When Kywanda Butcher asked a Civil District Court judge for a protective order against her ex-boyfriend, Keith Tate, in April, she outlined in chilling detail why she believed he posed a danger.
Just a few weeks earlier, Butcher wrote, Tate had broken into her house. He hid in her bedroom and then attacked -- choking her, forcing her to have sex and then to accompany him to the hospital to treat an arm he cut while breaking one of her windows, Butcher wrote in her petition.
It wasn't the first time he'd hurt her or stalked her, she explained. Previously, he'd threatened "that he'll take it to the next step," she wrote. "Threatening to kill me, to take my life."
New Orleans police believe Tate made good on those threats on Oct. 10, when he allegedly broke into her home and fatally shot her and her 13-year-old son, Au'Sha Butcher. They arrested Tate, 45, on Saturday, booking him with two counts of first-degree murder. Kerry Cuccia, Tate's attorney, said it would be inappropriate for him to comment before he has fully investigated the matter.
The case raises troubling questions about the criminal justice system's ability to manage a suspect with a history of domestic-violence arrests before he takes a life -- or to take basic measures to safeguard a victim who sought help, if fleetingly. Butcher sought assistance not only from the civil court but from the New Orleans Police Department, although the nature of her interaction with police is not clear.
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Keith Tate was booked in the deaths of his ex-girlfriend and her son.
During the past of couple years, New Orleans police have tried to work more closely with other parts of the justice systems to help domestic-violence victims. For example, the four detectives who specialize in such cases work closely with the New Orleans Family Justice Center, which brings together service providers with law enforcement to coordinate assistance.
Still, the U.S. Department of Justice in its March 2011 report about the NOPD found significant flaws in the agency's response to domestic violence. While the NOPD hasn't increased the number of detectives assigned to the domestic-violence unit, as suggested by the Justice Department, Superintendent Ronal Serpas in a statement said the unit is now focusing on felony cases, such as those that include strangulation. The NOPD has also beefed up training, he said.
'We've missed the boat'
Mary Claire Landry, executive director of the Family Justice Center, said her organization is trying to figure out why Butcher's case wasn't flagged for more attention after she filed for a protective order.
Because she mentioned choking -- which, according to research, signals heightened danger -- Butcher should have received extra attention, Landry said. However, the justice center has no record of working with her.
"That is the whole goal, to prevent exactly these kind of situations and identify those most in danger," Landry said.
Landry said she believes the new, coordinated system is saving lives. But deaths like Butcher's show that it's still far from perfect, she said.
Butcher was granted a temporary restraining order by Judge Paula Brown in April. That order, however, was never successfully served on Tate, and Butcher didn't return to court on April 25 to make the order permanent, so Brown dismissed the case.
Butcher, 36, also reached out to police last spring. In her request for a protective order, Butcher said the attack occurred on March 12, and she alerted police. But she suggested she was brushed off.
"I told police after, and the officer told me I should have called at the house. I told him I couldn't. My life was being threatened," she wrote.
Municipal Court records indicate Butcher spoke to NOPD officer Terry Thomas on March 13. That night, a warrant was put out for Tate's arrest on a charge of criminal damage to property, as Butcher and her friend Clifton McBride reported that Tate poured paint on McBride's car.
Homicide Detective Orlando Matthews, who investigated Butcher's murder, said Thomas' March 13 report doesn't mention an assault.
Tate was later arrested for the vandalism charge on April 17 at Butcher's house, although what brought police to the home on Annette Street is not clear from court records. Because he was never served with the restraining order, Tate was not booked with having violated it. The vandalism case was dismissed in May, court records show.
"In this situation, what is showing up in the criminal justice system is the simple criminal damage to property," Landry said. "Somehow, we've missed the boat on what was the serious case."
After Tate's arrest on Saturday, Serpas said in a news release that the criminal justice system had failed to adequately punish Tate, despite a history of arrests. "Criminals are not specialists, they're generalists. Yesterday's armed robber can be tomorrow's murderer," Serpas said in the statement.
History of domestic violence
But a closer look at Tate's criminal history shows that he is more specialist than generalist, and his specialty is domestic violence. For example, Tate was arrested twice in 2000 for batteries, including a simple battery flagged as "domestic" in the Orleans Parish sheriff's online system. In the other case, a more serious second-degree battery charge, Tate was also booked with violating a protective order, plus battery of a police officer and simple escape. After Tate was arrested for forcible rape in April 2005, the court issued a "domestic stay-away order."
In a case that presaged the attack in March of this year, Tate was arrested in 2009 in St. Bernard Parish for aggravated burglary and kidnapping. Col. John Doran, chief of detectives for the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office, said Tate broke into Butcher's Arabi home, took one of her kitchen knives, and hid in her son's bedroom. When she came home, he threatened her with the knife, including poking her with it, but didn't break the skin. She told Tate she had to pick up her son at her sister's house in Terrytown. She said he could come if he put away the knife.
When they arrived, she called the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. Tate, meanwhile, took off with her car and other belongings. The St. Bernard Sheriff's Office issued a warrant for aggravated burglary and second-degree kidnapping, Doran said. Tate was arrested a week later, when a deputy spotted him near Butcher's house.
The case was dropped after Butcher appeared in court in November of that year and apparently said she didn't want to pursue the charges.
DA refuses charges
Doran said a St. Bernard deputy recognized Butcher's name when news of her murder broke, and the file on her and Tate was turned over to New Orleans police.
In the New Orleans cases, the rape and most of the battery charges were refused by the Orleans Parish district attorney's office. The only cases pursued were for battery of a police officer and simple escape. Tate pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of resisting an officer and was acquitted of the battery.
"Batterers use violence because it gets them what they want, and because they know that terrorizing the women they date will almost never land them in jail," said Tania Tetlow, director of Tulane Law School's Domestic Violence Clinic.
People who knew Butcher said harassment from Tate was a part of her life. Butcher's 15-year-old daughter said her mother sometimes spoke of her fear and Tate's abuse.
A friend from her French Quarter waitressing job said she believed Butcher was "terrified" of Tate, saying he'd once kicked in her door and broke her nose. Another friend said Tate would often bother Butcher at work. Weeks before she was killed, Butcher said she took Tate's key away and wanted to part ways, said Nikki Wells, one of the friends.
"She wasn't talking to him," Wells said. "She didn't want to be with him anymore."
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