Capt. Michelle Richter leads the Domestic Violence Division of the Metro Nashville Police Department.
NASHVILLE, TN – If you grew up with violence you are likely to be that way when you grow up. Early childhood trauma tends to repeat itself in the next generation.
Men often abuse their wives or partners because they never learned about trust and respect in their family growing up. They find it hard to develop healthy relationships when they become adults.
“We live in a culture of abusive power that is given far too much license and yet is hidden in the shadows,” said Dr. Ravi Chandra, distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Changing the culture of “turning a blind eye” is a long term process. For example, think about how long it took to change peoples’ attitudes about smoking.
Domestic violence (DV) is a quiet epidemic in the U.S. that has been around long before COVID-19. And abuse is not always physical. It can be emotional, financial, or psychological.
Victims are invisible because they are abused behind closed doors where nobody can see or intervene. Every nine seconds a woman is assaulted or beaten in the U.S., according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
One in three women and one in four men have been victims of physical violence by an intimate partner. An intimate partner raped 45% of female rape victims and only 34% of people injured by their partner get medical care.
According to the Department of Justice 2000 National Violence Against Women’s survey, just 25% of assaults against women are reported to the police. Each year one in fifteen children are exposed to domestic violence and 90% of them are eyewitnesses.
“Young people who are living in violent homes are six times more likely to attempt suicide,” said Amy Sanchez, director of Break the Cycle.
The same DOJ survey found women between 25 and 34 are the most vulnerable to domestic violence and 85% of DV victims are women. A gun in the house where abuse happens increases the risk of homicide by 500%.
In 2015, The Huffington Post calculated the number of domestic homicides during an 11-year period. It was nearly double the number of soldiers who died in Afghanistan and Iraq during the same period.
Good Housekeeping reported that on a typical day, DV hotlines get more than 20,000 phone calls. DV is pervasive and crosses all income levels, environments, and there is no racial divide. White, Black, and Latinos experience the same rates of violence.
Spouses of law enforcement, however, are at greater risk of violence. Numerous studies have found 24%-40% of police officer families experience DV compared to only 10% in the general population.
Victims are often afraid to leave their abusers. Where would they go, how would they survive, what would happen to the children, would their abuser stalk them if they left? Getting out of a bad situation is fraught with real problems, not the least of which is feeling powerless to change it especially when you are stuck at home during a pandemic.
The first step is to tell someone about the abuse. Victims often blame themselves but luckily there is growing awareness about DV’s prevalence in society at large. There are laws in place, intervention programs, and social services for DV victims at Family Support Center at 610 Murfreesboro Pike, Nashville, TN 37210. The phone number is 615-880-1100. It is sort of a one-stop shop for anything a DV victim might need.
“It takes a collaborative effort between victims, police, courts, various Metro Departments, citizens, clergy, Businesses, athletes/coaches and profit/non-profit agencies in order to be successful in ending the cycle of violence and holding offenders accountable,” said Capt. Michelle Richter of the MNPD Domestic Violence Division. MNPD has a website about domestic violence programs here: https://www.nashville.gov/Portals/0/SiteContent/Police/docs/Domestic%20Violence/WorkplaceViolence.pdf
In November 2014, District Attorney General Glenn Funk created a new division, called Domestic Violence Prosecution Support. It investigates and prosecutes DV cases. Specialized assistant DAs and Victim Witness Coordinators work directly with victims as their cases go through the court system.
The purpose is to provide victims with support and to have MNPD collect handguns from people convicted of domestic assault. For a list of FAQs, the DA’s office has a list of answers here: https://da.nashville.gov/domestic-violence/.
If a person calls 911 and MNPD officers make an arrest, it triggers a process that can be confusing and complicated for DV victims and their partners, especially when there are children involved.
“Let’s say I’m a domestic violence victim. I call the police and my perpetrator is arrested, “ said Mackenzie Britt, director of Victim Witness Services in Davidson County.
Within 24 hours, the victim would get a call from a witness victim coordinator in the District Attorney’s office who would normally invite them down for an in-person meeting with a coordinator and one of the assistant District Attorneys.
But because of the pandemic, they currently talk over the phone. The Jane Crow Advocacy Center, located in the Justice A.A. Birch building, is closed for walk-ins but offers counseling and other support to DV victims over the phone. That number is 615-862-4767.
If someone is arrested for simple assault, and in 2014 there were about 5,000 such cases, more than likely the matter would go before a judge in General Sessions Court.
This is the lowest level court but provides the best options to intervene in an abusive relationship and perhaps salvage it. The judge could order anger management classes for the abuser instead of jail time. A judge could also grant a restraining order.
However, if it’s a more serious charge like homicide, rape, kidnapping, or aggravated assault, the case may go to a grand jury and would normally be heard in Criminal Court.
The pandemic has disrupted court operations at the A.A. Birch Building. “The COVID-19 situation has delayed justice because jury trials can’t be conducted,” said Assistant DA Paul DeWitt. New safety rules have been implemented for Davidson County courts. The following court rules took effect Monday, December 7 and will last at least 90 days to address the current situation in which COVID-19 is spreading at its highest rate thus far.
The details of the Safety Docket are as follows:
- All Criminal Bond dockets will close on December 7 except for the Criminal Bond docket in DV Court (4C) and will remain closed for 90 days. Note: Per the already approved Holiday schedule, the DV Bond docket will be closed from Friday, December 18 until Monday, January 4, at which time it will start back up.
- Effective December 7, the civil dockets in Courtrooms 1A and 1B will be reduced from 75 cases per day to 25 cases per day.
- Effective Monday, January 4, the start time for the civil docket in Courtroom 1A will change from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
- If the District Attorney wants to prosecute and try any particular Criminal Bond Felony case during this 90 day period, they will petition Presiding Judge Coleman. If Judge Coleman approves, the case will be set for a trial in Courtroom 5D, and the judge who is already scheduled to sit in Courtroom 5D, according to the current Judges Docket Schedule, will preside over that hearing. This only applies to Class A, B or C felony cases.
There haven’t been jury trials in Davidson County since March. “I would say it’s a major impact COVID-19 has had on our justice system not being able to resolve cases swiftly and properly with justice to both sides,” DeWitt said.
This is first in a Tribune series examining what goes on with DV cases in Davidson County.
