Topeka, Kansas no longer prosecuting domestic abuse cases due to budget cuts.

[Lightning Count]

Source: http://gawker.com/5847619/enjoy-hitting-your-spouse-move-to-topeka

That is seriously low these people deserve justice not this treatment.

 

[nomix]

It's just liberals who frown on a man's right to demand his right and discipline his woman. Didn't you know?

Err..

 

[remizak]

But the DA just said last month that he's not going to prosecute any misdemeanors committed in Topeka at all.

So I guess if you want to commit a petty crime (shoplifting etc.) Topeka is the place to go.

 

[tigger]

Yep, the state is falling apart and what has Gov. Brownback been doing? Pushing for further tax cuts, because you know, that magically leads to more revenue.

You want some insight into how these pricks run the state? Watch Blazing Saddles, substitute Brownback for Lepetomaine.

 

[GRtak]

So, Dorthy was wrong when she said "There is no place like home".

The video is for you youngsters that might not get the reference.

 

[SpitfireMK461]

The city of Topeka, Kansas, which is broke because it exists in America, maybe won't prosecute domestic battery anymore because those cases are too expensive. City officials want the county district attorney to handle them now. But the DA just said last month that he's not going to prosecute any misdemeanors committed in Topeka at all, due to office budget cuts.

Let us please have a small reading party before getting up in arms. This simply seems like a failed effort for Topeka to move cases from their jurisdiction to the county's. It makes sense for the county to reject the offer; Topeka should be prosecuting its own cases. Nothing says it is final, and I'd expect things to go back to normal.

And about the people that were released, let us see why they were released before assuming it was a case of "eh, we don't care about domestic violence."

Please people, this is an obviously sensationalist piece. It isn't good journalism.

 

[tigger]

Please people, this is an obviously sensationalist piece. It isn't good journalism.

While I can certainly appreciate avoiding the urge to jump on something like this, it's a real problem. Under the last budget (which takes effect early next year), the Shawnee county DA's office took a 10% cut. So naturally they had to find ways to cover that. They decided the best way was to end their $300,000 annual allotment to the Topeka courts. Money they paid so that Topeka could handle it's own cases instead of putting so many off on the county. The loss of that revenue obviously puts Topeka in a hard spot. That's why those 18 men where released; the Topeka courts were not going to be able to afford to try them.

But Topeka's got an ace up it's sleeve. This coming week they're going to repeal their domestic abuse laws and probably a number of others. That will force the county to take the cases since the county DA is required to enforce state law.

 

[GRtak]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way...kan-repeals-domestic-violence-law?ft=1&f=1001

To Ease Budget Crunch, Topeka, Kan. Repeals Domestic Violence Law


A budget battle between the city of Topeka, Kan. and Shawnee County has led to the repeal of the city's domestic violence law and freed about 30 people charged with abuse.

Here's how the Kansas City Star tells the story:

It started when Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor announced that a 10 percent budget cut would force him to end his office's prosecution of misdemeanor cases, almost half of which last year were domestic battery cases.

With that, Taylor stopped prosecuting the cases and left them to the city. But city officials balked at the cost.

Tuesday's 7-3 vote to eliminate the local domestic violence law was designed to force Taylor to prosecute the cases because they would remain a crime under state law.

Before the city council voted, it heard from victims of domestic abuse. The New York Times reports that one of them told the council by repealing the law, they were failing to protect them. The Times also reports that advocates against domestic violence were outraged.

"To have public officials pointing fingers while victims of domestic violence are trying to figure out who will protect them is just stunning," Joyce Grover, executive director of the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence told the Times.

Today, as the dust settled on the vote, The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the interim city manager Dan Stanley said the vote yesterday was "very sober and difficult." But that he had reached out to the district attorney to reach an agreement.

Stanley, reported the Capital-Journal, said now that the city has left no ambiguity as to who is responsible for prosecuting domestic abuse cases, he expects the negotiations would get "real serious real fast."

The Washington Post takes the news from a different angle. For a city to claim not prosecuting domestic abuse cases is a cost-cutting measure is folly, the paper reports. A lot of the costs associated with domestic abuse cases have nothing to do with courts.

They include things like health-care costs to treat the victim, "days of paid work lost because of intimate partner violence," and "loss in earnings."

The Kansas City Star reports that of those 30 abuse suspects released, one of them was arrested and released twice because of the budget impasse.