Domestic Violence Team Is Honored

By Susan DeFord
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 22, 2008

Howard County Police Detective Molly Gale sees the ugly outcome of domestic violence regularly, but she remembers one case in particular.

The victim was a woman who had immigrated to the United States with her child to join her new husband. But after he sexually assaulted and beat her, the woman, a nurse, felt terrified and helpless.

Working out of the police department's 17-month-old domestic violence section, Gale took the woman under her wing, making sure she received counseling and services while Gale helped gather evidence to file criminal assault charges against the husband.

It took time and effort, Gale said, "to turn her from being a victim to being a survivor."

That's the mission of the department's domestic violence section, created at the urging of Police Chief William McMahon and launched in January 2007 with a two-year, $400,000 federal grant. The small section's quickly growing caseload convinced County Executive Ken Ulman (D) to seek money for another detective in the upcoming budget year.

And the diligence shown by Gale, Sgt. Steven Martin, civilian administrator Katherine Turner and division commander Lt. Roland Denton has prompted the county's Association of Community Services to honor them with a humanitarian award as Howard's employee team of the year.

"Domestic violence for so long has been such a private matter," said Jodi Finkelstein, executive director of the Domestic Violence Center, a nonprofit service and advocacy agency that works with victims and their families. "This improves the way law enforcement responds to domestic violence victims."

Finkelstein nominated the police unit for the Audrey Robbins Humanitarian Award, given annually by the association of human service organizations for 33 years.

Others to be recognized by ACS on Wednesday include Sandy Jaworski, who has created a clothing ministry, the volunteer team serving Gilchrist Hospice and ACS Education and Training Coordinator Judy Pittman.

McMahon said he wanted his department to focus more on investigation and follow-up when patrol officers answered domestic disturbance calls.

"There's a certain repetitive nature with domestic violence," said McMahon, who serves on the board of directors of the Domestic Violence Center. "Domestic violence can escalate into homicide."

Gale and Martin have organized dozens of training sessions for officers, even showing up at 2 and 4 a.m. for overnight shifts, to talk about investigative techniques in responding to domestic assaults and enforcing protective orders. Arrests resulting from domestic violence went up from 142 in 2006 to 204 in 2007, Gale said. To encourage people who might be reluctant to seek police assistance, there has been a focus on reaching out to the county's Asian and Latino communities.

Gale and Martin also have trained officers to assess how potentially dangerous the situation is when they respond to a domestic call. The so-called lethality assessment, the first of its kind in the country, was developed by the Maryland Network Against Domestic Violence with researchers at Johns Hopkins University and is in use throughout the state.

Police officers ask victims a series of pointed questions and, based on their responses, might tell them that victims in similar situations have been killed.

Immediately after that, Howard officers call the Domestic Violence Center hotline and encourage victims to speak with a counselor.

"More people are willing to report it, and more are willing to get help," Gale said.

In the first quarter of this year, Martin said, police officers assessed 180 people as being in high-risk domestic situations, and 63 percent of them immediately spoke to counselors at the Domestic Violence Center with the officers' encouragement. That's higher than the 54 percent figure statewide, according to figures from the Maryland Network.

With Gale and Martin in the lead, Howard police also devote more time to criminal investigation in domestic cases, following up with victims, conducting more interviews, piecing together evidence and staying in touch with the state's attorney's office. The domestic violence section closed 169 cases in 2007.

"Our filings are more detailed. It's just more thorough," said Devora Pontell, a Howard assistant state's attorney who handles domestic violence cases. "I have a better chance of success in my criminal prosecutions."

Gale, whose undergraduate and graduate work at the University of Baltimore focused on domestic violence, often found herself wondering why victims stayed in abusive relationships. Now she knows that myriad ever-changing forces shape domestic violence.

"When you can help one person, it starts to build a little bit of trust," she said. Not long ago, Gale visited the woman whose husband viciously assaulted her. She has made another life for herself and her child, living in a new place and working as a nurse.

"It was the first time I saw her smile," Gale said.