City refocuses its domestic violence plans

Friday, October 24, 2014, Vol. 38, No. 43
By Sheila Burke | Correspondent

Ruth Freeland, an attorney who helped women obtain orders of protection against domestic abuse in her native Australia, found herself on the other side of issue in Nashville.

In court and facing her abusive American husband, Freeland says it was an unsettling situation.

“I can remember when I went to court here and I was so intimidated, so nervous. I was shaking like a leaf and crying, and just having the abuser 10 feet away from me was a huge deal.”

“I can honestly say that I never really understood how intimidating that experience was until I ended up finding myself in their position later,” says Freeland, who now works as a business development manager for the law firm of Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis

Freeland’s experience is typical, and according to a report issued by Mayor’s Domestic Violence Safety and Accountability Assessment, the Nashville justice system was often too confusing, alienating, and in some cases, downright hostile to victims. It was a stunning downfall for a city that was once hailed by President Bill Clinton as being a model for the nation in domestic violence enforcement.

As Nashville and its mayor considered reforms, domestic violence emerged as a national issue with Tennessee at the forefront, ranked 10th worst among the states in the annual, “When Men Murder Women,’’ report by the Violence Policy Center.

Tackling domestic violence issues prompted Nashville to create its first-ever domestic violence court that began hearing cases last month.

And, the opening of Nashville’s Jean Crowe Advocacy Center for victims of domestic violence is being hailed as one of the key reforms. “One of the things we wanted to create was an advocacy center, a center that will assist victims to walk in for any domestic-related purpose, including ex-parte protection orders,” Nashville Mayor Karl Dean says.

“It’s a way for individuals to meet with a district attorney without having to stand in line in General Sessions Court, in open court. It allows for privacy. It allows the advocates to meet with witnesses and children, not just to talk about the facts of the specific case, but to get to the heart of the problem, the whole person.”

Police are also sending out warning letters to people who have had orders of protection issued against them letting them know they are watching abusers. Metro has beefed up its number of caseworkers and domestic violence counselors and added new specialized prosecutors. Better training is in the works for police, prosecutors, judges and 911 dispatchers.

The mayor’s office has hired six advocates to work in the center to help the victims in the center.

The 3,300-square foot facility officially opened last month in the Ben West Building, which is connected to the Justice A.A. Birch courthouse. It has already served more than 600 people, Dean says.

The opening of the center meets 14 of the 55 recommendations of the Mayor’s Domestic Violence Safety and Accountability Assessment. That 185-page report offered some sobering critiques of how the city handles domestic violence.

“I think from a victim’s point of view it really does give women a safe place to go and a more supportive place to go, which I hope increases the number of women who are willing to go to court and testify,” says Patricia Glaser Shea, president and CEO of YWCA of Nashville and Middle Tennessee.

The report found that in some cases accused batterers would sit directly behind their victims in court and text them or stare at them, giving either intimidating or sorrowful looks that went unnoticed by court personnel.

“A look can say a thousand words and be almost more powerful,” Shea adds.

Victims can be flooded with reminders of the batterers’ threats to hurt them, their family members or their pets. That’s why it’s important that they have support, she says.

The impetus for the center came when Davidson County Circuit Court Judge Philip Smith and Nashville attorney Jean Crowe told the mayor the city needed to do a better job with domestic violence cases, Dean says.

Crowe, who is a longtime domestic violence advocate, spent more than 30 years as an attorney with Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee. Much of her time at Legal Aid was spent representing victims of domestic violence.

Crowe’s and Smith’s concerns about weaknesses in the system prompted the mayor to ask for a complete assessment of the entire system. The result was a 100-person task force composed of police, attorneys, advocates and others who spent more than a year taking a look at what happens with victims between the time 911 is called until after the courts become involved.

The findings depicted a criminal justice system where police, judges and prosecutors sometimes either blamed victims or minimized their suffering. It found that sometimes police took far too long to respond to domestic violence calls and judges were all too frequently waiving a mandatory 12-hour jail hold designed to keep batterers locked up so they can cool off.

Dean was asked why Metro had fallen from being a model city for domestic violence enforcement in the Clinton era.

“We stopped giving it the special attention it was receiving in the ‘90s and this is sort of an effort to place more of a particular focus on it.”

So far, surveys show the center is making a big difference in helping victims feel comfortable and supported, says Diane Lance, a special counsel to the mayor who is coordinating efforts around Dean’s mission to improve the response to domestic violence.

Of the 76 victims surveyed in the month of September, 53 percent reported feeling nervous before coming to the center, but only 5 percent reported feeling nervous after receiving services, figures provided by the mayor’s office show. The surveys also found 13 percent of victims felt supported before coming to the center, but that figure rose to 72 percent after they left the center.