AT 9 AM ON TUESDAY, June 15, seven misdemeanor domestic violence cases were sitting in front of Multnomah County Family Court Judge Tom Ryan. By 9:15 am, he had dismissed six.
This is a typical morning in domestic violence court. These cases are on the rise in Portland and nationally—an estimated 28,000 women in Multnomah County will be abused this year. In this dire climate, why are so many cases dismissed before they get to trial? The answer is clear on the Tuesday morning in question. In each of the dismissed cases, a key witness—usually the victim—didn’t show up.
“Our cases often rise and fall on the testimony of the victim,” says Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney Amy Holmes Hehn, who prosecutes domestic violence cases. By the time a trial date is set, victims are frequently unwilling to testify, often because they are afraid or they are back in the arms of the defendant. In domestic violence misdemeanor cases, prosecutors like Hehn get two chances to reschedule the trial date. After those two chances, the case has to go to trial, whether or not it’s ready.
When victims don’t show up, a judge dismisses the case, and all the defenders, lawyers, and experts who have been called to testify pack up their briefcases and leave. This bizarre spectacle occurs every week at the courthouse.
“Cases are not getting dismissed over the victims’ objections,” says Judge Ryan. “There are often cases in which, by the time the case gets to trial, the couple is back together.”
Other jurisdictions put stronger pressure on victims to testify against alleged abusers. But Multnomah County doesn’t seem too keen to copy their tactics.
“The Clark County, Washington, district attorney is very clear with victims that if they don’t show up for trial, they’ll be arrested,” says Hehn. “We don’t really take that approach very often.” Instead, she says, the county tries to support and educate domestic violence victims to reduce their dependence on abusive partners.
Meanwhile, the city pays dearly for courtroom time, even when it ends in a dismissal. For example, police officers who respond to domestic violence incidents are often present in case they need to serve as witnesses. If the court time is outside of an officer’s duty hours, the city pays overtime—starting at a minimum of four hours, even if a dismissal only takes a few minutes.
I am a domestic violence survivor and want to say that the ordinary person doesn’t understand the politics of a domestically violent relationship.
No one decides when they are children that when they grow up they want to fall in love, marry (or not marry) and have children with a partner that will abuse them. Articles like this are WHY some women wont show up, in my opinion. They turn the VICTIM into the bad guy because they wont testify. What happened to the old school practice where you don’t have to have the victim to testify? The DA is supposed to try perpetrators of domestic violence even if the victim doesn’t show up. Other wise the “someones got to get arrested” law doesn’t work.
The entire system is failing. Otherwise there wouldn’t have been 17, yes ladies and gentlemen, the Portland Metro Area had SEVENTEEN FATALITIES in one months time in 2009. What is WRONG with this picture?
That would be the old “right to face your accuser” and “hearsay evidence not admissable” thing.
While the “broad brush” of your story is probably valid, as the “victim” in one of the eight (not seven) cases on the docket in front of Judge Ryan last week – it is NOT accurate.
In my (or more accurately, my husband’s) case, we had gotten into a heated argument and I had called the police to help in calming down the situation at my house. No one was harmed, nothing (criminally speaking) happened. I told the officer at the scene that. Whatever his motivation (I believe he thought my husband was a jerk), the officer then proceeded to write up a police report that misrepresented and downright falsified my (and my husband’s) account of what happened that night. He even lied about having interviewed our children – which he didn’t – and that they corroborated his false account of what happened. The result – my husband was taken to jail, given a bail commensurate with armed robbery (because the police officer stated that he was threatening to hurt me – which he did not do), charged with multiple misdemeanor counts (DV among them), taken away from our home and children for over a month, slapped with a “no contact” order vis-a-vis myself, put under Close Street Supervision (like a pre-trial parole officer) for the over three months it took for the judicial process to run it’s course, not allowed to leave the tri-county area, and forced to hire (an expensive) lawyer to defend himself.
Because our children were home when this happened and woke up during our argument, Child Welfare Services was called in to conduct an assessment of the situation – so BOTH of us were put in a position to defend ourselves against the allegations or have our children taken into protective custody. We still haven’t heard back from them regarding the results, but the young (and seemingly unqualified) woman who was conducting the assessment said that if the allegations were deemed “Founded” we both would have this on our records. And, as I understand it, would likely not be able to do the volunteer work we both do at our children’s schools, I would have a tough time finding work as a teacher, etc.
About three weeks after the incident, my husband’s lawyer sent me a copy of the police report, I couldn’t believe my eyes – I could not believe the police officer had completely falsified his report. I immediately contacted my own lawyer – to get in front of the DDA and tell her that what the police wrote was just not true and give her the facts. It was clear she believed me, because she shortly thereafter helped rescind the “no contact” order which allowed my husband to come home. However, she did not drop the charges – in fact, she told my husband’s attorney that she would subpoena myself and our children unless my husband plea bargained the charges. He chose not to do so because he just plain didn’t do what they said he did – and his case went to trial. Since neither myself or my children were properly served, we did not show up – had we been properly served we would have been compelled to show up and testify. Yes, my two very young children would have to sit in a courtroom, look across at their father and relate the events of the night – which would have defended him, but been absolutely horrific for them – who knows how much and what damage that would have done to them. I, too, would have testified and defended him – but, as I understand it from my attorney, the DA would have painted me as a “battered wife” who reported things correctly (as falsely reported by the officer) on the date of the incident, but that was now perjuring myself to get my husband off the hook. Complete rubbish, but who knows how a jury would read things. And, by the way, the police officers didn’t show up either last Tuesday either. The charges were dismissed.
In the end, we had to spend over $15,000 dollars to defend him – had to take out a second mortgage to do so – and I cannot begin to relate to you the stress and pain this has caused both of us, especially him. My son and daughter still suffer from the effects of having their father taken away them for a month – and probably will for a long time to come.
