DV Tip of the Week

5 MIN READ

"My victim disappeared on the day of trial. What now?"

You were all ready for trial but now your victim disappeared. You are certain your defendant had something to do with it. You wonder if you have enough evidence to prove forfeiture. You'd better think quick because you only have the lunch hour to make it happen or risk a dismissal.

Dig your well before you are thirsty

Instead of waiting until your victim goes missing, start building your forfeiture case from the very beginning. You need your law enforcement officers and advocates to stop abusers from manipulating victims.

What law enforcement needs to do:

Gather multiple forms of contact for the victim. Every police report has a place for the victim's phone number. You need to do more. This means not just their contact cell phone, but their email account, their social media account, other addresses they might want to spend time at if they leave the home. This speeds the process to locate them. Yes, I know this is a challenge for time-crunched law enforcement.

Find out what has happened in the past when they have tried to leave? This gives insight into how the abuser seeks to control their behavior.

Who else knows about the relationship? This could be an employer, the name of friends or family members that they can turn to for help, where their children attend school, the apartment manager.

What prosecutors need to do:

Put protective orders in place early. Enforce violations.

Showing an abuser has violated a protective order is often a key to a court's finding the defendant has engaged in forfeiture by wrongdoing. This is especially true if that is accompanied by expert witness testimony on the dynamics of intimate partner abuse and its effects on victims. Have an expert witness lined up. It is good practice to have multiple expert witnesses your agency can call upon for testimony on the dynamics of intimate partner abuse. When you are looking for that last minute witness, having multiple available increases the odds someone can assist.

Link in your advocates. They need to understand forfeiture and how it does not need to be a direct threat. It is the manipulation of the victim that is designed to keep them from participating that triggers the concept.

Have a forfeiture brief template stored in your computer and ready to go. This lets you draft a written motion quickly by inputing your case facts.

Build it once. Benefit from it numerous times.

Don't fold just because the victim goes missing

When prosecutors win forfeiture motions, the victim sometimes comes forward. This represents even more control by the abuser.

Have a backup to the backup. Be prepared to use non-testimonial hearsay and other evidence based principles can provide an avenue to proceed even if the victim is unavailable and even if the court denies your forfeiture motions.

Email me: gfineman@dvtrainandconsult.com with any questions.

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