Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 8, 1995                   TAG: 9501090066
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                 LENGTH: Medium

COMMISSION STUDIES WAYS TO PREVENT FAMILY VIOLENCE

Judy Haslacker of Luray fought back tears Friday as she talked to the Commission on Family Violence Prevention.

``My husband physically, sexually and mentally abused me for over a year and a half,'' Haslacker said. ``I'm very angry with the law-enforcement agencies in Page County. The times I went, I got no progress.''

Michael Haslacker was sentenced last year to five years in prison on a conviction of felonious sexual penetration by an inanimate object, a Page County Circuit Court clerk said Friday. He also was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $2,500 for assault and battery.

``Michael promised me before he was locked up that he would come and get me,'' Judy Haslacker said. ``I have seen him stalk his first wife. He battered her for 12 years. Michael said he would kill me when he gets out, and he will keep that promise.''

Libby Boyd, of the Page County women's advocacy group Choices, told the panelists they should help see that the laws are enforced.

``Law-enforcement officers are going to homes and telling women to make up,'' Boyd said.

Detective Mike Coker of the Portsmouth Police Department said police and others must stop blaming the victims.

```Why does she stay if it's so bad?' That's the first question we ask when we get on the scene,'' Coker said.

``Police officers say, `They're going to be back together anyway.' Even the Supreme Court has said `You're way out of line if you say that.'''

There ``must be a commitment across the board - police, courts, magistrates, substance-abuse'' counselors, Coker said.

Stalking is another problem in which perceptions need to be changed, Coker said.

The state's stalking law makes it a misdemeanor to engage in conduct ``with the intent to place, or with the knowledge that the conduct places'' another person in reasonable fear of death or injury. The maximum penalty is six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Coker, who has trained police officers across the state in dealing with domestic violence, said police are the first line of defense for domestic violence victims. He said they need more training.

In response to his remarks, the commission narrowly approved a new subcommittee focusing on law enforcement, with Attorney General Jim Gilmore as its chairman.

Coker also called for more training of magistrates. Others also called for more training for judges in dealing with domestic-violence victims.

Some victims told the panel that judges had been indifferent to their plights.

State Supreme Court Chief Justice Harry Carrico, a commission member, said there was no specific training on domestic violence for judges.

Cheryl Bonneville, who works with battered women and their batterers in Norfolk, said abusers can come across as bright, charming people, able to convince counselors they are cured of abusive tendencies when they are not. Longer-lasting programs are needed to monitor and counsel abusers, she said.