ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 7, 1996 TAG: 9612090031
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
Law officers and military personnel who have been convicted of domestic violence are breaking a new federal law every time they pick up a gun.
With federal, state and local law officers totaling about 700,000, and with 1.2 million Americans serving in the military, some criminal justice experts say the lawbreakers could number in the thousands.
The new law, tucked into a federal spending bill that went into effect Sept.30, applies to anyone convicted of a misdemeanor for using or attempting to use physical force on an intimate partner or a family member. The penalty is up to 10 years in prison and up to $250,000 fine.
It gives no exemption to the military or law officers, for most of whom a gun is a job requirement. In most states, crimes of domestic violence are prosecuted as misdemeanors.
The law applies equally to private citizens and to FBI and Treasury agents, the Secret Service and U.S. marshals, jail guards and state troopers, housing police and campus security, and every local police officer from chiefs to police on the beat.
Spot checks by The Associated Press found many law enforcement agencies still unaware of the law this week. This, despite an open letter to all local and state law enforcement officials on Nov. 26 from John Magaw, director of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Officers convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor, Magaw advised, ``must immediately dispose of all firearms and ammunition in their possession.''
On Friday, the Justice Department told its agency chiefs that all their law enforcement employees authorized to possess firearms must immediately return their weapons to their supervisor if they have a conviction.
All agents in the department, including FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration agents, will get a document they must sign within 10 days stating they were never convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, said Gregory King, a department spokesman. Lying on that form will be a federal crime.
Few agencies, it seems, know how many of their employees have been found guilty of domestic violence misdemeanors.
``It isn't something you can just look up. Often, misdemeanor convictions are not listed on rap sheets,'' King said.
Some law enforcement agencies are simply hoping the guilty will come forward and turn in their weapons.
In Denver, Officer Alex Woods Jr., convicted last year of assaulting his girlfriend, was one of two officers who surrendered their guns Monday.
Woods, 25, turned his three handguns and a shotgun over to his father, homicide Detective Alex Woods Sr., and was temporarily assigned to working with equipment.
The young officer didn't return a reporter's phone call. His father said victims will be fearful of reporting domestic violence when it might cost their spouses their jobs.
The younger Woods' former girlfriend, Mary Taylor, 28, said from her home in Aurora, Colo., she's glad the law was enacted.
``It's a step in the right direction for domestic violence,'' she said. ``It's not going to stop it, but it's going to prevent people at least from being shot.''
Around the country, other police departments say they are beginning to act. In Los Angeles, five sheriff's deputies have been disarmed; in Nashville, Tenn., one officer's case is being reviewed.
Other agencies, including the Chicago Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety, said none of their officers would be affected.
One question is what will happen to law enforcement officers and soldiers who can no longer carry guns.
The Pentagon says it is waiting for advice from the Justice Department on how to apply the law.
Michigan State University Professor David Carter, an expert on police and a former patrolman in Kansas City, Mo., said he has talked about the new law with police chiefs around the country.
``Most of them were saying, `If we only have two or three people, we can reassign them, but if I have more than that, I don't know what I'll do,''' Carter said.
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