City may stop prosecuting domestic violence
Kari Ann Rinker, state coordinator for NOW, urged Commissioners Shelly Buhler, Ted Ensley and Mary Thomas to meet with the Topeka City Council and Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor in an effort to resolve the situation. topeka domestic violence, Topeka, Kansas, topeka domestic violence save money, topeka YMCA afraid for their safety,
Rinker suggested officials “try to reach a short-term solution through the old-fashioned art of compromise.”
After Buhler responded that the decision not to prosecute those cases rested solely with Taylor, Rinker replied, “To me, all of you have some amount of blame here.”
Speaking to commissioners near the end of their morning meeting, Rinker expressed anger that Topeka was, to her knowledge, the only city making “national headlines” for a failure to prosecute those who commit domestic battery.
Taylor announced Sept. 8 he would no longer prosecute misdemeanors committed in Topeka, including misdemeanor domestic batteries. Taylor said he could no longer afford to do so after commissioners approved a 2012 budget cutting the district attorney’s budget for 2012 by 10 percent, or $347,765, from its 2011 amount of $3,477,651.
Taylor had announced before commissioners finalized the reduction in August that it would force him to stop prosecuting domestic batteries committed in Topeka. He indicated his move would require the Topeka city attorney’s office to begin prosecuting those crimes. The city says it lacks the resources to prosecute the cases.
Topeka police Capt. Brian Desch said Wednesday that 18 arrests had been made in Topeka in connection with misdemeanor domestic battery since Sept. 8, but all of those taken into custody were released from the Shawnee County Jail after charges weren’t filed.
The city council plans Tuesday to consider repealing the part of the city code that bans domestic battery, which the city attorney’s office says would require Taylor to again begin prosecuting domestic batteries committed in Topeka.
Rinker told commissioners that while Councilwoman Sylvia Ortiz said last month that council members needed to “man up” and let commissioners know they won’t tolerate a continued lack of domestic battery prosecution, “I’m here to ‘woman up’ to this body.”
Rinker said she had contacted Councilwoman Karen Hiller, who suggested Rinker’s anger would better be directed at Taylor.
Rinker said she then talked to Dakota Loomis, spokesman for Taylor, who said the blame was “best placed” on the county commission for its failure to adequately fund Taylor’s office.
Rinker expressed frustration about the “finger-pointing and blaming,” saying it reminded her of being in the middle of scuffles between her 5-year-old twin daughters.
Rinker showed commissioners a photograph of Jana Mackey, a Lawrence woman who served as a lobbyist for NOW before being murdered in 2008 by her former boyfriend, who had a history of domestic violence against a previous girlfriend.
Rinker asked, “What would happen if someone else is released and someone dies like Jana?”
Buhler said the commission lacks the authority to set priorities for the district attorney’s office. She said Taylor’s office was one of several county offices and departments that saw significant cuts to their budgets.
Ensley said the budget cut for Taylor’s office wouldn’t take effect until Jan. 1, yet Taylor has already stopped prosecuting the city misdemeanors. He said Taylor should have continued prosecuting those cases until the end of this year and given commissioners time “to work things out.”
Taylor said last month he had ceased handling city misdemeanors because it takes six months to a year for a misdemeanor case to work its way through the court. He said he was trying to clear the 498 unresolved city misdemeanor cases from the books so he didn’t have to hand over boxes of cases to the city.
Rinker told commissioners Taylor “holds a great deal of responsibility for this situation.”
She said someone from her organization — perhaps Mackey’s parents, Curt and Christie Brungardt — would speak on the matter at Tuesday’s council meeting.
Source:cjonline
