ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, January 4, 1997 TAG: 9701060064
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: FINCASTLE
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
SHERIFF'S OFFICE INVESTIGATOR Beth Musselwhite seems the natural choice to become Botetourt County's first domestic violence specialist.
Beth Musselwhite is not, by her own assessment, what you'd call a crusader against domestic violence.
"I'm not an activist. I just think no woman should have to go through this," she said, holding up two snapshots of a recent beating victim in Botetourt County. In the pictures, the woman is lying in a hospital bed. Her face is washed out; her eyes are black, swollen to mere slits.
Musselwhite may not be a crusader, but as the first investigator to specialize in domestic violence for the Botetourt County Sheriff's Office, she intends to help women learn they don't have to endure such beatings.
The Sheriff's Office just landed a $27,000 grant from V-STOP, a program to stop violence against women. The federal money, allocated by the Virginia Justice Services Board, will fund the position. The county's supervisors still have to approve the new job, but Sheriff Reed Kelly doesn't anticipate any problems.
Musselwhite sees her role as more than just investigator. She has to provide support for the victim.
"When they get in the court system, oftentimes we'll lose them," she said. "If they don't have a support system there, they wind up falling back into the same situation again. They wind up back at 'Oh, I can't live without you.'''
That's a scenario Musselwhite, 32, is more familiar with than she'd like to be. In the three years she's been an investigator - and the only woman among the county's detectives - she's handled plenty of beating cases.
To Musselwhite, the most frustrating part of her job - and the most rewarding - is getting women "over the hump from dependency," convincing victims of their self-worth, and showing them that despite their perceptions, they don't deserve the beatings they endure.
Otherwise, women tend to drop the charges and move back in with their spouses or boyfriends.
Cases of domestic violence have become more frequent and more severe of late in Botetourt, Kelly said. Two cases in recent months have been particularly savage, with both victims being hospitalized.
In one, Shane Dennis Moorman of Goodview is awaiting trial on charges of kidnapping and beating his girlfriend in her Troutville home two months ago.
"I've worked in Miami and other places, and I've seen a lot of beatings, but I've never seen one that bad," Deputy Jeff Stritesky said in November.
In the other case, a man has been charged, but no arrest has been made.
Kelly said he applied for the grant because his department needed one person to specialize in these kinds of cases, to have the expertise to see them through prosecution.
Musselwhite was the obvious choice. After 10 years as a dispatcher, she spent only two years as a road deputy before being promoted to investigator.
"It became clear quickly that she was real astute," Kelly said. And she had a knack for dealing with women and children who had been abused. Those cases always seemed to land on her desk.
``[Victims] just instantly trust her, and they know it's genuine," Kelly said.
As part of her new job, Musselwhite will continue handling the county's sexual assault cases. Victims of rape and physical abuse are not all that different in at least one respect, Musselwhite said.
"They're all afraid, and they're all afraid of one perpetrator," she said. And in both kinds of cases, a big part of Musselwhite's role will be to make sure the victim feels safe and confident, and continues with the prosecution.
"Without the victim in these cases, we don't have a case," she said. "Then we all lose."
LENGTH: Medium: 71 linesby CNB