Some good, bad news for victims

It was a week of good news and bad news for the groups that advocate for victims of domestic abuse in Maine.

On Monday, the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence was encouraged to learn that the Legislature appears eager to pass a bill authorizing judges to bar alleged abusers from possessing firearms or other dangerous weapons if they pose a heightened risk to their victims after temporary protection orders have been issued.

That was indeed good news, and long overdue for a state in which domestic violence accounted for half of the 141 murders committed from 1996 through 2001.

The bad news came on Thursday, however, with word that six of the seven special assistant district attorneys hired in 2000 to prosecute domestic abusers could lose their jobs by June because of state budget cuts.

Another seven who specialize in juvenile cases could also be eliminated in October.

“Our family protection unit is on the verge of being wiped out,” said Evert Fowle, the district attorney for Somerset and Kennebec counties.

Lyn Carter, group coordinator for the Bangor-based domestic violence program called Spruce Run, said the loss of the special prosecutors has the potential to severely impair the aggressive legal focus that these often-complicated domestic violence cases require.

“We do understand that budget cuts have to be made somewhere in these tough economic times, and no one wants them to come from their own pockets,” Carter said. “But our overall regret would be that if the state lost the expertise of these special assistant district attorneys, then we could see more plea-bargaining arrangements being made. And it would be awfully sad to have to tell a victim of domestic violence that the abuser got only a fine and no jail time in the deal.”

Carter said the impact in Penobscot and Piscataquis counties, though significant, could be less severe than in other regions because District Attorney Christopher Almy has always made it a point to spread the domestic violence caseload among his assistant prosecutors.

“The assistant district attorneys here share those responsibilities with the one person who specializes in domestic violence,” Carter said. “So if we have to lose that one specialty position, as damaging as that would be, at least the other prosecutors have experience and are well-informed in this kind of work. The DA’s office here has always been a strong supporter of the work we do at Spruce Run.”

Yet that might not be the case in other regions of Maine, as Attorney General Steven Rowe pointed out to a gathering of domestic violence workers recently. He said that in certain southern Maine districts, where assistant DAs handle as many as 2,500 cases a year, the specialty prosecutors may be responsible for as many as 500 domestic violence cases.

With the loss of the special prosecutor, Spruce Run’s Carter said, the assistant DAs might not be able to devote sufficient time and energy to the abuse cases added to their already burdensome workload and therefore may be forced to use plea bargaining as an expedient measure.

“That would send the wrong messages, both to the abusers and to the victims,” said Carter, whose organization receives an average of 1,200 requests for help on its hot line each year and provides shelter for as many as 60 families. “It would tell batterers that there are no real serious criminal consequences to their actions, and therefore no compelling need to change their violent behavior.”

The message to abuse victims, Carter said, might well be that their own communities have let them down, and that all the talk in the last few years about tackling “Maine’s public enemy No. 1” means little in the end when their elected leaders choose not to put their money where their mouth is.

“We know that the state’s budget crisis impacts everyone, and that there are money issues that have to be resolved somehow,” Carter said. “But it would be a shame if the cuts affected the criminal justice response that is so critical if victims of domestic violence are to return safely to society.”