HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016 09-09 Cracking down on domestic abuse in Ramsey County, before it escalates PIONEER PRESS9/20/2016
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Maplewood, White Bear Lake target repeat domestic abuse
Cracking down on domestic abuse in Ramsey County, before it
escalates
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By JAllll'dli!I: IPgliEll AME I jdelage@pioneerpress.com
PUBLISHED: September 9, 2016 at 7:00 am I UPDATED: September 9, 2016 at 4:59 pm
The abuse started right after she vowed to spend the rest of her life with him.
High school sweethearts, they got married and had a baby shortly after graduation. They argued over money and he threw her down the stairs.
That was 30 years ago.
The police came that night and took her to a shelter, but her husband was never charged. They got back together and, over the years, the abuse continued. As the children
grew, the shoves and curses and blows landed on them, too, but her husband never went to jail, never faced the domestic violence charge that would have triggered more
serious consequences for him or a chance to start over for her.
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Maplewood, White Bear Lake target repeat domestic abuse
Though she knew the abuse was wrong, her instincts told her to play the peacemaker and keep the family together.
"I made up excuses for him and I passed things by as normal," Betsy said in a recent interview. The Pioneer Press is withholding the woman's true identity. "I thought I could
control his behavior. I de-escalated situations."
That all changed afterwhat she calls "the incident."
TWO-YEAR PROJECT FOR MAPLEWOOD, WHITE BEAR LAKE
Betsy's experience is common. Abuse can go on for years without consequence when victims, out of fear or hope, are unwilling to call police or cooperate with prosecutors.
Larger cities such as St. Paul, with theirteams of cops, advocates and lawyers, have learned how to prosecute abusers even when victims are reluctant. Through deeper
investigation, time-consuming witness care and costly court wrangling, they're dismissing fewer cases and convicting more abusers under domestic violence statutes.
Now two suburbs, Maplewood and White Bear Lake, have adopted those same strategies in a two-year pilot project paid for by Ramsey County.
The Ramsey County Joint Domestic Abuse Prosecution Enhancement Project is seen as a success so far. But the money will run out at the end of this year.
As the suburbs set their 2017 budgets this fall, their leaders have to decide if they can afford to keep up the effort. Maplewood Mayor Nora Slawik and White Bear Lake Mayor
Jo Emerson both said they like the results they've seen so far and are committed to finding the money for police overtime and a possible increase in their city attorney
contracts.
MR
Ramsey County Attorney John Choi pitched the projectto
the two suburbs, and now he's urging them to find the
"We irn -to stolptireatingi eflir witnesses -to the it own iriiim .°Nmeans to carry on the work.
It requires more time— and more money— for police,
victim advocates and lawyers to spend on cases and in
court than they did in the past.
After seeing more effective prosecution of domestic violence in St. Paul, where he used to be city attorney, Choi said he thinks it's worth the effort.
When someone is convicted of a domestic violence offense, each subsequent offense carries a greater penalty, much like drunken driving penalties.
That can send enough of a message to get low-level abusers to change their ways. And if they don't, they'll end up in jail, which can give victims a chance to break away.
"We're trying to interrupt that repetitive abuser," Choi said. "Domestic violence is one area I've seen where people have been intentional and things have changed for the
positive. So why couldn't that happen forthe suburban communities?"
'I WANTED THIS TO STOP'
Betsy lives in one of those suburbs, and she's seen what happens when the abuse isn't stopped.
Her husband physically and sexually abused her throughout their marriage, she said.
He controlled whom she could see, kept her away from members of her own family and kept track of how long it took her to get home from work. Her son went to school
bearing bruises he got at home, but he lied to protect his father when asked about them.
"I wanted this to stop. In my mind, I just kept making excuses," she said. "But the last ... I was not expecting the incident that happened."
"The incident" happened about a year ago.
Betsy's husband had been drinking, she said, and she had to work the next day, so she was trying to sleep. He kept waking her up with frightening talk about death, and she
asked if he was trying to drive her away. He took that as a threat that she was going to leave him.
"He got on top of me and told me I wanted a divorce and I was cheating on him. He threw stuff against the wall," she said. "Even after that I still thought maybe I can go outside
and have a cigarette and he will just go to sleep. I was not looking for a divorce. I was looking for help."
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Maplewood, White Bear Lake target repeat domestic abuse
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Betsy went to the backyard to light a cigarette and he started throwing things out the door. Then he followed hero utside and slapped her purse away from her. She said she
realized she needed to get away, but he wouldn't let her go.
