Here are some excerpts from the article, Suspected domestic abusers go free as Topeka city, council officials bicker over funds:
A bitter argument over money in Topeka, Kan., means that city and county authorities have neglected to prosecute or charge people suspected of domestic battery since Sept. 8.
In other words, the local justice system has spent a month effectively sending the message that misdemeanor domestic assault will go unpunished–at least for now….
Next week, the council will vote on a measure that will strip domestic battery from a list of crimes that are illegal in the city. The vote is a tactical bid to force the county to take those cases on again….
A domestic abuse survivor and activist, Claudine Dombrowski, told Fox4 that the city is sending the message that it’s OK to beat your wife or husband.
“They need to invest in headstones, because these women are going to end up in cemeteries,” Dombrowski told the station. She said she was hit with a crowbar in a domestic violence incident classified as a misdemeanor 16 years ago….
Pretty disturbing. I wonder how/why Topeka authorities chose misdemeanor domestic battery as the crime not to charge/prosecute over the last month.
-Colin Miller
