Just days after it released a significant report on how local courts handle domestic violence cases, Independent Advocates (IA) announced it was suspending its operations.

Since 2007, the local organization has primarily been identified with Rebecca Facey and Rachel Richardson, who have worked to improve the community’s response to domestic violence.

“It is amazing to see how much this grassroots organization has been able to achieve with minimal funds and resources,” Facey said in a May 31 news release. “The passion and commitment of myself and Rachel Richardson as well as countless volunteers, board members and concerned community members has helped create a lasting impact on how Toledo thinks about domestic violence. We have been honored to serve hundreds of survivors of domestic violence in Lucas County.”

IA recently released a report that said of the nearly 1,600 domestic violence cases seen by Toledo Municipal Court in 2011, 79 percent were completely dismissed or reduced to lesser charges while just 2 percent actually went to trial.

“The prosecution relies on the victim to show up in court and testify and, if they don’t, the court doesn’t have a case,” Facey said. “I can say as an advocate having worked with women, their primary goal when they call the police is for the violence that is happening right now to stop. When they come to court, they’re looking for the person to be held accountable so that it doesn’t happen again, and so that the person just doesn’t get away with it. But unfortunately, the message both the victims and defendants are getting is that, ‘If you can get the victim not to come to court, the case goes away.’”

The volunteer-based Court Watch program that assembled the report will continue to operate and collect future data, according to a news release, and Facey said she will continue her schooling so she can continue fighting for domestic violence victims.

“We felt there was a need for comprehensive court advocacy services for victims of domestic violence and we generally felt that the community response to domestic violence needed to be improved drastically,” Facey told Toledo Free Press in 2010. “We want to try to bring domestic violence to the forefront of community members’ minds and the courts’ minds.”

That need still exists, and while the community owes a debt of gratitude to Facey, Richardson and IA, let us hope others will step up to meet that need and continue the legacy of IA’s important work.

Thomas F. Pounds is president and publisher of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Contact him at tpounds@toledofreepress.com.

Tags: Independent Advocates, Publisher's Statemnt, Rachel Richardson, Rebecca Facey, Toledo Municipal Court, Tom Pounds

This entry was posted on Friday, June 15th, 2012 at 12:00 am and is filed under Opinion, Publisher's Statement.
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Michelle Wagner was elected to the sole vacant seat in Toledo Municipal Court on Nov. 8, replacing Judge Francis X. Gorman, who is retiring due to age restrictions.

Wagner, a 44-year-old Democrat, received 34,511 votes in her victory over opponents Mark Davis (16,814) and David Toska (8,824), according to unofficial results.

Her endorsements included Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Lucas County Auditor Anita Lopez, Toledo City Councilman Steve Steel and recent mayoral candidate Keith Wilkowski.

“I’m very, very pleased with the results,” Wagner said. “I’m astounded by them. We ran to win, but I didn’t expect to win two-to-one. It’s empowering and humbling at the same time. It was a wonderful night and we are very pleased that the voters thought I was the best candidate. I am very excited to start my new position.”

A few ideas

Wagner was born in Toledo’s Polish Village. She attended St. Ursula Academy, earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Bowling Green State University and earned a law degree from the University of Toledo College of Law. Wagner served as a clerk for Judge Thomas Osowick and was a city prosecutor in Sylvania for 16 years.

Michelle Wagner

Wagner and her husband Dave reside in south Toledo with their sons Samuel, Teddy and John Paul.

She plans to hit the ground running at the start of her first term on Jan. 4. She said she has a few ideas to improve Toledo Municipal Court.

Her first idea comes from Cleveland. While serving on the board of directors for Independent Advocates, she learned that Cleveland has a domestic violence docket in its municipal court. This includes a designated area where domestic violence victims go before the same judge in the same courtroom each visit.

“They have laid the groundwork for how they have it going and have a good model for us to follow,” Wagner said. “The cases have to be heard anyway; why can’t they be heard in the same place? Why can’t they be heard by the same judge as opposed to seven judges? Why can’t a prosecutor be specially trained? I don’t see it as pulling resources in that respect, it’s just consolidating cases into one area, one judge and one prosecutor.”

Another thing Wagner would like to see is an area where victims of domestic violence can wait, which would also feature a children’s area.

“We could have a separate witness room and waiting area for the victim that provides safety and peace where they wait,” Wagner said. “Ideally it would have some small toys and coloring books for a kids’ space. They always know who the prosecutor will be, who the judge will be and that there is a place for children to keep them occupied until the case is called.”

Wagner said she believes that only judges who want to work on domestic violence cases should do so and should be on a rotation of possibly two years for the domestic violence docket, to prevent the nature of the cases from wearing on them.

“That is the main goal of my tenure at Toledo Municipal Court,” Wagner said. “That is something that I hold near and dear to my heart and I would love to get that moving.”

The magistrates

After beginning her first term, Wagner will also look to implement ideas to increase efficiency inside the courthouse. The ways to do that include more responsibility for the magistrates and interns from the prosecutor’s office.

Under Wagner’s plan, the traffic court would be designated as a proof or plea court in which more cases would be heard and the magistrates and interns would handle minor situations such as speeding tickets, expired license plates and bounced checks.

“We need to look at ways to make it more efficient,” Wagner said. “One way I’d like to do that is look into a greater use of the magistrates. Those types of cases a magistrate can handle, or even utilize interns from the prosecutor’s office. An intern and a magistrate can certainly resolve a speeding case. Divert those cases away from the judges’ docket and away from a trial docket because they cost the city money and time.”

Wagner will join the six other judges in Toledo Municipal Court on Jan. 4.

“I hope to fit in well and get along with all the judges there to improve the courthouse for us, the employees and everybody,” Wagner said.

Tags: Anita Lopez, Bowling Green State University, Francis X. Gorman, Keith Wilkowski, Marcy Kaptur, Michelle Wagner, Steve Steel, Toledo Municipal Court, University of Toledo

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 17th, 2011 at 6:36 pm and is filed under Community, Courts, Featured, Politics.
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Independent Advocates will hold a press conference June 21 at 11:00 a.m. to release its Domestic Violence Court Watch Report for 2010.

The grassroots organization, which is dedicated to improving the community’s response to domestic violence, will release the report in the corridor between the Public Safety Building and Toledo Municipal Court on Erie Street.

Rebecca Facey of Independent Advocates said there are about 13,000 domestic violence-related 911 calls in Lucas County every year. She said in 2007 domestic violence was the leading cause of murder in the county.

“It continues to be a huge problem that goes unchecked in the court system,” Facey said.

Independent Advocates spent the past year monitoring domestic violence cases filed in the Toledo Municipal Court in 2010. The highlights of the report are:

• “1,916 DV (domestic violence)-related criminal misdemeanor cases were filed in Toledo Municipal Court in 2010.”
• “Bonds issued by judges on DV cases ranged from $0 or unconditional Own Recognizance to cash bonds of up to $50,000, showing a lack of consistency in judicial response to DV.”
• “82% of the DV cases in 2010 resulted in either complete dismissal or were amended to lesser non-DV-related charges.”
• “13% of DV cases result in DV convictions, allowing future DV charges to be enhanced to a higher misdemeanor or felony. (5% of DV cases are still pending from 2010.)”
• “Only 1% of domestic violence cases went to trial in 2010. That is 28 out of 1,916 cases in the whole year.”
• “34% of DV cases involved repeat offenders.”

The report concluded that the court is unprepared to effectively respond to domestic violence and fails to convict enough offenders.

“In reality we know a woman is beaten an average of 20 times before she ever calls the police in the first place,” Facey said. “So women are desperate by the time they come to the court.”

Independent Advocates made several recommendations for improvements, including streamlining all domestic violence cases through one courtroom, beefing up training in domestic violence for staff, strengthening the court’s stance toward domestic violence and dedicating more resources to finishing cases.

“Right now the message is, you can pretty much get away with it if you can get the victim not to come to court.” Facey said. “What we’d like to see is prosecutors taking a stronger stance and saying this is the city versus the defendant, not the victim versus the defendant.”

Court officials were contacted but have not yet responded to a request for comment.

Tags: domestic violence, Independent Advocates, Lucas County, Patrick Timmis, Rebecca Facey, Toledo, Toledo Municipal Court

This entry was posted on Monday, June 13th, 2011 at 4:32 pm and is filed under Community, Courts.
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