A little more than a year has passed since 55-year-old Anthony Riccardulli shot his wife, Linda, with a .38-caliber revolver in their Hyde Park home, then turned the gun on himself.
The two deaths were the first of eight in Dutchess County in the past year stemming from domestic violence, prompting a citizens panel to conduct a systemwide review and recommend ways the county could better protect victims and prosecute offenders.
Police, prosecutors and victims advocates now say some gaps in procedures in the legal system and in services to victims have been closed, but they also say there's more work to be done.
In the year since the Riccardulli tragedy:
• Police and court officials are monitoring the availability of judges when they are called upon to arraign those charged with domestic offenses.
• Procedures for notifying victims when those offenders are released from jail have been enhanced.
• A system has been established to shelter pets when victims flee from their abusers.
• The state Legislature has enacted laws restricting gun ownership for some offenders and affording more protection and support for victims.
• The county Legislature has restored funding, slashed a year earlier, for an outreach worker for domestic-violence victims.
Other measures recommended by the citizens panel have yet to be accomplished, including:
• Using GPS to track the movements of offenders released from jail.
• Enactment of a state law allowing judges to consider the criminal history of offenders in domestic-violence cases when setting bail.
Many of these new initiatives were triggered by the Riccardulli killings, County Legislature Chairman Robert Rolison, R-City of Poughkeepsie, said last week. Rolison stressed, however, that all procedures in place at the time were followed in the Riccardulli case.
Investigators determined the July 29, 2010, murder-suicide inside the Riccardullis' raised ranch house on South Quaker Lane was triggered by an incident a month earlier when Anthony Riccardulli reportedly assaulted his wife and threatened their three children with a gun.
He was arrested and jailed, and a judge issued an order barring him from seeing his family. But Riccardulli was released on bail hours before he returned to the home, confronted his wife and fired the fatal shots.
Rolison was vacationing in New Jersey when he heard about the Riccardulli killings. A retired police officer and detective who had investigated numerous cases of domestic violence in his career, Rolison said his first thought upon learning about the tragedy was, "We've got to do more to prevent deaths like this, and we've got to do it now."
Less than two weeks later, Rolison asked the county's Legislative Citizens Advisory Committee on Domestic Violence to assess what went wrong and recommend improvements to the county's policies and protocols in domestic-violence cases. The 13-member panel was established in 1990 to help officials craft a coordinated plan to address domestic violence in the county.
More work ahead
Leah Feldman, project coordinator of the county's Universal Response to Domestic Violence and a member of the citizens advisory committee, said she was pleased with the improvements made in the year since the Riccardulli tragedy.
"Our victim notification system (when offenders are released from jail) is more coordinated, and we've tightened a lot of policies and procedures," Feldman said.
She noted Linda Riccardulli had been notified by a member of the jail staff when her husband was released. But under the revised system now in place, that notification would have been coupled with a phone call from a counselor from advocacy group Battered Women's Services asking whether she needed help carrying out a safety plan or required any other services or advice.
The county also has developed procedures with the Dutchess County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to take care of victims' pets if the owners decide to leave home to flee from an abuser, Feldman said, and police are monitoring the availability of judges when they are called upon to arraign offenders.
Other recommendations by the citizens panel have hit roadblocks, however.
Marjorie Smith, chief of the Special Victims Bureau at the district attorney's office, noted a GPS system enabling police and victims to track offenders is still in the planning stages and may need state legislation before it can be implemented.
And Smith said victims advocates suffered a major disappointment when the state Legislature failed to pass a bill sponsored by Sen. Steve Saland, R-Poughkeepsie, letting judges assess an offender's domestic-violence history when considering how much bail to set.
"That bill would certainly have enhanced protection of victims, but I'm encouraged we can get the GPS system implemented," Smith said. "That's something that may well have made a difference in Linda Riccardulli's case."
Town of Poughkeepsie police Officer Gary Hulbert said he and other law enforcement officers were disappointed when the bill giving judges more discretion on bail was voted down.
"That law is certainly something that would help victims if it could be passed," Hulbert said.
He added, however, that enhanced procedures put in place over the past year advising victims how to access outreach workers and advocates are helping to ensure their safety.
Linda Riccardulli's sister, Jackie Axt of Congers in Rockland County, said she hoped Saland would reintroduce the bill calling for changes in bail procedures in the next legislative session.
"I hope it's just a matter of rewording it so it's more acceptable to (members of the Assembly)," Axt said.
She said she also thinks women should be better educated on the warning signs of a controlling relationship that can end in violence, and she advocates stricter enforcement by judges of violations of orders of protection.
"More can be done in these areas than is being done," Axt said.
Saland and Assemblyman Marc Molinaro, R-Red Hook, said they, too, were disappointed the bill permitting enhanced bail for offenders with a history of domestic violence had failed to pass. But they said they were glad to have shepherded three other bills through the Legislature that address other aspects of the issue.
One law empowers federal authorities to bar those convicted of certain misdemeanors tied to domestic-violence incidents from owning any firearms.
Another broadens the definition of family and household members who may qualify for assistance from the state Department of Social Services in the wake of a domestic-violence incident.
The third extends the time for the issuance of orders of protection to victims from the date of conviction to the date of sentencing. That measure provides another layer of protection for victims between conviction and sentencing, Saland said.
"Maybe we didn't accomplish all we set out to do, but over the past year a lot has been done in Dutchess County and in Albany to address these issues," he said.
Molinaro agreed.
"We didn't get the bail bill passed, but I believe Steve (Saland) and I have taken some significant steps to address domestic violence with these pieces of legislation," he said.
