Albany to Expand Domestic Violence Law to Include Dating Relationships

By DANNY HAKIM

Published: July 10, 2008

ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson said on Wednesday that he would sign a major expansion of New York State’s domestic violence law to allow family court judges to issue civil protection orders against a far broader swath of alleged abusers.

The new law would make it possible for people in dating relationships, heterosexual or gay, to seek protection from abusers in family court. As it stands, New York has one of the narrowest domestic violence laws in the country, allowing for civil protection orders only against spouses or former spouses, blood relations or the other parent of an abused person’s child.

The passage of the legislation comes after years of effort by Assemblywoman Helene E. Weinstein, a Brooklyn Democrat who sponsored similar legislation in 1988 and in every legislative session since, but failed to find enough support in the Republican-led Senate until last month.

“Everybody but us allows a broader group of people to be able to get a civil order of protection,” she said. “The need became more apparent over time.”

She credited the governor with helping push the bill over the top.

Mr. Paterson has been outspoken in support of gay rights and had made domestic violence a priority during his brief tenure as lieutenant governor. In an interview on Wednesday, he said he personally took up the issue last month with Joseph L. Bruno, who was then the Senate majority leader, and secured his agreement.

“New York lagged behind all the other states in the Northeast in terms of addressing orders of protection,” the governor said. “We expanded the coverage to include what we would consider to be intimate relationships. They do not have to be sexual. Theoretically, it could be two people who are dating and haven’t had sex. They’ve come close, one refuses the other and then the stalking starts.”

Advocacy groups say that current law has deterred teenagers and gay men and women from seeking protection from abusers, because their only recourse is the criminal courts. Getting an order of protection in criminal court requires reporting abuse to the police, the arrest of the alleged abuser, and the cooperation of a prosecutor.

Civil protection orders in family court accept a lower burden of proof and do not require police involvement, and an accuser can be represented by a lawyer and not have to rely on a prosecutor.

“This is the greatest thing to happen for our clients,” said Stephanie Nilva, executive director of Day One, a New York City group that provides legal services and programs for young people in abusive relationships. “It means a world of difference to them,” she added.

Ms. Nilva said that most teenagers would not even consider reporting abuse to the police and getting a classmate arrested. “That’s not something a kid is going to do,” she said. “They just want the protection and the violence to stop.”

Sharon Stapel, executive director of the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, said, “Having the police make an assessment about a same-sex couple at a point of crisis or danger is often a scary thought for our clients.”

The revised law, Ms. Stapel said, “means that our clients can go to family court like many heterosexual victims have been able to do for years.”

According to a survey released last year by the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, dating violence rose more than 40 percent since 1999.

Editor note: The video below is footage on the creation of the Senate Democratic Task Force on Domestic Violence.