ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 24, 1997 TAG: 9702240001
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
THOSE WHO DEAL with violence in the family are putting together a step-by-step manual to seal any cracks in the system.
A woman is beaten. Her left eye is blackened, her cheeks bruised.
She dials 911. Two police officers arrive at her home and talk separately, privately, with the woman - and her husband. They check for evidence of a crime - broken items in the home, injuries to the woman and her husband - and determine who might have committed a crime.
The officers arrest the husband.
They tell the woman about services available to her - the Turning Point, which is the Salvation Army's shelter in Southwest Roanoke for battered women and their children, and the Women's Resource Center, a Total Action Against Poverty counseling and advocacy program for abused women and their children.
The officers talk the woman through the process, tell her what will happen now that her husband has been arrested, what she can expect once the case reaches court. They tell her she can get an emergency protective order for 72 hours and that it can be extended upon her request.
Fearing for her safety, the woman goes to the Turning Point. The shelter gives her food, medical attention, support, comfort.
Later, an assistant commonwealth's attorney meets with the woman and discusses the incident, learning about her relationship with her husband. When the case goes to court, the attorney is present, representing the woman.
The husband is found guilty. As part of his sentence, a judge orders him to attend counseling sessions offered by Family Service of Roanoke Valley. The husband complies, completing 13 of Family Service's ``Men Ending Domestic Violence'' sessions.
This is merely a fictional bare-bones example of steps taken in a domestic violence case in the Roanoke area. It is how the system ought to work, according to those who work within the system.
But the system can break down. Too much time will pass between the issuance of a protective order and the actual serving of the order. Or a prosecutor won't have talked to a victim before the trial. Or a judge will allow a charge to be dropped without question.
There is no room for cracks in the system, said Ellen Brown, director of the Women's Resource Center - not at such a dangerous time, when people need the most support, the most intervention.
Brown is a member of the Family Violence Coordinating Council, a standing committee of Roanoke's Council of Community Services that has worked for three years to seal those cracks.
The result is the Domestic Violence Protocol, a proposed procedural manual that coordinates all front-line services for victims of domestic violence - nearly always women - and their abusers.
The document outlines policies and procedures that should be followed from the time a victim calls police, to prosecution of an offense in court, to an abuser's participation in group counseling sessions.
``The goal was to have a comprehensive document so that all of us have a working knowledge of each other and coordinate with each other,'' Brown said.
``The secondary goal was for accountability, that all front-line people who deal with [domestic violence] be accountable with their own policy. We needed to put something in writing and try to get everybody on the same team.''
The manual is about 95 percent complete, Brown said. On Feb. 13, the coordinating council - consisting of people who work with victims and abusers, including law enforcement officers, prosecutors, counselors and judges - decided that completing the protocol and putting it to work would be a priority this year.
The Virginia Commission on Family Violence Prevention has encouraged the creation of committees to coordinate efficient judicial system response to family violence. And a 1993 study on domestic violence policies in law enforcement agencies by the state Department of Criminal Justice Services recommended that communities form an interagency committee to study a coordinated approach to handling domestic violence.
Deborah Downing, victim services analyst for the department, said an estimated 30 such committees exist in Virginia.
The committees enable communities to ``maximize resources available at the local level, instead of four or five parts of the system providing services independently and sometimes to the same families and individuals,'' Downing said. ``And when they come together and work collaboratively, it reduces conflict and increases the quality of services to victims.''
Lt. Stacy Clark, with the Salem Police Department, said people who work with domestic violence cases - many of them, like him, members of the coordinating council - understand their own obligations and what each needs to do in cases of domestic violence.
But collectively, the right hand doesn't always know what the left hand is doing, Clark said.
The protocol ``doesn't change what people were doing before,'' he said. ``But the biggest advantage is it gives people an opportunity to understand the system more clearly, understand the steps involved with the system.
``Beforehand, even people involved with this were confused about what each organization might do or what they could do or how their hands were tied.''
Roanoke County Juvenile Court Judge Philip Trompeter hears the horror stories of how the system has failed victims of domestic violence. He said he could offer ``a thousand examples.''
``That's the insidious part of what can happen and only hurts these women and their families,'' said Trompeter, a member of the coordinating council. ``I'm not indicting anyone, not pointing any fingers. I would like to think [the Domestic Violence Protocol] is the first step.''
But to Trompeter, the only true cure to what ails the system would be a ``domestic violence against women unit'' with a full-time prosecutor devoting all of his or her time to domestic violence cases. Investigators, victim/witness coordinators who help crime victims once they've entered the criminal justice system and police officers who are specially trained in handling domestic violence incidents, would provide support.
``Protocols may be appropriate,'' Trompeter said. ``But ultimately we need someone directing the show. We have some fabulous resources in place. But it doesn't matter how good they are, these women need to be surrounded by the full circle.
``It's really important that we support the other and respect other professionals for what the other is doing, not just try to scratch our heads and wonder `What happened here? I did my job. Why didn't everyone else?'''
But Trompeter said he sees a lot of resistance to a ``unit'' concept. It may be viewed as too radical, or ``an admission that we're not doing what we need to do,'' he said.
The Council of Community Services last year received $17,000 from V-STOP, a program to stop violence against women, to fund a part-time staff position for the coordinating council. The federal money is allocated through the state Department of Criminal Justice Services.
The coordinating council has needed staff support badly, said Raleigh Campbell, executive director of the Council of Community Services. The part-time employee will help the coordinating council carry out its mission of supporting services to families that confront domestic violence - a mission that lately has focused on the protocol, he said.
``It's not so much that there are a lot of things wrong as much as we have to keep changing with current times,'' Campbell said. ``We want to encourage all sectors to work together for the benefit of the client. It's a matter of fine-tuning.''
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