Multiple incidents
The Riccardulli tragedy was only the first in a series of domestic incidents that ended in deaths here over the next several months. In September, 27-year-old Maria de la Paz Ruiz-Alvarez was fatally stabbed in her Wappinger s Falls apartment. Her boyfriend, 30-year-old Gabriel Lopez-Perez, who had been ordered by a judge to stay away from her, is on trial on murder charges.
In December, 25-year-old Tyrese Storms was strangled in the house she shared with Robert Loucks, 30, a man police said had a history of domestic-violence-related arrests. Loucks also faces murder charges.
Two other incidents that began elsewhere ended in homicide investigations in the county. On Feb. 18, City of Poughkeepsie Detective John Falcone was fatally shot while trying to apprehend a Catskill man, 27-year-old Lee Welch, minutes after Welch had killed his wife, Jessica , 28, near the Poughkeepsie Train Station. Welch killed himself moments later.
And on June 12, the body of Jasmine Nunez, 22, of the Bronx was found burned in woods in James Baird State Park in LaGrange. Police determined Nunez's live-in boyfriend, Andres Ceballos, 26, had killed her. Ceballos was tracked to Virginia where he killed himself in a confrontation with police June 21.
Rolison said those incidents had only reinforced his belief that though the county is doing a lot to combat domestic violence, officials always should strive to do more. That's why he recently invited officials from neighboring counties to meet in Poughkeepsie to discuss the recommendations contained in the Citizens Advisory Committee's report and to find out what was being done elsewhere.
"None of us has a monopoly on best practices for preventing domestic violence," he said. "It's not a crime unique to Dutchess County or New York state or even the country. We can learn from what others are doing, and they can learn from us."
Judges studied
Rolison said one finding of the report that particularly concerns him involves reports that police cannot always find a town justice to arraign offenders after they are arrested. He said state court officials have been advised and are addressing the issue.
Acting state Supreme Court Justice Charles Apotheker, who oversees Dutchess County's justice courts, said he had been monitoring reports from police in the county on the availability of town justices over the past five months.
Apotheker said an "overwhelming majority" of the county's 50 town and village justices had been consistently available, but five often had been difficult to contact for late-night arraignments, according to the reports he had reviewed. He declined to identify the judges publicly but said he would do so after he spoke to them if he did not receive good explanations for their repeated absences.
"I was a town justice myself, and when you sign on for that job, it's 24 hours a day, seven days a week," Apotheker said. "It's important, especially in cases of domestic violence, that they answer the phone."
An immediate release can result if a judge can't be found. During a search for a judge, the arresting officer is occupied with offender and is unable to answer other calls.
Renee Fillette , executive director of Grace Smith House, a shelter for domestic-violence victims, said she, too, is concerned about the availability of judges and how some domestic incidents are handled.
Fillette noted police reported more than 5,000 such incidents in 2010 but that fewer than 1,200 had resulted in an arrest.
"That's 80 percent where nobody was arrested. You wonder how many of those were serious cases," Fillette said. "The police we talk to are sympathetic, but sometimes there's not enough done on the judicial end."
North East Town Justice John Crodelle, who addressed the citizens advisory panel at a hearing before the county Legislature last fall, said he thinks judges are being criticized unfairly.
"A lot of judges were offended by those allegations," Crodelle said, adding that if a judge was not available for a particular case, "that was by far the exception."
Rochelle McDonough, a crime-victims advocate who works at state police Troop K headquarters in Pleasant Valley, said she thinks judges have become more diligent in answering late-night calls.
"It's something I used to hear about in the past, but lately I haven't heard victims complaining about it when I go with them to court, and I haven't heard it from the troopers," McDonough said.
Kathryn Graham, director of Battered Women's Services and a member of the citizens advisory group, said she believed the system had improved in the past year and that Dutchess County is well ahead of most others in fostering collaboration among police, prosecutors and victim advocates.
"We've been working together here for a long time, and we trust each other. That isn't happening in a lot of other counties," Graham said.
But she said the system is far from perfect.
"A lot of women don't feel safe, even in shelters. The key is getting them to devise an overall plan and help them assess the risks involved in all of their decisions," Graham said.
County Legislator Donna Bolner, R-LaGrange, who joined the committee after she was elected in 2009, said she was encouraged by the improvements in the response to domestic violence recommended by the panel.
"The Riccardulli killings stopped a lot of us in our tracks," Bolner said . "We need to ask ourselves constantly: Are we doing everything we can be doing?"
Axt said she would continue to demand even more improvements in policies and procedures related to domestic violence in her sister's memory.
"Domestic violence is a preventable crime," she said. "I don't want other families to go through what mine has had to go through."
Eight people have been found dead in Dutchess County in the past 12 months in five incidents apparently stemming from domestic violence:
• July 29, 2010: Anthony Riccardulli, 55, fatally shoots his wife, Linda, 47, at their South Quaker Lane home in Hyde Park, then shoots himself.
• Sept. 4, 2010: Gabriel Lopez-Perez, 30, of Brooklyn is accused of fatally stabbing Maria de la Paz Ruiz-Alvarez, 27, in her Spring Street apartment in Wappingers Falls.
• Dec. 2, 2010: Robert Loucks is accused of strangling Tyrese Storms, 25, in their Pleasant Valley home. Loucks faces a charge of second-degree murder and is in jail awaiting trial.
• Feb. 18: Catskill resident Lee Welch, 27, fatally shoots his wife, Jessica Welch, 28, near the Poughkeepsie Train Station, then kills City Detective John Falcone before killing himself.
• June 12: The burned body of Bronx resident Jasmine Nunez, 22, is found in James Baird State Park in LaGrange. Police determine Nunez was killed by her live-in boyfriend, Andres Ceballos, 26. Ceballos flees to Virginia where he kills himself during a confrontation with police June 21.
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