A bitter argument over money in Topeka, Kansas., 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.
The dispute started last month, when District Attorney Chad Taylor announced that a 10% budget cut to his office in 2012 meant he would no longer be prosecuting any of the city’s misdemeanors, effective immediately. Topeka city council members say they can’t afford the estimated $800,000 yearly cost of prosecuting those misdemeanors and jailing offenders–and that they want the county to handle misdemeanor prosecutions.
But county officials insist that the jurisdiction for these prosecutions rests with city prosecutors, but the Topeka City Council says that none of the city’s five attorneys has any recent experience prosecuting domestic violence cases.
Tuesday, the Topeka city 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.
City Council member Larry Wolgast says, he’s opposed to that tactic, since there’s no guarantee that the county will actually prosecute domestic battery cases just because the city decriminalizes the offense. But Wolgast also says the city cannot find the money to prosecute the cases themselves.
“If we could just solve this by taking them over, that would be great to do. But the people aren’t there,” he said. He added that the most severe cases of domestic battery would be written up as felonies, which are already prosecuted by the county.
Karen Hiller, another City Council member, says, the county already has the resources needed to prosecute these kind of cases, while the city–which doesn’t even have its own jail–would have to build from the ground up. District Attorney Taylor would need an extra $200,000 to continue prosecuting them, while the city would have to spend nearly $1 million.
“How could we possibly do this on 10 minutes notice?” she said.
A domestic abuse survivor and activist, Claudine Dombrowski, told reporters 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 said. She said she was hit with a crowbar in a domestic violence incident classified as a misdemeanor 16 years ago.
According to the Topeka Police Department, city authorities have arrested 20 people on suspicion of misdemeanor domestic battery since Sept. 8, but all of the suspected offenders were released and not charged. One man was arrested twice over the month, both times on suspected domestic battery, and released both times. Their cases may be brought up for prosecution again once the city and county resolve their dispute.
