Lee Enterprises

BY JODI RAVEBY JODI RAVE

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Radmilla Cody once dreamed of being Miss Indian America and Miss USA, but she ended her royal reign wearing the Miss Navajo Nation crown. Her dreams and her image were shattered three years ago by what she described as her "double life."

"I just ended my reign talking to children about drugs, about living healthy lives," said Cody, Miss Navajo from 1997 to 1998.

A six-year relationship with a cocaine dealer ended her role-model image and halted a promising singing career.

Nationally, one of every two women in prison reported being physically abused in their lifetime, according to the National Clearinghouse for the Defense of Battered Women. And drug and alcohol abuse often accompany violence among intimate partners.

Cody's relationship with ex-fiance Darrell Bellamy was marred by all three - drugs, alcohol, domestic violence - and, finally, prison.

In Cody's case, it began with a few hurtful words.

You ain't nothing.

Then it got physical.

"We both fought each other," Bellamy said in a phone interview from a California prison, where he isn't scheduled for release until April 2030 for drug conspiracy and money laundering.

"I'm not going to take the blame off myself and say I didn't start some of the altercations."

The couple frequented Phoenix nightclubs and used ecstasy at least every other weekend, he said.

Cody said she used the drug at least once.

She had hoped to one day marry Bellamy, but their relationship ended when they went to prison.

In the final days of their long-term affair, Cody began speaking out about domestic violence.

"She had to save herself with her people," said Bellamy. "She didn't want people to look at her in a negative way. That was her whole thing, was to be accepted by the Navajo people."

Cody, half-black, half-Navajo, grew up culturally in a Navajo world, herding sheep, carding wool and speaking Dine in Leupp, Ariz., on the western half of the sprawling Navajo Reservation.

Today, she expresses regret in what she calls a "sick" relationship.

"I thought I was nothing without this man," she said.

Bellamy and federal prosecutors in the case against Cody said drug money defined their relationship.

Cody has said she knew nothing of his drug ring during the early years of their courtship. But Bellamy said she picked up on his game pretty quickly.

"I tried to keep her from knowing what I was doing, but she was pretty nosy," said Bellamy.

"She knew I was a drug dealer. Let's put it like that."

The couple dated before she was crowned Miss Navajo Nation. She was supposed to quit her relationship with Bellamy after she accepted the title. But he said they maintained contact.

"Her Miss Navajo reign, I paid for it."

Bellamy said his cocaine money kept Cody in designer dresses, turquoise jewelry and behind the wheel of fancy trucks and SUVs.

But it wasn't enough to fix a depraved relationship.

"It's like taking care of a child and the child knows what buttons to push to get to you," he said.

"It got to the point, instead of me physically hitting her with my hands, we got to the point where I would take a belt and she'd lay down and I'd whup her if she did something wrong.

"The government had video tapes of that happening."

The drug trials leading up to Bellamy's imprisonment revealed ruthless behavior.

One woman testified he and three other men "forced her to remove her clothes below the waist and burned her repeatedly with a hot iron and with boiling grease."

Cody said she never filed charges against him for domestic violence.

Her decisions to conceal information became her undoing.

She kept information about Bellamy's drug ring from a grand jury.

In January 2003, a judge found her guilty of "misprison of a felony," a charge similar to conspiracy. She was sentenced to a 21-month prison term in Arizona.

"Prison is hell," she said. "It's not a place for anyone."

"I caught on to the game in there," she said. "Your survival skills kick in."

She returned to the recording studio upon her release in 2004.

Her musical repertoire since has mimicked her pre-prison performances. Her most recent studio recordings include a play list of children's songs.

But she said she'll likely move in a new direction, recording more contemporary sounds like hip hop or rhythm and blues.

While behind bars, Cody wrote songs, including "Blessing in Disguise." She sang it last fall to a small University of New Mexico audience, a mostly American Indian crowd who attended a conference on black Indians.

She held a rawhide drum in hand and wore a turquoise squash blossom necklace with a petunia pink, crushed velvet skirt and matching shirt.

She sang of journey and horse songs using the Dine language. She sang about her grandmother and a goat named Cracker.

The words spoke of despair and hope.

"I'm in a world unfamiliar to my ways, with each passing time, there lies a brighter day, I may be scarred …"

(Jodi Rave covers American Indian issues for Lee Enterprises. Reach her at 800-366-7186 or jodi.rave@;lee.net.)