Those actions save lives of victims and of law enforcement officers, say two Missoula residents who helped with the case in Broadwater County.
"You are demonstrating to the victim that you're taking her seriously, and you are using the power of the state," said Leslie McClintock, a senior grants administrator at the Office of Planning and Grants who writes and administers grants to prevent domestic violence in Missoula County and is the administrator of the Crime Victim Advocate Program. "And you demonstrate to the offender that there are sanctions. It's an important message to the victim, to the offender and to society, which helps perpetrate domestic violence by keeping it silent."
Doggett's abusive husband, Ray, killed her and himself in 1997. Her sons filed a suit claiming that Broadwater County Sheriff Richard Thompson didn't do enough to protect Vickie Doggett and prevent her murder in the sheriff department's repeated visits to their home.
A jury said that Thompson had not done enough, specifically by not following Montana's progressive package of four laws written to help prevent domestic homicides. But District Judge Dorothy McCarter threw out the verdict.
In a ruling that came on the seventh anniversary of Doggett's murder, the Supreme Court affirmed that the laws do require law enforcement to protect victims of domestic violence. It reinstated the jury's award of $358,000 to the sons.
"This decision prevents any District Court from ruling the way that court did," attorney Jewell said Friday. "From now on, it's actionable."
Montana law requires law enforcement officers to do four things: confiscate weapons that are being used in domestic violence; arrest the perpetrator whenever possible; write a report explaining why he was not arrested if he wasn't; and advise the victim, usually a woman, about how to get a temporary order of protection.
That combination of laws, applied from the beginning of violent incidents in a home, has proved to reduce the murder rate. In the two years after San Diego changed its approach in a similar way, the domestic violence homicide rate was reduced by 59 percent.
"It's been shown that this type of aggressive approach can prevent future homicide," said Jewell.
The approach also protects law enforcement officers. Research shows that domestic disturbance calls are the most dangerous calls that police officers and sheriff's deputies respond to. An FBI analysis of assault data from 2000 found that 30.7 percent of officer assaults occurred during responses to domestic disturbances, more than in any other single circumstance.
The pattern of domestic violence and partner violence is that it escalates through time, each assault more violent than the last. It's difficult to intervene because often the victim has second thoughts and won't cooperate. It takes an average of seven times for a domestic violence victim to leave an abusive partner for good, McClintock said.
In Missoula's experience, the calls are certainly the most dangerous, said Sheriff's Lt. Rich Maricelli.
"And sometimes you think the victim is going to be happy to see you, but they're not," he said. "It's just so complicated."
Missoula County Sheriff Mike McMeekin said the court decision will not affect the way Missoula law enforcement works because it has already been in compliance with the approach.
"This has been a very closely coordinated area here in Missoula with the county attorney," he said. "Part of it is here in Missoula County we have more resources than so many other counties."
Missoula's effort has been outstanding, McClintock said. The Missoula Family Violence Council includes a representative from both branches of law enforcement.
In 2003, city and county law enforcement made 951 responses to domestic disturbance calls and 256 responses to temporary order of protection violations. YWCA and Missoula Family Violence Council numbers say that domestic violence affected 677 primary victims and 190 secondary victims, which includes children, other relatives and neighbors.
Since 1990, 47 domestic homicides have occurred in Montana, according to the Silent Witness program.
McClintock and Jewell hailed the court decision as progress in a difficult area.
"I think the thinking gets cloudy when you think about domestic violence because it has a component that other violence doesn't have," McClintock said. "It's that it involves intimate partners, so it's easy to say, 'It's their personal business.' "
Reporter Ginny Merriam can be reached at 523-5251 or at gmerriam@missoulian.com
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