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Violence law gives state bigger stick But victims still recant, and kids get used By CHRIS BRISTOL The boy was hysterical, telling the 911 operator that his mom was being attacked by her boyfriend. The man was still punching her in the face when officers arrived. Because the boy saw what happened, Jackson County prosecutors accused the man of violating a relatively new Oregon law that makes misdemeanor domestic assault a felony when children witness it. The law also applies to repeat offenders. Unfortunately, the victim soon began recanting her statement to the police. Then she began pressuring her son to recant, too. The 12-year-old initially testified before a grand jury, but she refused to bring him to court for trial. Eventually the boyfriend pleaded guilty a reduced charge and got eight months in jail. He had just gotten out of prison for attempted murder. Based on his record, he deserved more, says Deputy District Attorney Terry Smith. Without the boy's testimony, however, the felony was difficult to prove. The first officer through the door was so intent on stopping the attack he couldn't swear the boy was in the room. Smith says she has mixed feelings about the law, which took effect just over a year ago. Victims are usually women, and an arrest often puts them under great financial and emotional strain. "We've always had problems with victims trying to recant" their statements, she says. "Now that pressure is being placed on children. They become pawns." Smith, who has handled most of the county's domestic violence cases since the law hit the books, recounted a recent case in which the victim called one day and put her child on the phone. "I could hear the mother in the background coaching the child to say it didn't happen," she says. "It was really depressing." The law, based on a similar statute in California, was designed by lawmakers to stop the cycle of violence and reflects mainstream American society's growing intolerance of domestic abuse as a lamentable but immutable "fact" of life. How effective it is remains to be seen. Smith says she certainly supports the law as a statement, but has doubts about whether the threat of a felony conviction is enough to stop abusers. "I'd like to say it deters behavior, but I don't think it does," she says. "People who act this way typically won't stop without some kind of intervention program." Other domestic violence experts in Medford also support the law in concept. Like Smith, they say it is too soon to tell whether it will make a difference. "It's made a strong statement," says Karen Darling, manager of Asante's domestic violence programs and a member of the Governor's Council on Domestic Violence. "When I give a workshop, people go, `Yes, it's about time.' So the community knows this is a serious crime." How serious? Depending on the offender's criminal history, a conviction for felony domestic assault can result in a sentence of up to 2 years in prison. Misdemeanor assault sentences range from probation to one year in jail. Regardless, everybody has to undergo a 26-week course known as Batterers Reeducation. Richard Lewis, clinical supervisor of outpatient programs for the drug treatment agency OnTrack, says in his experience many of the men who are required to undergo counseling for domestic violence learn about the new law for the first time in group sessions. Most have been convicted of misdemeanor domestic assaults. "I know it's a big eye-opener in group sessions," he says. "Nobody wants to write `felony' on job applications. "I'm not sure about deterrence," he adds. "So far, I haven't seen an overwhelming number of felonies going through." In the law's first year on the books, hard figures on the number of felony domestic assault cases are hard to come by. The state keeps records on "domestic incidents" -- ranging in severity from homicide and rape to more petty disturbances such as trespassing and vandalism -- but not prosecutions and convictions. These statistics are forwarded to the FBI for use in a national database and are not intended for use to track specific charges. In Jackson County, prosecutors last year handled 859 cases involving domestic violence and threats. Lynette Milligan, a victim's advocate in the DA's office and unofficial statistician, estimated that 150 to 180 of those were for felony fourth-degree assault. So far, she says, the major effect of the law has been the leverage it gives prosecutors to force plea bargains. She estimated the ratio of male defendants to females at 9 to 1. The ratio is even higher for felony assaults, she adds. She believes the law has already made a dent in the number of repeat offenders. But she's not sure. "I think we're going to need to see a three- to five-year period of time go by before we know how this affects the repeat offenders," she says. "And that's what the law is aimed at." Until recently, repeat offenders meant repeat victims. The law applied only to people who assault the same victim again. "Unfortunately," says Smith, "we see a lot of guys who have lots of assault convictions, but they just keep moving on. It's always the next girlfriend, the next wife." For that very reason, the 1999 state Legislature recently amended the law. Now the law can be used against people with more than three convictions for domestic assault, regardless of whether the victim is the same. The amended version of the law is set to go into effect Oct. 23. Gov. John Kitzhaber is expected to sign it soon. The other focus of the law is children, of course. According to the National Institute of Justice, children who grow up in abusive homes are more than 1,000 times more likely to become abusers or the victims of abusers. "Children are profoundly damaged by living in a home with domestic violence," says Darling. "Even a fetus can be affected." Lewis says that, as a general rule, three-quarters of the men in his group sessions have seen domestic violence as children. He knows, because he often asks for a show of hands. "You can scoff at statistics all you want," he says, "but that's one statistic I can prove." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA