In defense attorney James Leone's 13 years of practice, he has seen the same children he represented in Cayuga County Family Court during child neglect and custody cases become involved in domestic violence and other crimes as young adults.
Leone said that repeating cycle of generational violence can now be addressed by the six-month-old Cayuga County Integrated Domestic Violence Court.
The court passed its six-month mark last week and includes a treatment component where abusers can be sentenced to the Cayuga Counseling's RESPECT education counseling program for domestic violence offenders who are verbally, emotionally or physically abusive to their partners. Sentencing to alcohol and other drug counseling, as well as other social services, is also an option for the court, run by Judge Mark Fandrich.
Leone said the court's holistic model of disposing of family court petitions and criminal matters in the same courtroom for families with matters pending in both courts affords aid to both those who are abused, those doing the abusing and the children they share together.
"If you can save a child's relations with their parents, if the parents can be made whole again," that will help the child build a healthy life as an adult," Leone said.
The court provides informational resources for "both the survivors or perpetrators of domestic violence," said Ann Bunker, the Domestic Violence Court's resource coordinator. Twenty-three family units, making up a total of 95 criminal, family court and Supreme Court marital cases, have been in front of the court so far.
The court - which meets twice a month on Tuesday afternoons - has a compliance component requiring defendants to appear once or twice a month to report if they are attending the treatment component of their sentences. Bunker is in charge with checking with service providers to see if the defendants are following their sentencing course.
Domestic violence victims particularly benefit from the court's model of a single judge handling both family court and domestic violence crimes involving the same families, said Theresa Walsh and Sharon Ottley, who both work for the Cayuga Seneca Community Action Agency, which has a contract with the state court system to serve as advocates for the domestic violence court. The agency's advocates attend each session of the court and help domestic violence victims understand the court system.
Other domestic violence criminal cases are still disposed of in the courts they originate in, but for the domestic violence crimes that overlap with family court petitions, the one family-one judge model of the new court increases focus on victim safety, they said.
One way the court makes the process safer is the elimination of a judge giving a conflicting custody order that violates a victim's order of protection given by another judge. The court eliminates the number of court appearances that one family roiled by domestic violence has to attend. The court also eliminates an abuser using family court petitions in front of an unwitting judge as a means of harassing a partner.
Fandrich "has all the information to make decisions to keep women safer," Ottley said.
Fandrich also said the consolidated court allows him to sort out child support immediately, eliminating situations where an abuser moves back into a home because of economic necessity for an abused partner struggling to make rent and pay other bills without the abusive partner.
Ottley and Walsh said the court has become safer for domestic violence victims following the institution of a separate waiting room for victims apart from the general waiting room. For the first time last week, the domestic violence court met in the third floor of the Cayuga County Courthouse on Genesee Street.
Bunker said the separate waiting room is important because it prevents victims from feeling intimidated by a perpetrator's behavior.
Bunker - who was involved in founding the battered women's program at the Sexual Assault Victims' Advocate Resource agency 20 years ago and has represented clients affected by domestic violence - is the linchpin for the court in her coordinator position.
Her latest job involved in fighting domestic violence in Cayuga County, however, consists of a lot of database entry.
In a process Fandrich called "cumbersome," Bunker tracks Family Court petitions, reviews domestic violence and arrest reports filed by police agencies and cross-checks them against each other to find the cases that fit the court's dual criteria. Bunker also submits the orders to transfer cases from lower courts.
The domestic violence court still has development work to be done: formalizing a process for domestic violence cases in town and village courts to be cross-checked for parallel family court matters, and formalizing listings of the social services resources available for families affected by domestic violence, Bunker said.
Many other Cayuga County officials involved in the court said it is still a work in progress. Fandrich is still holding planning meetings every month to discuss how to improve the court.
"The domestic violence court is still in its infancy. The jury is still out on how effective it's going to be," said Assistant District Attorney Sarah Farrell, who prosecutes domestic violence crimes for the Cayuga County District Attorney's Office.
Farrell is concerned that a switch in how the new court's scheduling format will mean the pollution of criminal matters by family court matters. Farrell said keeping the courts separate is important because there are different legal burdens of proof between the two types of courts.
For the first time last week, criminal matters, followed by family court matters, involving the same people were heard right after one or another. Before, the entire criminal calendar was heard first, followed by the family court calendar, but that has kept people waiting around for hours, Fandrich, Ottley and Walsh all agreed.
Bunker said separate logs are kept for both types of courts during sessions to eliminate that conflict.