Had we not had the means to defend him, my husband would now have a criminal record indicating that he is a violent man – which he is absolutely not – he would not be able to continue to volunteer at both my children’s schools, would have a tough time finding another job, etc. I feel for those that do not have the means to defend themselves – because they would have been absolutely crucified by “the system.”
With ever fiber of my being, I believe we (or more accurately, my husband) should sue the officer(s) who did this to him for violating his civil rights. Not for monetary gain, but to let the officers know that what they did was wrong – and, hopefully, remove them from their jobs so that they can’t do what they did to somebody else AND serve as a warning to other similarly inclined officers to do their job appropriately. But, as I understand it from my attorney, the politics of the situation are such that if we do move forward with a lawsuit, the officers we file suit against will pressure the DA’s office to re-file the charges against my husband and the DA’s office will likely go after him – and, horrifically, force my children (and myself) to testify at his trial. That for their own well-being, we just don’t want to happen. So, it would seem, those officers will be free to perpetrate their own form of terrorism.
Such are the professionalism and values of our Portland police officers, Child Welfare Services and DA’s office.
@A_concerned_citizen
Having been a child who grew up in a household, I find your post utterly ridiculous.
So you tried to use the police like you would a marriage counselor? Just to ‘diffuse a situation’. Were you afraid for your safety, or for the safety of your children? If you weren’t, then you had no business contacting the police just because you couldn’t win a heated argument. Police are there to protect you, not settle your petty squabbles. If you WERE afraid for your safety at any point, then you’re an idiot for going back to that man, regardless of if you have kids with him.
If he was violent in the past, and just not this time, then you can rest assured that it will absolutely happen again, and you’ve just successfully postponed the inevitable.
Maybe this isn’t something that happens often to you. Maybe this was the first marital argument you’ve ever had and simply don’t know how to handle conflict and panicked when he raised his voice. Or maybe there are a lot of arguments. Maybe those arguments lead to frequent fights. You think your kids are screwed up because daddy went to jail? If you frequently have fights so crazy that the cops are coming, then you’re screwing up your kids even more and you don’t even realize it.
Abuse doesn’t just mean physical abuse. Verbal and emotional abuse are abuses too, and any abuse visited upon you DOES reflect on your children. They might even think it’s normal that mommy and daddy scream at each other and the cops come, but that doesn’t make it ok at all.
Moral of the story: either stick to your guns, or get some marriage counseling, and stop trying to blame the police for your stupidity in calling them. I WISH some cop would have given half a crap when my mom recanted her story when her boyfriends were abusing her, and hauled those worthless @ssholes to jail regardless of what she said. I know exactly how and why I’m screwed up, and I’m damn lucky to be as stable as I am. I’m 25, and I still flinch hard at fast movements and loud noises. I jump when someone touches me, my own (very gentle) husband included. And I have absolutely zero value for any life that will try to hurt a weaker one, I could kill one of those guys and not have any remorse whatsoever about it (other than the inconvenience of jail). So while you may think he’s just misunderstood or some bullsh!t, remember that you’re probably screwing up your kids if this is a frequent occurence.
Domestic abuse has no excuses. Line ’em up, put holes in them.
I don’t like the way I think about these things, but I know exactly where those ideas came from. Is this the mentality you want to give to your children?
Or maybe I’m wrong about the abuse, and he’s a real lamb.
Go get some marriage counseling.
If you are unfortunate enough to live in Washington County and call the police and don’t testify you will be arrested. I was involved in a non-violent unwanted visits (stalking) case. The second visit I called the police and this person was arrested. He was not violent and never made any threats against me. The police encouraged me to to get a stalking order which I did not pursue. The Washington County Assistant District Attorney pursued the case and I was the main witness. The trial date was changed once before and came up 2 months later at which time I was not comfortable to testify. I had a subpoena and when I didn’t show a warrant for my arrest was issued for contempt of court. My neighbor also a witness, told me the ADA was going to have me held in jail until the next trial date which could have been 2-3 weeks. As the victim 2 Deputies were sent out every day for over a week and a half to my home to arrest me. On Friday they came 3 times which meant I would have been in jail all weekend to think about my criminal activity as I would not have been able to go before a Judge until Monday.
As a result I fled my home not because of my perpetrator but for fear of going to jail for not testifying. Police in the metro area are not held accountable and have impunity, why would I answer my door?
Finally I hired a very expensive criminal defense attorney to protect me as a witness who pleaded with the ADA to not have me arrested and assured them I would show up and testify. This was not acceptable and I had to turn myself in and spend a day in jail. While there, a Deputy asked if I had ever been there before and I looked at him in horror thinking I’ve paid my property taxes on time every year since 1995 and have a perfect credit rating and NO YOU F-ING IDIOT I’ve never been here before! Consequently I have an arrest record that cannot be expunged for an entire year and I believe I lost a job after a background check after this. I have been unemployed since I told my employer of his arrest and I was then let go. I believe it will be very hard to obtain employment now because of all of this. I have been so depressed by a system that has failed me and the treatment that I endured, I can barely get up out of bed.
The resulting conviction was guilty on a misdemeanor charge because of 2 unwanted visits without any physical or verbal contact. He was given 10 days in jail and 2 years probation.
So a warning: If you are in physical danger of your life or your family’s safety, then by all means call the police. If not, try family, friends, neighbors, counselors or mediators. Knowing what I know now I will never call the police again! Especially be WARNED IF YOU ARE A WASHINGTON COUNTY RESIDENT YOU WILL BE ARRESTED AS A VICTIM if you decide you don’t want to testify. They have a complete and total disregard for the human emotional factor and stress. They care only about their conviction rate.
I could never have believed that this could ever happen to me.