State coalition report: Safety net fails domestic-violence victims

Despite more than a decade of research into the causes of domestic-violence fatalities, the state's criminal-justice system is still failing abuse victims with inconsistent and at times lax enforcement of laws intended to protect them, according to a new report.

The Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence issued the last installment of a 13-year research project on deaths from abuse by noting that gaps identified in 2000 still exist, including a lack of meaningful consequences for some abusers.

The report, released Wednesday, details in-depth reviews of 84 cases across the state in which 135 people died, including some instances of homicide-suicide — cases when abusers killed victims as well as themselves.

In 48 of those 84 cases, police had previously responded to a domestic-violence call. But only five cases resulted in abusers spending 30 days or more in jail, showing a need for more dependable enforcement of state anti-domestic-violence laws, said Jake Fawcett, the report's author.

"One of the greatest problems we found in this research, the response is just not consistent," said Fawcett, who led fatality reviews for the coalition. "When victims don't know what to expect, it's harder for victims to count on the systems to intervene."

The report noted that in 24 of the cases, an abuse victim had asked a court for a protection order. But in nearly every case, the victim hadn't received follow-up help from a domestic-violence advocate to create a "safety plan" to protect themselves.

Although the coalition first identified that as a problem in a 2000 report, four out of five courts did not have policies linking domestic-violence advocates with victims.

The consequence of that gap can be seen in the $1.1 million jury verdict levied last month against the city of Federal Way in a civil lawsuit brought by the family of Baerbel Roznowski. She had asked for a protection order against her live-in boyfriend, Chan Ok "Paul" Kim.

When a police officer showed up at their home to serve Kim with the order, the officer saw Roznowski was present, but then left.

Kim stabbed Roznowski to death three hours later, on May 3, 2008. Kim is serving a 20-year prison term.

"We have been doing this work for over 10 years, and some of these issues have come up over and over again," said Fawcett. "We know where problems are, we know where we're falling short and we've made recommendations in those areas."

The report also found that in 31 percent of the cases that result in an abuse death, the abusive relationship began before the victim was 21. That finding, Fawcett said, highlights the need to educate teens about healthy relationships.

The fatality reviews are the result of a 1997 law intended to provide 10 years of data about domestic-violence fatalities. The reviews were conducted by dozens of prosecutors, judges, domestic-violence advocates, social workers and others in 15 of the state's 39 counties.

Jonathan Martin: 206-464-2605 or jmartin@seattletimes.com