Victims advocates call for change to Mass. domestic abuse policy

BOSTON — An argument, that turns into a slap. Then, a punch is thrown. And another.

The situation escalates into full-fledged aggravated assault.

The act is a felony.

But because most victims of domestic abuse know their abuser, many get away with it.

Renarda Huggins she says she was abused for years by her former boyfriend telling me, "I think I probably took about five to seven punches straight to my face. I had a black eye. My nose, my lip was busted.

FOX25’s Vanessa Welch asked Huggins in a sit-down interview why she stayed.

"We're still in love and still lost and stuck and then there’s times when were afraid. We have already allowed these men to feel like they have this power over us,” she said.

The topic outrages victims advocate Wendy Murphy who says often times, the justice system victimizes women all over again.

"Almost all domestic violence cases are never filed, of the ones that are filed, a majority if not more are never successfully prosecuted. And of the few that land with conviction the punishment is often meager. And in the tiny, tiny number of cases where there’s both punishment and the punishment is severe... It’s usually because the woman is dead,” Murphy said. "I’ve been doing this for 30 years, it has gotten worse.”

Data obtained by FOX25 from the Massachusetts district attorney's office shows that reports of assault and battery charges within a household between Aug. 8, 2014 and May 31, 2015 lead to nearly 11,000 charges, but only under 1,900 convictions.

That means more than 80 percent of the charges were either pending, reduced, dropped, or dismissed entirely.

Former state and federal prosecutor Bill Connolly said prosecuting these cases is a delicate balance.

"You always have to consider the position of the victim. The danger the person poses, is it a first time offense, a second time offense, is there a five year history of abuse, a history of convictions for abuse, how serious are the injuries,” he said.

Connolly told FOX25 sometimes the victim decides not to testify, exercising their marital or Fifth Amendment right, and the case gets dismissed.

“If they believe the victim is now lying, the original story was true but they are now lying, the prosecutor can’t put a witness on the witness stand that they know is going to lie,” Connolly said.

There is one policy that would help change the situation, Murphy said.

It’s called adopting the no drop rule.

The policy would require prosecutors to move forward with the case even if the victim no longer wants to pursue charges.

“In California over a 10 year period. They went from allowing victims to choose to drop the charges to not allowing and during that 10 year period the amount of women’s lives saved was stunning,” Murphy said.

Connolly however isn’t sure it will keep women safe.

“Is it worth forcing a victim to testify if the abuser isn’t going to receive a serious sentence?” he asked.

Policy or not Wendy urges victims to stay involved in their case.

“You should report, you should testify, you should stay involved. Because it’s your right to live safely in your own home,” she said.

Huggins did file a restraining order against her abuser, but she wishes she had also filed charges. There were other things she said she would have done differently as well.

“[I would have] followed up. And made sure that I did everything I needed to do to make sure that he was prosecuted,” she said.

If you know or suspect someone may be struggling with domestic abuse, visit the Massachusetts domestic abuse Safelink, or the Jane Doe coalition. Both organizations are anonymous and dedicated to freeing victims of abuse, safely.

Cox Media Group