Today Beth is a happy retiree from North Carolina State employment. As an Assistant Attorney General, Beth spent 18 years representing Department of Health and Human Services facilities in Western North Carolina while based at Broughton State Psychiatric Hospital. She was a frequent lecturer and instructor to law enforcement, social workers and psychologists on the law of involuntary commitment. Following that position, she became Special Counsel at Broughton, representing patients in the involuntary commitment process for four years before retiring in 2023.
Opposite Worlds. Our True Story.
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Meet Javier
Born in Puerto Rico. Raised in humble circumstances in the South Bronx. Spanish-speaking. Street-smart. Self-made. A cop shaped by success and survival.
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Meet Beth
Born to a successful attorney. Raised in an upscale Tampa neighborhood. Prep schools. Summers at the Tampa Yacht Club. A prosecutor shaped by rules, order, and law.
Worlds collided when they met on a case.
THE STORY-TOLD FROM JAVIER'S PERSPECTIVE
It was early in 1990 when I peered inside a Hillsborough County Courthouse courtroom at the beautiful and self-assured woman, a tall, striking brunette dressed in a navy-blue suit. I had been looking for a judge at the courthouse to sign a warrant.
The sight of her had knocked the wind out of me. For me, time froze, I froze, my brain froze.
After a few discreet inquiries-I was a detective after all-I learned her name was Elizabeth Browne and that she was an Assistant State Attorney in the Felony Division.
I would see her again sometime later at a deposition on a drug case, but she never looked up from her notetaking.
On March 30 at a continuation of the same drug case that I had testified on earlier, she had been scheduled to argue a motion before a judge, and I was on hand once again to testify. I was hoping this time for at least some eye contact, some small opening I could use to start a conversation later with her.
I would get everything I needed to finally speak to Beth courtesy of a forty-something year old Cuban man. As I sat beside him in court, waiting for my case to be called, surrounded by police and court officials, he tried to sell me two ounces of cocaine. I capitalized on the situation, using it as an excuse to bring it to Beth’s attention as soon as the opportunity arose.
When the guy stepped from the courtroom momentarily, I walked nervously to the front of the room to the counsel tables and got her attention. I quickly explained the situation that developed, and I could tell by the look in Beth’s eyes that she was having difficulty processing what I was telling her – a man in the gallery had just offered to sell an undercover cop some coke, a unique situation, to put it mildly. The courtroom was supposed to be a sanctum for justice, a cease-fire zone from the war on drugs.
I could not have planned a better way to impress her.
Then & Now
Beyond survival, our love thrived, fueled by faith. Thirty-five years later, we look back and can say with confidence that the journey was worth it all.
The moment, supplied by a truly bizarre incident and a hapless coke dealer, was the beginning of a more than 35-year love affair that survived public scandal, an eight-and-a-half-year prison term, uprooting from everything familiar, multiple moves, financial strain, tragedy and loss.
Beth
Javier
After leaving his first post-release position at Asheville’s Haywood Park Hotel, Javier worked in HVAC for a few years. In 2006 he started his own HVAC company which he operates currently. He has earned four state licenses since then in HVAC, Commercial Refrigeration, and Electrical Contracting. In more recent years Javier served as an instructor of HVAC at Western Piedmont Community College.
The strong faith that sustained Javier throughout his time in prison led to a position as Senior Pastor of a local church, where he served for five years.
Javier and Beth enjoy traveling in their RV with their furry children, Rosalie and Gordi.
