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Ohio’s first domestic violence felony court for intimate partners opens in Akron
ASHLEY C. HEENEY
Legal News Reporter
Published: October 7, 2011
The first felony domestic violence court in Ohio opened this week in Summit County Court of Common Pleas in Akron, one of only a handful of its kind in the nation.
Judge Paul Gallagher, who is responsible for the entire domestic violence docket in addition to his civil cases, said Monday on his first day of court that he had 15 domestic violence cases.
The court is like a new job for the judge, as he will only hear criminal cases that involve domestic violence between intimate partners. Over the next 12 months, the court’s nine other judges will lose their domestic violence cases of that type and absorb his standard criminal cases.
Since taking the bench in 2007, Gallagher has judged the usual civil and criminal cases and he’s excited about being the county’s first domestic violence court judge.
The new specialty court, mostly funded by grants, is solely for repeat domestic violence felony offenses that occur between intimate partners–people who live together and have a intimate relationship or have a child together, current or ex- spouses and so on.
“Certain types of crimes that occur between intimate partners qualify for prosecution in the domestic violence court because of the nature of the relationship,” said Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh., whose office along with the common pleas court, Battered Women’s Shelter of Summit and Medina Counties, Victim Assistance Program and Summit Psychological Associates, Inc. have been working on getting this specialty court for the past five years.
Gallagher said they looked to The Supreme Court of Ohio for guidance and the Mansfield, Ohio’s misdemeanor court, though a diversion program, for examples.
Examples of the crimes that qualify for prosecution in Summit’s court include but are not limited to aggravated arson, rape, aggravated assault, felony menacing by stalking and kidnapping–so the charge against an intimate partner may not necessarily be called “domestic violence.”
To determinine eligibility, a court review team (Summit County Probation Department, Summit County Prosecutor’s Office, Victim Assistance Program and the Battered Women’s Shelter¬) will look at factors–mandatory sentencing guidelines, ages of the defendant and victim, input from the victim, prior convictions, prior history with the victim, the defendant’s drug and alcohol use, other pending charges and mitigating circumstances, Walsh said. Gallagher will make the ultimate determination.
“The goal of the court is to hold offenders accountable, increase the safety of victims and ensure consistency in the way these cases are handled. This is not a diversion program. Our ultimate goal is to stop the cycle of violence.”
Unlike the county’s drug court and mental health court, offenders will not have the option of having charges dismissed or sealed if he or she successfully completes some programming, Gallagher said.
Offenders who have at least two misdemeanor domestic violence charges from a municipal court will move to the common pleas domestic violence court. The second offense is a 4th degree felony and the third offense is a 3rd degree felony.
“There’s a lot of risk,” Gallagher said. “We have to decide what kind of bond is set. That’s an art itself, trying to figure out which ones are dangerous and which ones aren’t.” He estimates a bond of $20,000 would be appropriate, considering there’s an economic factor in most of the parties involved. “It’s a tricky job . . . a lot of pre-trial work,” he said.
In 2010, Walsh’s office prosecuted indicted 353 felony cases. Gallagher said he expects to have a steady docket of that number or higher.
“Everybody charged for domestic violence is screened through normal plea negotiations with the prosecutor’s office,” he said. “I agree with their philosophy, that just because a victim recants, that doesn’t mean the case would go away.”
Some people in the court will opt to go to prison, he said, versus being a participant in the court. But the goal is to keep them out and work with the intimate partners by giving them resources for rehabilitation.
“I’m sure there are just as many people in prison for domestic violence as there are any other crimes,” he said.
The backbone of the court is intensive probation with a suspended prison term, he said, which Walsh said is one element of the drug and mental health courts that has been successful and recidivism is reduced.
“We anticipate that a third will go to prison and a third will go to probation,” Gallagher added. “That intensive probation will be more onerous than this court has ever had.”
Probation could require substance abuse treatment, mental health treatment, a parenting program or random drug and alcohol testing.
Substance abuse is a huge component, Gallagher said. And most of the offenders to come through the court are men. The victim is a woman. The most serious offenders, he said, have control issues who can’t find positive ways to control their loved ones. “Those are difficult to deal with. It takes a lot therapy. When people find ways to control with violence, it’s difficult to let it go. Others have little history and it comes up once in awhile.
Often the victim will recant, Gallagher said, in part because of dependency issues.
“Even on the best of terms, it’s a big adjustment. There’s also a financial issue or children will be attached to the abuser.
“Trials are also interesting to jurors, to hear on a 911 tape ‘he’s going to kill me,’ then on stand they say he’s the picture of a spouse. To hear women recant is hard to understand. Often we’ll have an expert in these issues come in and explain, to the jury, why women recant.”
The prosecutor’s office in Summit County has been very successful in prosecution even when victims recant, he added.
Defense attorney Paul Grant, said the cases that come through this court will require making a very critical analysis.
In court is when the “other side” of the story comes out, he said, and it is critical to knowing how to evaluate a case and how to proceed because of new information presented.
“Stories are different after passionate emotions and issues have diminished over time,” he said.
Grant added that the new sentencing law, which Gallagher said he’d been learning, removes mandatory prison time for felonies four and five and so discretion will be in the hands of the judge.
The judge said probation terms will certainly be longer for the domestic violence court participants–more like three years instead of the typical two.
All statistics pertaining to the court, including recidivism rates, will be maintained through Walsh’s office.
In the courtroom, there will be assigned assistant prosecutors, victim advocates, two probation officers and a representative from the Batterer Intervention Program, Walsh said.
Maintaining a structure and consistency was the team’s goal.
“Up until this time the outcome of any domestic violence case has been as variable as Ohio weather,” said Terri Heckman, Battered Women’s Shelter executive director, who is behind “anything that will help with the fair accountability of the offender and the ability of the victim to have a voice in the process.”
“Depending on many factors, including the presiding judge, victims may have not had a chance to speak, offenders may have gotten off easy or the system may have just not worked as smoothly as it could have, causing extra hearings, time wasted and changes in the original victim statements,” she said.
“One judge, one courtroom, consistently hearing the details of similar cases will only help our entire community in the long run.”