By JANINE ZEITLIN
jzeitlin@news-press.com
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Does your partner say, “If I can’t have you, no one will”?
Does your partner control your daily activities?
Has your partner been stalking, following or watching you?
These are some of the more than 20 questions Collier County Sheriff’s Office deputies and local Department of Children and Families investigators began asking this year to determine which domestic violence victims might be at high risk of being killed.
Those battling abuse at home would like to see Lee County authorities adopt the checklist, which is also called a lethality assessment.
“All professionals and people that deal with families need to be doing the lethality assessment,” said Cookie Coleman, who leads the local office of Department of Children and Families.
In September, her agency started using the checklist in five Southwest Florida counties for all cases in which family violence is alleged.
“A lot of times, making a difference is not some large, grandiose thing,” Coleman said. “It’s those little steps that can create awareness.”
Awareness is key. Asking the right questions, educating students about partner abuse, and wrangling interest in making domestic violence socially unacceptable are some solutions to halt partner violence, advocates said.
Though some people choose to ignore what happens behind doors, at a price of $8.3 billion a year, intimate partner violence’s social costs are steep.
That figure, which includes medical and mental health services and time lost at work, is likely underestimated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Along with splitting families, seeing violence between parents or caregivers is the strongest risk factor in molding a future abuser, studies show.
Domestic violence, in extreme cases, can end in death, orphaning children and leaving loved ones to forever grieve.
Sixteen victims have been killed in domestic incidents since 2008 in Lee.
Advocates would like to see the community take a proactive stance to rooting out violence at home, as child abuse was made unacceptable decades ago.
The problem is expansive. One in four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime, according to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
“I believe domestic violence exists because we allow it to exist,” said Linda Oberhaus, executive director of the Shelter for Abused Women & Children in Naples.
She and other advocates would also like to see stiffer criminal penalties. First-time abusers who are arrested are often charged with a misdemeanor and quickly bail out of jail.
Cases often don’t move forward because victims won’t cooperate.
The checklist
The Collier County Sheriff’s Office began using the lethality checklist in July as part of the Intimate Violence Enhanced Services Team, or INVEST.
Collier was selected by the state attorney general’s office for the roughly $142,000 grant to pay for the program through 2010.
It was one of six counties chosen this year because of its high rate of domestic-related homicides. It had five in 2007. In September, Mesac Damas, he confessed to killing his five children and wife, deputies said.
Eleven counties are in the program.
Collier Detective Nonnie Vaill reviews up to 50 domestic-related cases daily and the checklists that deputies are required to complete. She identifies high-risk cases.
The shelter then contacts the victim within 72 hours, said Natalie Quintero, the shelter’s INVEST advocate.
The shelter offers victims services when they’re more likely to sign on and help with safety planning.
In the past, the onus was often on the victim to follow through, which they may be less likely to do as the cycle of violence subsides.
“We’re reaching out and making contact to make sure they’re safe, and we offer them some options,” Quintero said.
The shelter contacted 90 people in November, and 15 victims signed up for the program since it began in July, she said.
The program also allows the swapping of information between the shelter, DCF and law enforcement. That can result in more services for victims and help to build prosecutions, officials said.
In January, DCF will work with Laura Streyffeler, clinical director at Abuse Counseling & Treatment in Lee, to develop a checklist that covers all categories of family violence such as, sibling abuse.
“We wanted to make sure we can include everybody,” said Kim Kutch, the local department’s operations manager.
Capt. Ron Curtis, of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office major crimes unit, said the agency considered the program, but no money was available to start one.
“We will look at funding for the next fiscal year,” Curtis wrote in an e-mail.
DCF officials said running through the list requires no budget, but extra investigation time is needed. When asked why his agency couldn’t do that, Curtis said it will monitor the Collier program.
“If it is determined that the program is beneficial and delivers a higher level of service than we currently provide, then we will certainly look for the resources to start such a program,” he wrote.
Mental health pros
Law enforcers aren’t the only ones who need to be asking more questions, advocates said.
Less than half of licensed mental health professionals in Lee are consistently or properly checking clients for domestic violence, according to a 2008 study by Streyffeler.
