Prosecutors, Victims Lobby to Strengthen State's Domestic Violence Laws

Opponent says tools already exist for prosecutions, supporters say they're not enough

By Andrea Noble
March 4, 2011

When Lauren Berg attempted to leave an abusive boyfriend in 2008, he repeatedly bashed her head against her bathroom wall and nearly choked her unconscious. For the offense he pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, although he faced a first-degree assault charge, and was sentenced to three years' probation.

"As the victim, I did everything the police told me to do, and the second-degree assault [charge] was just a slap on the wrist for him," said Berg, of Baltimore County, while testifying Thursday before both the House and Senate judicial committees in Annapolis in favor of a bill that would specify strangulation and suffocation as a first-degree assault.

Prosecutors and domestic violence advocates testified Thursday in support of several proposed changes they said would strengthen domestic violence laws in the state, including the strangulation bill, Senate Bill 593 and cross-filed House Bill 819.

No Prince George's County officials testified at the hearing, although the county led the state in fiscal 2010 in the number of new protective orders filed in domestic violence cases.

In the Senate hearing, prosecutors from across the state were among the approximately 10 people who testified in favor of the strangulation bill, noting they face difficulties proving the severity of strangulation to judges or juries because the injuries a victim sustains are not always visible or will often heal quickly. A domestic violence prosecutor from Carroll County, senior assistant state's attorney Maria Oesterreicher, said adding strangulation into the legal definition of serious physical injury would help ensure offenders are prosecuted to the fullest extent for the most egregious of attacks.

Berg said the prosecutors who handled her case warned her beforehand that it would be difficult to gain a first-degree assault conviction for strangulation. She believes if strangulation were part of the definition of first-degree assault, her abuser would have been convicted as such and served time in jail. First-degree assault is punishable by up to 25 years in jail while second degree assault is punishable by up to 10 years in jail or up to a $2,500 fine.

Betsy Fox Tolentino, an attorney with the Maryland Office of the Public Defender and the only person who testified against the bill, said prosecutors already have tools at their disposal to help explain typical domestic assault injuries to juries. For example, alternative light source technology can make bruises that are undetectable by the naked eye visible under certain light, she said.

"I believe the current statutory scheme does criminalize strangulation," she said.

The Senate committee also heard testimony on Senate Bill 651 and cross-filed House Bill 820, which would make domestic-violence assault a crime distinguished from other assaults and require mandatory sentences for repeat offenders.

No Prince George's County prosecutors or law enforcement testified at the hearing, although the Prince George's County state's attorney's office and sheriff's office have expressed support of the bill and Sen. Victor Ramirez (D-Dist. 47) of Cheverly sponsored the legislation.

The state public defender's office was opposed to the mandatory sentences proposed in the legislation for repeat offenders, and senators questioned whether mandatory sentences would make it more problematic for prosecutors to get victims to testify against their abusers. Tolentino said because each domestic violence case is so different, the state should not adopt a "one size fits all" approach to dealing with abusers.

Judicial Proceedings Committee chairman Sen. Brian Frosh (D-Dist 16) of Montgomery County also questioned how prosecutors would use the law in instances in which it was uncertain what type of relationship the two people had, such as if they had only gone on one date together when an assault occurred.

Supporters of the legislation emphasized that only those convicted of repeated abuse against the same victim would face increased penalties in the form of mandatory sentences, which range from 30 days to one year depending on the number of previous convictions. If a relationship could not be determined, then a person could still face second-degree assault charges. Under the proposed legislation, first- time domestic violence assault carries the same penalties of a maximum of 10 years in jail and a $2,500 fine.

In domestic violence cases, the level of abuse tends to escalate over time, and locking up a repeat abuser provides a critical window of safety for the victim, said prosecutor Stephen Rosher, who heads the family violence division in the Baltimore County state's attorney's office.

"It gives [the victim] a reprieve from the person who is abusing them," Roscher said. "It gives them a timeout."

Lt. Ronda McCoy, commander of Baltimore City Police Department's family crimes unit, said of the 19,500 domestic violence cases her unit investigated in 2010, 2,621 cases included an abuser with three or more domestic-related crimes in his background.

Neither the house nor senate judicial committees had scheduled a vote on the proposed bills. The committees would need to vote on the bills before they can be sent to the senate or house for a full vote.