Wife killings spur call for tougher laws, more funds / SCWife killings spur call for tougher laws, more funds
by Jon Ostendorff,
jostendorff@citizen-times.com
published October 1, 2006 12:15 am
ASHEVILLE — Directors of emergency shelters in three Western North Carolina counties said the government is underfunding their operations and more should be done in the wake of two domestic violence murders in as many weeks.
The prosecutor in the judicial district where one of the slayings happened is calling for a change in state law that could mean the death penalty for those who break restraining orders to get to their victims or kill a person at an emergency shelter.
The calls for more money and tougher laws come as authorities continue to look for John “Woody” Raymond Woodring, 35, who they believe killed his wife, Bonnie, 48, inside a shelter for abused women in Jackson County on Sept. 18. He has been on the run since then, police say.
In the second killing, Joel Zelaya Rivera, 25, was charged Sept. 25 with the murder of his wife at their home in Hendersonville.
The killings were the fourth and fifth domestic violence-related slayings in WNC this year. So far during 2006 in North Carolina, 49 women have been slain in domestic violence-related killings. Woodring is believed to be the only woman killed in a shelter in North Carolina.
Although lawmakers in 2006 increased the state’s domestic violence spending by $350,000, bringing it to $5.3 million, local and state advocates say that’s not enough.
State and federal government money doesn’t come close to covering the cost of most shelters, much less all the other services domestic violence centers offer.
Many centers operate with a yearly deficit. And local government funding varies greatly, three center directors said last week.
“It’s a daily struggle,” said Julia Freeman, the director of REACH of Haywood County, which served 1,700 victims last year.
An ‘epidemic’
Valerie Collins, executive director of Helpmate in Asheville, said government funding has improved in the last decade, but it doesn’t keep pace with what she called the “epidemic” of domestic violence.
“I think that the priorities around this issue could be different,” she said. “I think that when you look at the scope of domestic violence, we are really underfunding the services.”
The three centers, in Buncombe, Henderson and Haywood counties, serve diverse populations and have varied government support but have something in common: After government money and private donations, they still have to make up hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to cover expenses.
Two of the three run thrift stores to help pay the bills. Private donations and the United Way play a big role in all three. Even with community support, the three directors say running at a deficit is not unusual.
Freeman in Haywood County said the state could help with more money and “looking toward ways to make shelters across the state more uniform in their safety and services.”
Tanya Blackford, executive director of Mainstay in Hendersonville, fears the underfunded shelters, combined with the looming collapse of mental health services in eight WNC counties, will mean a heavier burden on an already taxed service.
She said 70 percent of the women her organization helped last year had been hospitalized because of mental illness.
“I can’t provide DV (domestic violence) services if I don’t have mental health services,” she said. “We have seen over and over again where families really could have been kept together, mom or dad would have been fine, if they would have had the mental health services they needed.”
A statewide problem
In North Carolina, 90 of 100 counties have domestic violence centers. About 70 centers run a shelter. Women living in counties without a shelter must rely on centers in neighboring counties.
Of the three shelters examined in this story, only Hendersonville’s location is widely known in the community. Its shelter is downtown in the same building as its offices and thrift store.
Marie Brodie, spokeswoman and training coordinator for the N.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the state-level nonprofit for policy issues, said getting more money for shelters out of Raleigh is always a top priority.
“It is always on our legislative agenda,” she said.
In 2006, lawmakers increased domestic violence prevention spending by $350,000 to $5.3 million.
The money will go to domestic violence centers. It is not specifically earmarked for emergency shelters. Centers decide how best to spend the money.
And while the increase this year was good, Brodie said it’s not enough.
“We need to look to the government and to everybody to be doing more,” she said
Solutions
Brodie and the local directors don’t want the government to step in and create state-run centers or shelters. They say that would remove the local community from the fight against domestic violence.
Instead, Collins said, more money is needed for programs in schools that teach the signs of abuse and what appropriate relationships look like.
Collins also said she wants the government to strengthen legislation that holds abusers accountable.
That’s where the state coalition comes in.
The organization pushes the government to focus on accountability in the areas where it traditionally has responsibility such as laws, courts and law enforcement.
And lawmakers have responded recently to demands for tougher laws on domestic violence.
Two bills since 2004 have made a difference, according to the coalition’s Web site.
They are:
•
Senate Bill 1029, passed in 2005, which protects victims from discrimination by landlords and provides a statutory framework for allowing victims to change locks or terminate their leases when necessary to escape from a perpetrator.
• House Bill 1354, passed in 2004, which made landmark changes to the state’s domestic violence laws, including making offender treatment part of probation, mandating domestic violence education in schools, setting aside money to help with victims’ legal bills and making punishment tougher on offenders.
“Our legislature is doing a pretty good job,” Brodie said. “They don’t drag their feet on passing laws that toughen up punishment for batterers.”
District Attorney Michael Bonfoey, the prosecutor for the state’s seven westernmost counties, met with domestic violence victim advocates last week. He is calling for five changes in the wake of the Woodring killing. Bonfoey is running for re-election.
They are:
• Better security at shelters, including secure doors, locks and cameras.
• Secure waiting rooms at courthouses for victims and witnesses.
• Changing the law to add another aggravating factor for the death penalty of violating a restraining order or killing a person who has sought refuge at a shelter.
• Changing the law to make trespassing at a shelter a felony.
• Increasing police patrols of shelters.
“These are five things that are very reasonable,” Bonfoey said in a written statement. “I know our communities have the determination to achieve these five things. Everyone wants to be safe in our communities, and when someone is forced to seek shelter at a domestic violence shelter, they should feel safe and be safe from harm.”
Contact Jon Ostendorff at 828-452-1467 or via e-mail at jostendo@ashevill.gannett.com.
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