Movement Against Domestic Violence meets with NYS Assemblyman Zebrowski regarding DV issues
At 11:30 AM yesterday morning Maria Phelps of A Movement Against Domestic Violence met with NYS Assembyman Ken Zebrowski to discuss the issues New York has regarding domestic violence issues. Here is a recap of Maria’s meeting:
I had a meeting with Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski and Chris Bresnan (Legislative Director) regarding domestic violence issues and solutions for NYS. I brought Kristina Cotto with me today, daughter of Isol Cotto of Ulster County NY. Kristina lost her mother last year at the hands of her own father, former state trooper, William Cotto, who shot and killed Kristina’s mother in their own home last December. Kristina contacted me last week and wanted to come with me today to address domestic violence issues in NYS on behalf of her mother and other victims of domestic violence.
To give a brief background, Kristina’s mother was a victim of domestic violence, battered by her husband, a trooper in NYS. For many years, Kristina has been in and out of shelters with her mother and has been a victim of her father’s abuse. Last year, William Cotto was removed from the Ulster County NY home and taken to jail after a domestic dispute in the home. Isol was immediately issued a restraining order at the time of the arrest and was sent home. Four hours later, in the middle of the night, William Cotto bailed himself out of jail with a credit card and took a cab back to the home of Isol Cotto. He was given a low bail by Justice Mark Glick, despite the fact that he was a repeat offender and had a restraining order against him, and was able to use a credit card to pay his way out of jail and back into the home of Isol Cotto. Being a former trooper, William had firearms in his home which he used to shoot and kill Kristina’s mother. He then committed suicide.
I am giving background information here because this situation inspired me to take a deeper look into these DV issues and come up with a variety of solutions to these very problems. First, we discussed the possibilities of introducing legislation for verbal V.I.N.E. notificationsat the scene of a crime. Had Isol known about this service, she would have been alive today. V.I.N.E. is a victim notification service that alerts victims when an offender is released from jail, and information can be found on the back of all DIR’s, yet very few victims know about this option. My ideas on this issue include making it mandatory for law enforcement to separate the two parties of a domestic dispute and/or suspected domestic violence situation, and verbally notify the victim about this notification service, assuring the victim that they can remain safe after an arrest has been made. I believe this would change many crime scenes and give many domestic violence victims a sense of security, which would enable more victims to come forward and feel confident about speaking out about abuse.Another issue that we discussed was the low bail issue for domestic abusers/restraining order violators, and credit card bailouts. In this specific case, Kristina’s father was released from jail four hours after the arrest, and was able to bail himself out of jail with a credit card in the middle of the night. The Judge assigned to this case issued a low bail for this repeat offender, a bail of only $5,000. In my opinion, a bail should be set high for abuse crimes, and there should be NO credit card bailouts allowed. I brought up NJ law, which requires a full cash bailout for individual crimes and brought up my ideas on restraining orders in NYS. In NYS a victim of DV must fight in Family Court to get a 1 year restraining order. In NJ restraining orders are permanent, they don’t expire until the victim lifts the order. In Family Court in NYS, a restraining oder can be issued for a period of 1-3 years-this is under the Judges discretion. I am proposing that NYS issue restraining orders to victims for 5 years minimum in Family Court.
Another issue that was discussed: DV training in hospitals in the USA. More info on this topic can be found in my archives.
I brought in letters from victims being ignored by DV service providers, I brought in my own letters to DV organizations and state programs that offer help to victims, but fail at every level. I stated my issues with the NYS Crime Victims Board, and suggested CVB start a specialized DV unit for DV victim claimants.
I brought in a letter from the NCADV Director, stating that my donations for victims went into the advocates pockets, rather than victim assistance. I brought in letters from the NNEDV, an organization always asking for grant dollars to help DV victims, but then turns me away when I ask for help.
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