SOUTH CAROLINA--CRIMINAL DOMESTIC VIOLENCE--WHAT THE ATTORNEY NEEDS TO TELL THE CLIENT
A few years ago the local Sheriff Department received a domestic call in Georgetown. Just like countless ones before. A woman crying and a man in the background screaming, with an occasional bang or thump as though someone had just thrown a piece of furniture. A few minutes later the Sheriff deputies arrived and knocked on the front door. The door opened and standing there was a woman with bruises on her face and some overturned furniture. The man, with no marks on his face told the police that he had no choice and was just defending himself and that he had hit her so that she would stop hitting him. So the police arrested him and took him jail. Once at the jail, he goes in front of a bond judge who not only sets the bond, but issues a Restraining Order. Now he not only cannot return to his home, but isn't allowed to call his wife or even go visit his children.
This is just one of a thousand scenarios. It could be where the woman is the aggressor. Or a maybe they both were. Maybe there was self-defense. Sometimes the couple are in a car, or in the parking lot of a bar, or somewhere else. One thing is almost always the same..............there's alcohol involved.
After the defendant is bonded out of jail, he'll then go retain an attorney. With half of these cases, the client will then explain to the attorney that this was an isolated incident and he wants to go home. He'll explain how he has already talked to his wife or girlfriend and she isn't mad or upset with him and she wants him home too. He tells the attorney that he has a limited income and can't afford his own place. Then he will ask the attorney how long this is going to take and stresses the importance of getting this case over with so they can resume their lives together. So he can go back to his house and quit living out of a suit case. He wants the attorney to contact the solicitor and explain that there was no real harm done, she isn't upset with him, she loves him and he should be allowed to return to him house. Now the attorney has to break to him the bad news. Its just not that simple.
I try to explain to my new client in these situations that yes, there are isolated incidences and the solicitor knows that. There are times when people just "lose it" for lack of a better term. And if given a chance, they can kiss and make up, and this situation will never repeat itself. But on the other hand, there are times where this is not an isolated incident. Maybe its happened before and may it hasn't. The sad truth of the matter is, there are people that cannot handle their alcohol and violence against loved ones is almost inevitable. It might be a week or it might be a year. But with some people it is just a matter of time and it is going to happen. And with yet other people, there will be violence in the future even without alcohol, although that seems to be the exception.
So here is what lawyers try to get their clients to understand. The solicitor does not know you and does not know your wife or girlfriend. The solicitor has a duty to protect and to prosecute. If the solicitor was to dismiss the case a week after it happened, and then a month later, the defendant was to beat the living daylights out of the victim, then the solicitor certainly wouldn't look too good and certainly didn't do his or her job very well. That brings me back to the first paragraph of this article where Georgetown County Sheriff Deputies were dispatched to the scene of a Criminal Domestic Violence call. In that particular case the victim contacted the solicitor's office a short time after the arrest and pled with them to dismiss the charge. She explained that she simply could not afford the mortgage payments and all of the other costs of keeping the house up and running, and that she desperately needed her husband's help with the kids. Most important, she made is very clear that she did not fear for her safety and there was no danger whatsoever with the defendant returning to the home. She must have been pretty convincing because the solicitor did just that. They dismissed the charge and with it, the Retraining Order was rescinded. The husband was then allowed to return to his home and everything was fine..............for a while.
Eight months after that incident, the Georgetown County Sheriff Deputies were dispatched back to that residence again. However this time she did not open the front door like she did the first time. She couldn't. She was laying on the hallway floor with the back of her head split open from a baseball bat.
South Carolina with all states, are making very strong drives to protect victims of domestic violence. Here in Horry County, where Myrtle Beach is located, we have what is called, the Criminal Domestic Violence Court. We have solicitors that have been assigned to work the cases in that court and have a judge appointed just for that purpose. The laws have changed and policies have been put in place by not only the prosecutors but by Law Enforcement as well. When you stop to consider the Georgetown incident, you really can't blame anyone for taking such a strong approach.
The problem with these new laws and policies is that there really are people who have experienced an isolated incident. Not that what happened is in any way justified by it being isolated, but isolated nevertheless. Obviously there is an element of unfairness when a person who will never do such a thing again is grouped with those who do have a likelihood of repeating that behavior. But that is simply unavoidable. The solicitor's office operates on the principle of Better Safe than Sorry.
All of these cases are different and need to be treated different. The facts vary, the emotions vary, the evidence varies. But one thing remains the same. The prosecution is taking a hard stand with these cases. If a person charged with this crime truly does not feel they are guilty, then they may want to request a jury trial and will then have to wait for that trial. All the while they will not be allowed to return home. There will be financial hardships for not only them but for the other spouse as well. And of course its not fair to the kids either. There are certain advantages however with going this route, as it gives the victim time to cool off and they have been known to not show for court after some time has past. Often when the victim does not show for court, the case gets dismissed. Remember that most of these incidents happen in front of witnesses. By and large the only witness to the actual violence is the victim. Without the victim's testimony its extremely hard to prosecute.
Undoubtably requesting a jury trial and going through this waiting period will prompt a lot of these people to plead guilty when maybe they shouldn't, all for the sake of getting the matter behind them, returning to their homes and rejoining their families. And of course there will be the criminal record, which has also changed with respect to an expungement, which is possible now with certain First Offense CDV convictions.
Again, each case needs to be considered and a plan made based on the facts, circumstances and evidence of the particular case. The only thing that is for sure and always remains the same with these cases is that there are no winners.