"He threw me on the ground three times and hit me. He threw beer cans at my head, full cans," she said. "He was beyond the point of knowing what he was doing."
While he ranted, she retrieved her phone and dialed 911 but didn't start the call. He came at her again and the phone fell to the ground, still set to call 911 if only she could
reach it.
"He got on top of me and he was about to beat the crap out of me," she said. "I mean he was going to, if he had started hitting me, he wouldn't have stopped. He would have
just kept going"
As she lay on the ground, he pulled back his arm to begin the beating. She stretched out an arm and reached for her phone. Even now she doesn't know if she connected with
the start button to call 911, but she told him she did.
"I said, `It's too late; they're on their way. I called 911, " she said. "So he got off of me and he broke the phone. He said, "You have to leave' '
'NOT AN EASY CONVICTION'
Police and prosecutors in the two suburbs recognized they weren't doing as much as they could for domestic violence victims. Too many cases were dismissed for lack of
evidence or settled with disorderly conduct charges. Too often, victims remained in dangerous households because prosecutors couldn't make domestic violence charges
stick.
Convicting someone of domestic violence can be the difference between them getting treatment or not— and whether or not they can get a gun.
It was keeping Maplewood Police Chief Paul Schnell up at night.
"There was nothing I hated more than seeing a guy we had arrested six or seven months earlier and now he's applying for a permit to purchase a handgun," Schnell said. "And
because there was not a domestic violence conviction, I had to sign off on that gun permit. There's nothing that makes you feel more uneasy, that causes you to not sleep at
night, than signing off on that permit to purchase a handgun."
It's not that police and prosecutors in the suburbs didn't care about domestic violence. The challenge is baked into the way smaller cities prosecute crimes.
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Felony crimes throughout the state are handled by counties with relatively large, full-time prosecution offices. Misdemeanors, on the other hand, are prosecuted by city
attorneys, and in most smaller cities, those services are provided by private law firms paid a flat fee over the term of a contract.
So as long as abuse doesn't cross the felony line that triggers county prosecution, cases are handled by contracted attorneys who have a financial incentive to settle — or
dismiss— cases quickly.
Choi, a former city attorney, conceived the domestic abuse pilot project to show Maplewood and White Bear Lake they could overcome the challenge.
Just as they do for other contracted services, they would need to set expectations for their prosecution contract. It might cost a little more, but they could tell their private
prosecutors they want domestic violence cases handled aggressively.
LIFTING THE BAR
Before the pilot project, fewer than 40 percent of White Bear Lake cases were convicted under domestic violence statutes. During the first year of the project, 64 percent were,
said Robb Olson, the private attorney who handles the city's misdemeanor cases.
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Maplewood, White Bear Lake target repeat domestic abuse
"Part of it is what police have done, part of it is how the attorneys have done it and part of it is we've just become more stubborn," Olson said. "You don't want to get a
domestic in White Bear Lake. We've lifted the bar and we don't plan to go back down."
It's taken more than a stubborn mind -set. Ramsey County lent tenacious prosecutor Anna Christie to the two suburbs.
Stationed at the Maplewood police headquarters, Christie trained officers to collect more evidence, coached prosecutors on legal strategy and tried many cases herself.
The big hurdle to clear is the belief that you can't —or shouldn't —prosecute if victims tell you they don't want to press charges.
"I can't tell you how many times I've met with a victim and they've said tome, `You know I'm going to getup in court and I'm going to say I want the charges dropped, but I
really want him held accountable. I really am afraid of him and I don't want him to come home,'" Christie said.
'I IMAGINE THAT'S MY SISTER'
Both suburbs now are dismissing fewer domestic violence cases than before.
For several years before the pilot, Maplewood was dismissing on average nearly half of its domestic violence cases. In the first year of the project, it dismissed just 30 percent.
White Bear Lake was dismissing an average of 29 percent of cases before the pilot project and reduced that number toll percent in 2015.
"I imagine that's my sister, and her husband is abusive to her. And we decide that the best thing to do in that situation is to give him a pass?" Olson said. "No, the best thing for
him is to use tough love. Hold him accountable for what he did, because otherwise you're not going to see change"
The new mind -set, Christie and Olson said, is to pursue domestic violence cases assuming they're not going to have a cooperative witness. That forces them to focus on the
evidence rather than the he-said/she-said testimony. And that takes the burden off the victim.
"Like I tell police, we prosecute assaults without victims all the time. They're called homicides," Christie said. "We need to stop treating victims as witnesses to their own
crimes.'
'HOMICIDE PREVENTION'
The prosecutors and police chiefs have another name for the domestic violence crackdown. They call it homicide prevention.
