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Virginia judge jails alleged domestic violence victim for smoking pot on day of court testimony
September 18, 2021
A judge in Loudoun County interrupted the testimony of the alleged victim in a felony domestic violence trial last week to question her drug use, sentencing her to 10 days in jail for contempt of court after she said she had smoked marijuana earlier in the day.
She was then “physically removed from the witness stand by multiple deputies," according to a brief filed by the commonwealth's attorney's office, which supports the woman's motion to vacate the contempt charge lodged by Circuit Court Judge James P. Fisher.
The woman, who prosecutors say did not appear intoxicated, served two days in jail before she was released on $1,000 bond, according to court records. Meanwhile, the case against her alleged abuser, who was facing his third domestic violence charge, ended with Fisher declaring a mistrial.
“In the middle of a difficult (cross examination), she was detained, interrogated, arrested and removed from the courtroom," wrote Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Elena Ventura, who argued the woman was “not treated with the respect, sensitivity or dignity required by law."
Marijuana is now legal in Virginia and prosecutors wrote in their brief that their witness was just anxious and nervous during the approximately hour and a half of testimony she provided. They said Fisher's inquiry followed “intense and assertive (defense) questioning focused on drug-addiction and infidelity."
Prosecutors also wrote that Fisher refused to hear from detectives who had interacted with her before the trial, who they said would have testified her “behaviors were consistent with all prior interactions and that she exhibited no signs of intoxication prior to her testimony."
But the biggest issue, the commonwealth's attorneys office said, was that Fisher's actions “may create a chilling effect surrounding victim willingness to testify in cases of domestic violence, an area of law already replete with victims recanting and/or refusing to cooperate, due to the extensive trauma domestic violence victims experience through the cycle of power and control, especially in cases where victims have mental health concerns, as … in the case at bar."
In a statement issued by her lawyers, the woman said that's exactly the message she received in court. “I have learned that it does no good to report domestic abuse because the system and the courts appear to have no real interest in protecting victims and punishing abusers," she said. “The judge has sent me a clear message."
Fisher, the former commonwealth's attorney of Fauquier County and onetime chair of the county's Republican committee, was appointed by the General Assembly to an eight-year term in 2019. Efforts to reach his office were unsuccessful and judges in Virginia rarely comment on proceedings.
It is not the first time Fisher has jailed someone in his courtroom for contempt — a step that legal observers say is unusual in Virginia.
Fisher had divorce lawyer Rachel Virk jailed overnight in January 2020 after finding her in contempt of court during a hearing in which she pressed him to clarify a ruling. The Virginia Court of Appeals dismissed her appeal of the charge on a technicality, finding that because the order jailing her was signed by the clerk of court rather than the judge, there was no jurisdiction to contest it. Virk has since filed a lawsuit against the clerk of court and sheriff, which is still pending.
Under Virginia's summary contempt statute, a judge can immediately fine someone up to $250 and jail them for a maximum of 10 days for misbehavior, violence, threats of violence or “vile, contemptuous, or insulting language" in court.
In last week's domestic abuse trial, the witness' lawyers say her actions did not meet that standard. The Mercury is not identifying her because she is an alleged domestic violence victim and has not given permission to use her name.
“She did not admit to doing any illegal activity nor did she admit to being under the influence in the courtroom," said Thomas K. Plofchan, Jr., an attorney with Westlake Legal Group, which is representing the woman with Ryan Campbell at King Campbell Poretz Mitchell. “There was no slurring of her words, nothing that indicated that she had taken some sort of intoxicant that affected her speech or muscular movement."
Plofchan also questioned the timeline, noting it was an afternoon trial and there was no inquiry as to when in the morning she had used marijuana and how much she had taken.
Both parties also took issue with the way Fisher questioned the witness, noting she was never advised of her constitutional and Miranda rights and that the “independent investigation" he conducted by asking her about her drug use is barred by judicial canon.
A hearing on the motion to vacate the contempt charge is scheduled for next week.
