Downtown Memphis—
FAST FACTS:
- First Six Months of '09 Domestic Violence Aggravated Assaults up 10 Percent
- Victims Forced to See Multiple Judges, Bailiffs, Courtrooms
- New Single Location Makes Prosecution Easier, say Experts
Dennis.turner@wreg.com
(Memphis 9/1/2009) Tennessee law states if police show up at a domestic violence scene, they have to leave with somebody in the back of the squad car.
That makes for a lot of very emotional cases and until now, they've been heard in various courtrooms, but no longer.
Shelby County already has a specialized Drug Court. It's long had a special environmental court. Now It has a new Domestic Violence Court in an effort to tackle a growing problem.
The domestic violence cases we most often hear about involve injury or death, as in the case of Charlene Gaither whose dismembered body was found in the Coldwater River.
Linda Seymour escaped that fate, but had a tough time seeing her case through Shelby County's Justice system, "So often you come and you know what you're going to say, you know what you need to tell, by the time you get here you 're going one place you may be someplace else the next time."
Prosecutors say domestic violence keeps rising, already up 10 percent in the first six months of this year over last. "I've worked with a lot of these people over the years and it is a problem we cannot arrest our way out of," said Deputy Chief Joe Scott of the Memphis Police Department.
That's because when police arrive, somebody goes to jail. That's the law, and it can also make for chaos in the courtroom. "I guess they could wind up on Jerry Springer," said Judge Lee Wilson, who vows it won't happen in his new Domestic Violence Court.
"We're gonna try to weed out these cases that do not need to be here and handle the cases that need our attention," said Wilson who aims to see through false accusations, and prosecute real offenders, the way judges of other specialty courts do.
"They develop an intimate knowledge of such matters and there's a consistency in how they handle the cases which I think is good for everybody involved," said Shelby County District Attorney General Bill Gibbons.
And victims like Linda Seymour couldn't agree more. "I have to say the criminal justice system here, the police department domestic violence they saved my life," she said.
And she adds this new Domestic Violence court here may well save the lives and sanity of future victims.
