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In September, she will find out her punishment for the barroom brawl. It's a Class 4 felony that carries a maximum sentence of 16 years. Her sentencing was originally scheduled for Friday, but that was reset until September 2, the prosecutor's office said.
Ferdi Mevlani, the former director of Ecumenical Refugee and Immigration Services, helped place al-Obeidi in Denver. He says he is uncertain whether she arrived in America without the coping mechanisms needed to resettle or whether she was never the person of fortitude the world thought they knew.
It's sad, he says, that she escaped Gadhafi's tentacles in Libya but got tangled in her own web in America.
Vanishing dreams
It's difficult to know the whole story of al-Obeidi's fall from emblem of freedom to a convict behind bars.
Her presence in the media caught the attention of global players, among them then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who eventually arranged for asylum in the United States.
Even though al-Obeidi expressed gratitude in the past for the role CNN played in publicizing her case, she refused recent requests for an interview. The woman who sought out the media and catapulted herself to celebrity status now wants nothing more than to avoid the headlines.
Libyan dragged away after rape claim
Few of the people who helped al-Obeidi settle in Colorado when she first arrived as a political refugee in 2011 are still in touch with her. Some describe her as a deeply troubled woman who has displayed public flashes of anger and behaved irrationally. Even the Libyan Embassy in Washington, which provided her with a life-saving, $1,800-a-month stipend, no longer maintains contact.
Mevlani says his agency tried to help her attain independence and self-sufficiency in her new homeland. That adjustment is never easy, especially for those who have experienced trauma and are not well-versed in English and the culture of the United States.
When I visited al-Obeidi in Colorado in early 2012, she said she felt tired. She told me she had been harassed and hurt by people, especially in Libya and the Arab world, who did not believe she had been abducted, beaten and gang-raped by thugs.
The following year, feminist Germaine Greer mentioned al-Obeidi in a CNN commentary on rape, lamenting that survivors are often called into question.
"Her mistake was to survive. Because she did not die for other people's crimes, the offenses against her are now described as 'alleged.' Her credibility is shot," Greer wrote.
Now even those who have supported al-Obeidi may question her credibility. And dreams for her new life in the United States -- finishing college, earning a decent salary and starting her own family -- seem destined to remain just that: dreams.
Phone calls to people whose lives intersected with hers more recently in Colorado were not returned. Her former lawyers did not want to speak on the record.
The prosecutor's office showed her leniency with her previous violations, dismissing the first case against her. The second case -- a second-degree assault on a police officer -- was reduced to a misdemeanor.
"No one was injured, and the district attorney's office again showed her some measure of compassion and leniency given what she claimed to be her circumstances," Deputy District Attorney Jonathon Martin says. "All of those things we took at face value."
The court ordered al-Obeidi to seek counseling for mental health issues, to get help for alcohol abuse. But even before her legal woes began, she had rejected offers for counseling.
Alleged Libyan rape victim talked to CNN
"We gave her the opportunity to deal with those issues rather than be incarcerated," Martin says. "We supported the court sentencing her to treatment options."
But now, he says, she faces serious felony charges in the Biergarten case "with two victims who suffered significant injuries."
This time, al-Obeidi may not be so lucky.
Depending on her sentence, she may leave county jail and enter a state system teeming with the worst of society.
Traumatized and entitled?
It wasn't supposed to be this way for al-Obeidi. She arrived in America a few months before Gadhafi's grisly demise gave way to a new Libya taking root. She thought that she, like her homeland, would begin again. But like Libya, al-Obeidi struggled to reconcile past and present.
She settled in a seventh-floor studio apartment in Denver with the promise of a better life. But her journey had been riddled with difficulties, and her time in America would prove to be no different.
While she was still in Libya, she had spoken openly about her abuse. In a 2011 CNN interview, she wore traditional dress, her head covered in black. Her voice quivered as she described unspeakable acts of rape and torture by 15 of Gadhafi's henchmen. They beat her, she said. They urinated on her and blinded her with alcohol before taking turns violating her.
