Domestic Abuse Training Session Focuses on Strangulation

By Staci Parks
November 2, 2010

Ouachita’s Family Justice Center, partnering with the Family Justice Center Alliance, provided a free, daylong training session geared toward investigating and prosecuting domestic violence cases for law enforcement agencies and prosecutors.

Michael Agnew, the lead domestic violence detective with the Fresno Police Department in Fresno, Calif., and Timothy E. Campen, deputy district attorney for the San Diego District Attorney’s Office, served as the session’s speakers, emphasizing the severity of strangulation cases.

Campen, who has worked for the San Diego Family Justice Center since its inception, noted the strides Louisiana has taken in making strangulation a felony. Strangulation is outlined in RS 14:35.3, the state’s domestic abuse battery law.

“I applaud Louisiana in taking such a forward step in recognizing the severity of strangulation,” he said. “(Strangulation) is a very personal way of killing someone. It’s an intense way of exhibiting control.”

Campen said discussions such as this help law enforcement and prosecutors know what to look for and collect when dealing with similar cases.

“The marks may not be visible,” he said. “It may be subtle.”

The seminar also covered identifying the primary-predominant aggressor and dealing with witness intimidation.

Lt. Renee Smith, domestic violence unit commander at the Family Justice Center, said center officials evaluate issues they feel are necessary for further focus and puts them at the forefront for the center’s grant-funded training sessions such as this one.

She said more than 21 law enforcement agencies were represented and noted that all in attendance were there on their own time.

Smith explained that it is much more cost efficient to bring speakers to Ouachita Parish instead of sending people to a conference.

The Family Justice Center, described as the area’s “one-stop center offering free, confidential services for those dealing with domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking,” opened in October 2005 and came from a Department of Justice initiative to pilot similar centers around the country.

The Ouachita Parish Family Justice Center was one of the initial 15 opened. The San Diego center was the first. There are now 60 centers worldwide.

Campen said studies have shown that the involvement of the criminal justice system is the leading and primary means of breaking the domestic violence cycle.

“In combination with victim services, it’s the criminal justice system that gets the ball rolling,” he said. “In order to prosecute these cases we have to hold these offenders accountable and provide victims with the help they need. There’s a myth that in domestic violence cases the couple will not get back together, but in reality it’s just the opposite.

It’s unrealistic to think that the goal is to separate people. The desire to keep families together is intense.”