Posted on 01/17/2005 1:55:46 AM PST by Cracker72
CLEVELAND -- Some attorneys are attempting to use Ohio's new gay marriage amendment to defend unmarried clients against domestic violence charges.
The constitutional amendment, which took effect on Dec. 1, denies legal status to unmarried couples.
In at least two cases last week, the Cuyahoga County public defender's office has asked a judge to dismiss domestic-violence charges against unmarried defendants, arguing that the charges violate the amendment by affording marriage-like legal status to unmarried victims who live with the people accused of attacking them.
Advocates for victims of domestic violence have worried about the effect of the amendment since it passed in November, and they fear defense attorneys around the state will copy the tactic used in Cuyahoga County.
"It's a bad, bad thing," said Cathleen Alexander, director of the Domestic Violence Center in Cleveland. "We're very worried that some victims will not be granted the protection they need because they're not married. That could jeopardize people's lives."
The Ohio Domestic Violence Network said more than 20,500 people were arrested for domestic violence in 2003, and courts issued 16,219 protective orders. The Columbus-based group's executive director, Nancy Nealon, estimates that as many as one in five such cases involve unmarried partners.
The state law on domestic violence applies to a "person living as a spouse."
Therefore, motions by the public defender's office argue that domestic violence charges against their clients violate the new amendment, which forbids any state or local law that would "create or recognize a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design . . . of marriage."
"The thing is, you can only get a domestic-violence charge now if you are a wife beater, not a girlfriend beater," said Jeff Lazarus, a law clerk for public defender Robert Tobik who helped draft the motions to dismiss.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason called the motions "ridiculous."
Assistant Prosecutor Lisa Reitz Williamson said the domestic-violence law describes the type of relationships to which it applies without creating any special legal status for unmarried couples.
She argues that Ohio law stiffens penalties for criminals whose victims are children and senior citizens but doesn't bestow special rights on the victims.
Some domestic-violence victims advocates think the conflict could serve to undermine the domestic partner amendment, rather than weaken the state's domestic-violence law.
Some legal scholars argue that if a judge were to agree with the public defender's ruling, a court could declare the amendment in violation of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law.
"Hopefully, instead of the domestic-violence statute, it will blow out the constitutional amendment," said Alexandria Ruden, a Legal Aid Society domestic-violence lawyer who has written about Ohio's domestic-violence law.
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Information from: The Plain Dealer, http://www.cleveland.com
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Another unintended consequence of liberalism.
Liberals want to use domestic violence as a Trojan Horse to nullify the anti-gay marriage amendment. On "equal protection" grounds, of course. And they think we don't see through it.
Assault is assault.
True colors exposed at end of article. They hope they can overturn Constitutional amendment by presenting legal cases that ignore the amendment and claim harm caused because the amendment is in place. Violence is violence.
I see nothing stated to preven charges being brought for the
assault.the amendment must stand.
You can be convicted of domestic violence and have your constitutional rights removed simply for threatening to spank your wife.
A couple can get into a spat, one sprays water on the other, the other pushes the water sprayer. Both are charged with domestic violence, and it costs them many thousands of dollars to contest the charges and eventually win in court.
You're right.
They should dismiss the 'domestic violence' charges and just refile 'assault' charges!
Problem solved.
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