out.

[00:07:53]>> calls would you make in one day? What's the maximum?

[00:07:56]Maybe twice. That's calling them back.

[00:07:58]My mom My mom has called me >> that shows he called more than twice in one day?

[00:08:03]>> Um yes, your honor. Would you like to see the restraining order, too? Yes.

[00:08:07]Basically, the whole time that that since she moved out to now, she's been calling me and wanting to get back with me saying that she can't because her family would disown her. Do you consider that harassment? That, yes.

[00:08:20]Calling to ask you to get Well, she wasn't really calling She was calling me about other things, too. Like what?

[00:08:26]Well, just basically stating that that how she hates me, but she still wants to be with me and That that sounds odd. Yeah. Tell me about I hate you.

[00:08:39]And I want to be with you.

[00:08:41]You You You hate somebody and still love them at the same time.

[00:08:45]You might love them, but you don't want to be with them if you hate them. Right.

[00:08:48]Ma'am, do you want to tell me about this phone bill and rent? I do have proof that I cash advanced it on my credit card.

[00:08:56]>> Let's see it. That that that cash advance on her credit card, she got mad, took the money out that day, was going to pay the landlord because she didn't want my mother to be mad at her.

[00:09:06]>> What she do with the money? All of that.

[00:09:07]She might have put it back in her account. I have no idea.

[00:09:09]>> you get your money if it wasn't from her putting any in the account?

[00:09:13]>> Work.

[00:09:15]My paychecks. Took that money out of her checking account that day cuz she was mad cuz my mother was mad at her for me paying all of it by myself. So, she got mad. So, you got out and did what? Just to make it appear That's when we were That's when we were arguing. Then we talked about it and we went back to the same agreement of Okay, I'm paying it full. So, why don't you discuss what you're going to do with that 1500, baby.

[00:09:39]I figured she was going to put it back in her bank account.

[00:09:42]No, you didn't discuss it. Yeah, well I didn't discuss what she was going to do with the money. I don't believe you. If you have someone living with you, you say I don't need the 1500. Either you put it back in the bank >> her to put it back in the bank.

[00:09:54]>> said. You said I think she did it. Case dismissed. Don't believe anything you're saying. Give her her things back and no, you keep them. You keep them. You might need some toast.

[00:10:04]Uh I'll grant you, ma'am, your entire judgement. Have a good day.

[00:10:09]Thank you.