The case has not gone unnoticed by lawmakers from the region, who called Fisher's decision to jail a domestic abuse victim troubling.
“Just in general when dealing with domestic violence victims, there's a history of not treating the victim with respect and dignity and we're supposed to be protecting them first," said Sen. Jennifer Boysko, a Democrat who represents parts of Loudoun.
Sen. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax, an attorney, questioned whether the witness would have been treated the same way if she had said she had a beer that morning instead.
“When we passed the marijuana legalization statute, one of the things we tried to do was ensure marijuana would be treated the same as alcohol," he said. “I think it's important going forward that everybody remember that marijuana possession and consumption is now legal."
The case has also garnered attention from marijuana reform advocates, who called the case emblematic of the stigmatization cannabis users continue to face.
“In 2020, Virginia ended the practice of jailing individuals for using cannabis, and in 2021 made such use explicitly legal for those age 21 and older," said Jenn Michelle Pedini, executive director of Virginia NORML, the state chapter of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws. “Yet, these changes in code do not facilitate an immediate end to the stigmatization faced by those who choose to consume cannabis, many of whom will continue to be singled out for discrimination by those still wedded to longstanding stereotypes."
This story has been updated to include a statement issued the woman jailed on contempt charges.
Virginia Mercury is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Virginia Mercury maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Robert Zullo for questions: info@virginiamercury.com. Follow Virginia Mercury on Facebook and Twitter.
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Ohio Republican fought a corrupt law -- then the GOP drew him out of his district
September 18, 2021
New lines drawn by state GOP leaders ousted Sen. Mark Romanchuk, a Republican from Richland County, from the district that elected him to his seat in 2020.
Since the indictment of the former speaker of the House last summer and subsequent guilty pleas from four alleged co-conspirators, Romanchuk has led the charge among Ohio Republicans to repeal House Bill 6, the legislation at the center of the racketeering prosecution.
He has sponsored four substantive bills this legislative session, three of which are aimed to repeal different elements of HB 6 including forcing utility customers to guarantee revenue at 2018 levels for utility company FirstEnergy Corp. (which pleaded guilty to a lesser charge after admitting to its role in a bribery scheme), and another repealing utility customer-funded bailouts to the utility companies that own two coal plants in Ohio and Indiana.
A Romanchuk aide confirmed Thursday that the senator now lives in a new Senate district and said he didn't know why Romanchuk was removed from his former district.
Being moved into a new district serves as a political disadvantage for incumbents; it requires them to win support of new voters, instead of relying on continued support of those who elevated them to office in the first place.
Senate spokesman John Fortney confirmed that Romanchuk was removed from his district. When Romanchuk's term ends in 2024, he can choose to either challenge his GOP colleague who currently represents most of the new district, Sen. Bill Reineke, R-Tiffin, in a primary; move into his old district; or be gone from the Senate. Fortney said four other GOP senators — Jerry Cirino, Sandra O'Brien, Reineke, and Matt Dolan (who is term limited and cannot run for re-election) — were also drawn into the districts of fellow GOP incumbents.
“Under the new rules, not everyone was able to remain in their current districts," Fortney said.
The state legislative maps have drawn scathing criticism for their gerrymandered nature. Republicans have won the past 16 statewide elections with about 54% of the vote; the new district lines are likely to give them about 62 of 99 House seats and 23 of 33 Senate seats according to their own estimates.
Voting rights advocates and Democrats said the lines were drawn despite two constitutional amendments passed in 2015 and 2018 to limit partisan gerrymandering. Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Gov. Mike DeWine voted in support of the new maps Wednesday, although both questioned the maps' constitutionality.
Romanchuk's ouster from what was one a safe district for him politically raises the question of whether lines were weaponized against dissenting voices from within the Republican party, along with diluting Democratic voting power.
“It seems they may have," said Sen. Teresa Fedor, a Democrat on the Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee, when asked if she believed Republicans retaliated against Romanchuk via the new district lines in connection with his HB 6 repeal work.