“By not asking the questions, we’re turning domestic violence into a don’t-ask, don’t-tell problem,” she said.
Collaboration is another arena where officials and advocates are trying to tap solutions.
The Damas massacre pushed a handful of local leaders to meet monthly to better communicate between agencies battling family violence.
“This group gets together because we weren’t having that conversation,” said Jill Turner, who is CEO of the Children’s Advocacy Center and joined the discussion. “Sometimes domestic violence or family violence gets lost in the shuffle. If we start asking in a more pointed way, I think we’d find more.”
Jennifer Benton, ACT’s executive director, aims to resurrect a dormant task force and a fatality review team.
“We’re trying to work with a lot of different people now, not that we didn’t before, but maybe a little more,” she said.
Coleman, also on the team, hopes the group can advance response, education and training.
“We all want to be on the same page,” she said.
Education
Community education could offer answers. After a recent meeting with Benton, Lee Sheriff Mike Scott said he plans to promote awareness via Crime Stopper segments.
One tip after a segment on Fox 4 led to the December arrest of 33-year-old Tyrone Prescott, who is accused of strangling a girlfriend, law enforcers said.
Authorities said the agency could focus on domestic violence fugitives in its campaigns to track down criminals.
Abusers, advocates and survivors would like to see lessons on healthy relationships in schools.
“This is something that needs to involve prevention rather than trying to get girls out of it,” said Judy Massey, 43, of Cape Coral whose sister, Cindy Warner, was killed in a domestic violence case in January.
Massey is a survivor of an abusive relationship.
“They teach girls how to raise babies, but they don’t give you any heads-up on what to do in a situation like that. ... I didn’t know what to do, how to get out.”
Some advocates would like to see how to have a healthy relationship taught in schools.
ACT regularly makes presentations in schools — it does more than 900 of them a year throughout the community — but the agency doesn’t have the manpower to reach every classroom.
Christine Kobie, who leads youth outreach, would like to see children evaluated at school. Now, students are connected with counselors or agencies if they show signs or identify violence at home, schools officials said.
Joe Donzelli, Lee schools spokesman, said such education could be incorporated into its K-12 character education program that instructs against violence and teaches respect.
“If there are lesson plans that they would like to bring forward, I think staff would be willing to sit down with anybody.”
Healthy relationships, though, could be hard to teach, he said.
“It’s a very, very slippery slope in teaching kids the proper ways to do things. ... There are only so many hours in a day, so many weeks in a school year.”
But education should start at home, said Natalie Donigan, a leader with Lee’s NAACP.
“Tell your daughters, tell your sons that they’re valuable,” she said. “If you don’t, someone else will try to tell them that they’re not.”
Additional Facts
need help?
The Collier County Sheriff’s Office and local Department of Children and Families investigators use this questionnaire in domestic violence cases to assess whether victims run the risk of being killed if their abusive situations escalate.
• Has your partner ever physically harmed you? If yes, how often?
1-5 times 6-10 times 11 or more times
• Has your partner ever tried to strangle you?
• Have you ever been battered by your partner while you were pregnant?
• Has your partner ever threatened you with or used a weapon against you?
If yes, circle type of weapon: Knife Gun Other
• Has your partner ever held you against your will?
• Has your partner ever threatened to or harmed your pets/animals?
• Do you believe your partner will kill you?
• Has your partner ever told you how he/she plans to kill you?
• Has the physical harm become more serious over the past year?
• Has the physical violence been happening more often over the past year?
• Has your partner ever been Baker Acted or committed to a mental health facility?
• Have you recently separated from or talked about leaving your partner?
• Has your partner ever threatened or attempted suicide?
• Has your partner been stalking, following or watching you?
• Has your partner been violent toward or threatened to harm your children?
• Does your partner control all or most of your daily activities?
• Does your partner have a history of domestic violence against other partners?
• Is there a firearm in the house or accessible to your partner?
• Does your partner act out violently in front of others?
• Does your partner get drunk or high on a regular basis?
• Has your partner been significantly stressed lately (job loss, loss of loved one, recent arrest, etc.)?
• Is your partner violently and constantly jealous of you (i.e. does your partner say “If I can’t have you no one will”)?
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