The scheduling format may change again with the IDV court, but the court at its young age of six months is "a work in progress," Fandrich said.
Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net
The court passed its six-month mark last week and includes a treatment component where abusers can be sentenced to the Cayuga Counseling's RESPECT education counseling program for domestic violence offenders who are verbally, emotionally or physically abusive to their partners. Sentencing to alcohol and other drug counseling, as well as other social services, is also an option for the court, run by Judge Mark Fandrich.
Leone said the court's holistic model of disposing of family court petitions and criminal matters in the same courtroom for families with matters pending in both courts affords aid to both those who are abused, those doing the abusing and the children they share together.
"If you can save a child's relations with their parents, if the parents can be made whole again," that will help the child build a healthy life as an adult," Leone said.
The court provides informational resources for "both the survivors or perpetrators of domestic violence," said Ann Bunker, the Domestic Violence Court's resource coordinator. Twenty-three family units, making up a total of 95 criminal, family court and Supreme Court marital cases, have been in front of the court so far.
The court - which meets twice a month on Tuesday afternoons - has a compliance component requiring defendants to appear once or twice a month to report if they are attending the treatment component of their sentences. Bunker is in charge with checking with service providers to see if the defendants are following their sentencing course.
Domestic violence victims particularly benefit from the court's model of a single judge handling both family court and domestic violence crimes involving the same families, said Theresa Walsh and Sharon Ottley, who both work for the Cayuga Seneca Community Action Agency, which has a contract with the state court system to serve as advocates for the domestic violence court. The agency's advocates attend each session of the court and help domestic violence victims understand the court system.
Other domestic violence criminal cases are still disposed of in the courts they originate in, but for the domestic violence crimes that overlap with family court petitions, the one family-one judge model of the new court increases focus on victim safety, they said.
One way the court makes the process safer is the elimination of a judge giving a conflicting custody order that violates a victim's order of protection given by another judge. The court eliminates the number of court appearances that one family roiled by domestic violence has to attend. The court also eliminates an abuser using family court petitions in front of an unwitting judge as a means of harassing a partner.
Fandrich "has all the information to make decisions to keep women safer," Ottley said.
Fandrich also said the consolidated court allows him to sort out child support immediately, eliminating situations where an abuser moves back into a home because of economic necessity for an abused partner struggling to make rent and pay other bills without the abusive partner.
Ottley and Walsh said the court has become safer for domestic violence victims following the institution of a separate waiting room for victims apart from the general waiting room. For the first time last week, the domestic violence court met in the third floor of the Cayuga County Courthouse on Genesee Street.
Bunker said the separate waiting room is important because it prevents victims from feeling intimidated by a perpetrator's behavior.
Bunker - who was involved in founding the battered women's program at the Sexual Assault Victims' Advocate Resource agency 20 years ago and has represented clients affected by domestic violence - is the linchpin for the court in her coordinator position.
Her latest job involved in fighting domestic violence in Cayuga County, however, consists of a lot of database entry.
In a process Fandrich called "cumbersome," Bunker tracks Family Court petitions, reviews domestic violence and arrest reports filed by police agencies and cross-checks them against each other to find the cases that fit the court's dual criteria. Bunker also submits the orders to transfer cases from lower courts.
The domestic violence court still has development work to be done: formalizing a process for domestic violence cases in town and village courts to be cross-checked for parallel family court matters, and formalizing listings of the social services resources available for families affected by domestic violence, Bunker said.
Many other Cayuga County officials involved in the court said it is still a work in progress. Fandrich is still holding planning meetings every month to discuss how to improve the court.
"The domestic violence court is still in its infancy. The jury is still out on how effective it's going to be," said Assistant District Attorney Sarah Farrell, who prosecutes domestic violence crimes for the Cayuga County District Attorney's Office.
Farrell is concerned that a switch in how the new court's scheduling format will mean the pollution of criminal matters by family court matters. Farrell said keeping the courts separate is important because there are different legal burdens of proof between the two types of courts.
For the first time last week, criminal matters, followed by family court matters, involving the same people were heard right after one or another. Before, the entire criminal calendar was heard first, followed by the family court calendar, but that has kept people waiting around for hours, Fandrich, Ottley and Walsh all agreed.
Bunker said separate logs are kept for both types of courts during sessions to eliminate that conflict.
The scheduling format may change again with the IDV court, but the court at its young age of six months is "a work in progress," Fandrich said.
Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net