PORTLAND (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- If you asked Erica Cole a year ago what her life would look like today she wouldn't have thought the words "domestic abuse survivor."
For the past six months, Cole has been finding herself again after ex-boyfriend and Waterfront Concerts promoter Alex Gray pleaded guilty to abusing her.
Police reports state on March 12, 2017, Gray demanded to see Cole's cell phone and she tried to leave. Cole told police that during the incident, Gray knocked her to the floor, strangled her and repeatedly struck her head on the floor. Gray pled guilty to the charges in October 2017.
The situation was brought into the spotlight again after a blog post Cole wrote went viral earlier this month. It was an open letter to Portland City Manager John Jennings asking him and city councilors to rethink their recent decision to do business with Gray and Waterfront Concerts.
"I didn't realize the type of impact it would have," Cole said in her first sit down interview about the blog post. In fact, she didn't even expect Jennings to read it.
"It's not against him, I just went through this entire case thinking I didn't matter," Cole said. "At the end of the day I figured it was about the money and the revenue for the city and that he would just ignore it — but he didn't."
Instead, city councilors addressed their future relationship with Waterfront Concerts last week in a public meeting. They decided to distance themselves from Gray and instead contract with the company Live Nation.
This decision, however, does not remove Gray entirely from the equation.
Typically, when Live Nation does concerts in Maine, it subcontracts Alex Gray's company. His employees are the ones you see gathering tickets, acting as stagehands, pouring beer, etc.
"You have the mayor and the city manager backing little old me," Cole said. "You know, for them to say that it just created such a foundation for other women who have been questioning whether or not they should come forward in any situation."
"If you're under 22 conditions of the state I don't really feel that you should be given the same opportunity at that time to have business as usual," Cole said. "All of the city councilors agreed that they would reincorporate him into the community after he served his time, and I agree with that — I don't think you should ban people."
Cole said she never wanted to hurt Gray or his business, she just wanted to stand up for what she believed in and for every other woman who has been affected by domestic abuse. "It seems like it's an attack on Waterfront Concerts but it's not, it's about sending a message," she said.
Since NEWS CENTER Maine shared her story exclusively in November, Cole said dozens of women have reached out to her -- many who are or were in abusive relationships. She said that alone was part of why it was so important for her to speak up to Portland city councilors.
"It was for me to get a little piece of my voice back and a voice of the countless women that have reached out to me throughout this process as a sister in the fight or just somebody else who is going through it," she said. "It's really sad for me to read how many women go through on a daily basis."
Hear more from Cole and how she is moving forward Wednesday night on NEWS CENTER Maine.
This story will be updated.