However, some of the loudest critics of HB 6 and champions of its repeal were reluctant to say whether Romanchuk's ouster is connected to his work on the issue.
“We cannot assume the intentions of the map drawers, but we know that politically drawn maps are just that — politically motivated," said Heather Taylor-Miesle, executive director of the Ohio Environmental Council, which opposed HB 6 and supported Romanchuk's repeal efforts.
“We also know that the gerrymandered four-year map, hastily approved by the Republican members of the Ohio Redistricting Commission, is a slap in the face to the supermajority of Ohioans who voted for redistricting reform in 2015 and 2018. Ohioans deserve better."
The Sierra Club, an environmental advocacy organization, declined to comment. Micah Derry, the former director of Americans for Prosperity, a libertarian-leaning conservative group that opposed HB 6 and supported its repeal, said he didn't know whether HB 6 factored in.
The Ohio Manufacturing Association, which aligned with the Sierra Club and AFP on the issue, did not respond to an inquiry.
Ohio Capital Journal is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David DeWitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on Facebook and Twitter.
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Protests at University of Kansas signal a major culture shift
September 18, 2021
LAWRENCE — For two nights this week, hundreds of outraged students showed up at a University of Kansas fraternity house, demanding answers.
With signs reading “no mercy for rapists" and “hold frats accountable," the students crowded the fraternity's lawn and chanted from its steps, protesting an alleged sexual assault at the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house on Sept. 11.
Their message was clear: The fraternity must be removed from campus and such behavior no longer tolerated.
The scene, filled with palpable anger and frustration, demonstrated a shift in how students think about and respond to sexual violence that organizers say was a long time in the making. For many students, that meant zero tolerance for the accused or his fraternity brothers, or anyone else on campus who commits sexual assault.
.contentHolder .fullwidth iframe { float: none !important; width: 100% !important; border: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; }“If this doesn't make you leave (the fraternity), then you're standing with him," said Gretchen, a 21-year-old student who asked to be identified only by her first name because of the sensitive nature of the protests.
Organizers and experts said many long-simmering issues, such as institutional distrust of universities and Greek life, the growing power of the Me Too Movement, and social movements like Black Lives Matter, have created a new generation of activists who feel a need to protest and have a framework for doing so effectively. Despite steps KU has taken in recent years to update its sexual assault policies, these students want more transparency and accountability from the university.
The university says it is investigating the alleged assault and the fraternity has been cooperative.
If you have experienced sexual assault and need assistance, contact the Kansas Crisis Hotline at 888-END-ABUSE or visit the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence at www.kcsdv.org.
'High-risk situation'
For Grace Reading, a recent graduate from Kansas City, Missouri, the protests were a welcome change.
Reading is a part of Strip Your Letters, a leaderless organization that calls out systemic issues such as sexual violence, racism and homophobia in KU's Greek Life. Strip Your Letters heard about the protest through a flyer circulating on social media and broadcast it from its Instagram account, which was one of the ways it went viral on campus.
Reading said the protest was organized by anonymous students close to the survivor, who are staying under the radar to protect the survivor's identity. Strip Your Letters has been working with those organizers to amplify events and messages.
Reading said the lack of information about this incident allows more students to relate to the woman's story. Additionally, she said, no one is seeking out details like what she was wearing or how much she had to drink, which are common ways assault survivors have been discredited in the past.
Reading was in a sorority at KU, and she said the way the system is designed creates power imbalances that make it more likely that women in Greek Life will be assaulted. She said there's a gap between assaults reported through formal channels and make it to KU's Clery Reports, versus the lived experience of sorority women.
“If you go into these sorority houses and talk to them, a lot of them will say, 'I don't know anyone who hasn't experienced it.' … These women know that they're in this high-risk situation," she said.
Social unrest leads to change
Laura Palumbo, communications director for National Sexual Violence Resource Center, said the situation at KU echoes national trends in how college students think about sexual violence. Protests and outrage about how colleges handle on-campus sexual assault is nothing new, and it's also not a problem exclusive to KU.
