Domestic-violence roundtable highlights changes since Simpson trial

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Laws and attitudes changed after O.J. Simpson’s murder trial in 1995 in ways that led to more arrests and criminal charges being filed for alleged acts of domestic violence.

But it didn’t take away the complicated nature of prosecuting such cases, a prosecutor and law-enforcement officer explained during a domestic-violence roundtable Friday at DiVieste’s Banquet Hall.

Roy Ann Rudolph is an investigator with the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office now, but she was a patrol officer in Brookfield 20 years ago when former football star O.J. Simpson’s trial captured America’s imagination.

“I’ve seen so many changes in 20 years — in the way we investigate, the way we prosecute,” Rudolph said.

Twenty years ago, police officers went to the location and “we placated everybody and waited to learn the next shift or the next day if we were back out there,” she said. Police then were “mediators.”

But after the O.J. trial, the laws changed. Police officers were empowered to determine who was the aggressor, make arrests and file charges. “I’m so grateful for the change in the law,” she said.

For one thing, officers now have the ability to go to a chaotic situation, separate the parties, get statements and talk to the children.

Many domestic-violence victims won’t leave their abuser, a situation that prompted the theme for Friday’s roundtable. Bonnie Wilson, executive director of Someplace Safe, Trumbull County’s Warren-based domestic-violence shelter, tried to answer “Why Does She Stay?”

She presented reasons domestic-violence victims gave her. Among them are fear of being forced into the streets, having their children taken away, low self-esteem, hope that the man will change and “gossiping relatives.”

Other speakers included Traci Timko Rose, assistant Warren law director, who has prosecuted numerous domestic-violence cases in Warren Municipal Court the past 13 years.

Women frequently don’t want Timko Rose to prosecute the abuser, but charges are never dropped during the first hearing, even if the victim asks for them to be dropped.

Timko Rose takes the position that the charge should “ride a while” to provide some “calm time” in the relationship.

Elsa Reale Gottfried, an attorney for Legal Aid, talked about the civil side of domestic violence, which involves civil-protection orders, which she thinks can, in many cases, be more effective than criminal action.