Libyan government representatives said al-Obeidi was a prostitute, a thief and a drunk. They said she was mentally ill.
Ferdi Mevlani, the former director of Ecumenical Refugee and Immigration Services, helped place al-Obeidi in Denver. He says he is uncertain whether she arrived in America without the coping mechanisms needed to resettle or whether she was never the person of fortitude the world thought they knew.
It's sad, he says, that she escaped Gadhafi's tentacles in Libya but got tangled in her own web in America.
Vanishing dreams
It's difficult to know the whole story of al-Obeidi's fall from emblem of freedom to a convict behind bars.
Her presence in the media caught the attention of global players, among them then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who eventually arranged for asylum in the United States.
Even though al-Obeidi expressed gratitude in the past for the role CNN played in publicizing her case, she refused recent requests for an interview. The woman who sought out the media and catapulted herself to celebrity status now wants nothing more than to avoid the headlines.
Libyan dragged away after rape claim
Few of the people who helped al-Obeidi settle in Colorado when she first arrived as a political refugee in 2011 are still in touch with her. Some describe her as a deeply troubled woman who has displayed public flashes of anger and behaved irrationally. Even the Libyan Embassy in Washington, which provided her with a life-saving, $1,800-a-month stipend, no longer maintains contact.
Mevlani says his agency tried to help her attain independence and self-sufficiency in her new homeland. That adjustment is never easy, especially for those who have experienced trauma and are not well-versed in English and the culture of the United States.
When I visited al-Obeidi in Colorado in early 2012, she said she felt tired. She told me she had been harassed and hurt by people, especially in Libya and the Arab world, who did not believe she had been abducted, beaten and gang-raped by thugs.
The following year, feminist Germaine Greer mentioned al-Obeidi in a CNN commentary on rape, lamenting that survivors are often called into question.
"Her mistake was to survive. Because she did not die for other people's crimes, the offenses against her are now described as 'alleged.' Her credibility is shot," Greer wrote.
Now even those who have supported al-Obeidi may question her credibility. And dreams for her new life in the United States -- finishing college, earning a decent salary and starting her own family -- seem destined to remain just that: dreams.
Phone calls to people whose lives intersected with hers more recently in Colorado were not returned. Her former lawyers did not want to speak on the record.
The prosecutor's office showed her leniency with her previous violations, dismissing the first case against her. The second case -- a second-degree assault on a police officer -- was reduced to a misdemeanor.
"No one was injured, and the district attorney's office again showed her some measure of compassion and leniency given what she claimed to be her circumstances," Deputy District Attorney Jonathon Martin says. "All of those things we took at face value."
The court ordered al-Obeidi to seek counseling for mental health issues, to get help for alcohol abuse. But even before her legal woes began, she had rejected offers for counseling.
Alleged Libyan rape victim talked to CNN
"We gave her the opportunity to deal with those issues rather than be incarcerated," Martin says. "We supported the court sentencing her to treatment options."
But now, he says, she faces serious felony charges in the Biergarten case "with two victims who suffered significant injuries."
This time, al-Obeidi may not be so lucky.
Depending on her sentence, she may leave county jail and enter a state system teeming with the worst of society.
Traumatized and entitled?
It wasn't supposed to be this way for al-Obeidi. She arrived in America a few months before Gadhafi's grisly demise gave way to a new Libya taking root. She thought that she, like her homeland, would begin again. But like Libya, al-Obeidi struggled to reconcile past and present.
She settled in a seventh-floor studio apartment in Denver with the promise of a better life. But her journey had been riddled with difficulties, and her time in America would prove to be no different.
While she was still in Libya, she had spoken openly about her abuse. In a 2011 CNN interview, she wore traditional dress, her head covered in black. Her voice quivered as she described unspeakable acts of rape and torture by 15 of Gadhafi's henchmen. They beat her, she said. They urinated on her and blinded her with alcohol before taking turns violating her.
Libyan government representatives said al-Obeidi was a prostitute, a thief and a drunk. They said she was mentally ill.