Palumbo said a similar case at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where a 17-year-old University of Nebraska-Lincoln student reported being sexually assaulted at Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, has galvanized other protests.
Both Palumbo and Reading said the Me Too Movement and the Black Lives Matter protests have contributed to a culture where students understand more about protesting and social unrest. Seeing protests from other social justice causes and knowing there's a more accepting environment for these grievances has given protesters a framework.
Reading specifically cited Black women leadership on campus, and KU student body president Niya McAdoo, for pushing for a more equitable campus culture.
McAdoo said inaction by KU administration is part of the reason the protests resonated with so many students. She would like to see the fraternity suspended until the investigation is complete.
“At the end of the day, (the administration) is here to serve students, and students are showing up and protesting and saying this is not OK," she said.
Palumbo said more students are noticing the power structures within Greek Life that allow increased rates of sexual assault. Since fraternities host parties and are allowed to have alcohol, there is a power imbalance that leaves fraternity men in control, she said. Because of fraternities' outsized influence on campuses, it can leave students with the impression they won't face consequences.
Fraternity housing is not owned or controlled by KU, according to the Interfraternity Council. Because the fraternities are affiliated with the university, any crimes that happen at fraternities are reported through the KU Clery Report. a report on campus crimes required by federal law.
“These protests are a way of students holding their peers accountable because they believe that the institution is failing to do so," she said.
History and changes
The University of Kansas has a recent public history with how it handles sexual violence.
Public scrutiny of how KU handles punishments for sexual assault offenders started in 2014, when the Huffington Post published an article detailing one student's complaints about the university's process. In that case, the accused student allegedly admitted to the sexual assault but was not punished harshly. The article said administrators decided not to require the accused student to do community service because it was “too punitive." Another student survivor spoke out about her disappointment with how the university handed her case.
Since that time, the university has faced two Title IX lawsuits filed by two rowers who said the university retaliated after they were sexually assaulted by a football player and reported it. Both lawsuits were settled in 2017 for nearly $400,000. Title IX is the federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education.
The University of Kansas was unable to make administrators available for an interview to discuss how both policies and culture at the institution have changed since the initial wave of Title IX lawsuits hit the school in 2014 and 2015.
KU created a task force on sexual assault and is in the process of implementing various reforms. The university also created the Sexual Assault Prevention and Education Center, and has annual mandatory sexual harassment training for all students. KU revised definitions of sexual harassment and sexual assault to bring them in line with Title IX regulations.
The university does not discuss any individual sexual assault cases, said Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, KU's director for news and media relations. She wouldn't say whether there were any other ongoing investigations of sexual assault at other fraternities on campus. In statements earlier this week, both Chancellor Doug Girod and the Lawrence Police Department acknowledged the alleged assault but didn't give details.
KU tries to finish formal sexual assault investigations within 60 days, but it can take months to make a determination and then additional time for administrators to hand down a punishment if the allegation is found credible. Because of that, it will likely be months before this case has any sort of resolution.
What's next
Students at the protest and involved with the affiliated Instagram accounts want to see a full criminal investigation, arrest and conviction in the Phi Kappa Psi case. They also called for KU to remove the fraternity from campus. Reading wants to see the survivor get the healing and support she needs.
On an institutional level, she and Strip Your Letters want to see improved policies at KU, and for KU's Panhellenic organization, which oversees many sororities on campus, disaffiliate and denounce KU's Interfraternity Council. That would limit exposure of sorority members to date parties, philanthropies and events until sexual violence is taken seriously.
Palumbo said, across universities, these protests won't disappear. That's partly because the private investigation processes can lead to increased student action, because they see a need to hold other students accountable if they feel their university isn't doing so.
“Students' perception really plays into culture, and whether students have any trust in the system," she said. “In the absence of information and transparency, it can seem like action is not being taken — and that can contribute to the impression that there is not an effective response."
Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and Twitter.
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