Todd Larry 7ennin (114hmesoLa Department of Coinrectiorup 1photo)
Christie wonders what would have happened had Todd Larry Tenn in been prosecuted under domesticviolencestatutes.
7ennin is r..17 arged with killing his wife last: year in Maplewood. Years earlier he was charged with choking a different woman, but his case was settled as disorderly conduct.
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Maplewood, White Bear Lake target repeat domestic abuse
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If convicted under domestic violence statutes instead, he might have faced a series of increasingly severe penalties anytime the police were called to the house. His wife might
have had a chance to escape.
White Bear Lake Police Chief Julie Swanson said her officers have embraced the new mandate, which requires more intensive investigation and more time waiting in
courtroom hallways for their turn to testify.
And victim and witness advocates are important elements of the project. Maplewood and White Bear Lake both receive advocate services from the Tubman Center in
Maplewood.
The pilot project provided nearly $100,000 for Tubman to enhance its services. They connected with victims earlier, helped victims and witnesses attend court hearings and
provided translators.
By the end of the firstyear, 83 percent of domestic assault victims in the two suburbs were participating in the prosecution of their abusers. Before the project started, 70
percent were.
Nicky Gillett, director of legal services for the Tubman Center, said the center is committed to maintaining the higher level of service after the pilot project ends. But she's
hoping the two cities will come up with some money to help. Currently, Tubman gets money from the state and other partners, but not from the suburbs it serves.
"When I'm looking ahead and I see that we're on a course for probably twice as many cases this year as we did last year, there is then a point where we say we have to come up
with a plan," Gillett said.
'REALLY WORRIED ABOUT MY FAMILY RIGHT NOW'
The Tubman Center helped Betsy get through all the courtroom drama after her "incident."
After her husband broke her cellphone and told her to leave, she just started walking. It was 3 a.m. and she didn't know where to go, so she started hiking. Her children were
looking for her, she said, but in her panic she was ducking in and out of alleys and backyards to stay out of sight of her husband.
Finally she happened on a woman who was letting her dog out of the house. The "ankle -biter" ran after Betsy and the woman came running after it. She took one look at Betsy
and asked if she was OK.
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Maplewood, White Bear Lake target repeat domestic abuse
"I said I'm really worried about my family right now," Betsy said.
The woman led her to the house to use the phone, and Betsy looked up into the early morning sky.
"Right as I get to her house, I kid you not, a shooting star went over the roof of her house," Betsy said. "Like it outlines the roof of her house. And it was just a sign that this was
supposed to happen and everything is going to be OK."
She called the police, they picked her up and they went back to her house to arrest her husband.
They took pictures of the damage and took statements, but that might not have been enough to prove who was to blame. Her husband denied physically assaulting her, and
the bruises that would darken incoming days were barely visible.
'A TIME OF STARTING OVER'
It took an extra push by investigators to lock up the case.
Someone heard hersay she called 911, and it was clear her phone was deliberately crushed. Her husband was convicted of interferingwith a 911 call, which is still not a felony,
but it's a domestic violence charge.
It means anytime he breaks the judge's order to stay away from Betsy, he'll face stricter and stricter penalties. It means instead of a slap on the wrist, he could go to prison.
So far, he's mostly been toeing the line.
Betsy is moving on with life without him. For better or worse, he helped raise the kids with his too -strict hand. Now she has to do it largely alone.
"The only reason I've been able to even hold myself up is that I have had no contact with him except for in court," Betsy said. "That's the only way I've been able to function
and work and continue to try and do the right things."
She's grateful for the efforts of the prosecutors and Tubman victim advocates who have helped her along the way. She took the risk to talk to the Pioneer Press because she
wanted people to understand how important the work is, how a little bit of help can allow someone like her to start over.
"I've done a lot of catching up on crying because I was numb for years," Betsy said. "It's a time of starting over. I'm just looking forward to a time when my life is not a
discussion about the divorce, some new court happening, what he's doing now or what I'm worried about. I can't wait until I'm talking about the weather or who played who
last night!
Tags: Crime, Ramsey County
Jaime DeLage
An English major without a plan, Jaime DeLage did Peace Corps stints in Botswana and Namibia and then slipped intojournalism by doing (free) freelance
work for his hometown paper, the Crookston Daily Times, in 1993. Since then he has worked forthe Northern Light in Williams, Minn., the Grand Forks (N.D.)
Herald (part of the staffthat earned a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Flood of 1997) and the Duluth News Tribune. Hejoined the Pioneer Press in 2013.
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