South
Carolina Victim Assistance Network
Board of
Directors Meeting
PRESENT:
ABSENT:
Brett Macgargle Dean Kilpatrick
Larry Bergmann Gwen Herod
Marian Lindsey Hope Blackley
Saylor Fox Pam Gregory
Lillian Garcia Vickie Bourus
Kay Holmes Mary Ann Stroup
Margaret Frierson Don Zelenka
Ritchie Tidwell (late) Anne Wolf
Laura Hudson Delores Mendez
Veronica Swain Carol Wyatt
Michelle Dhunjishah
Bill Mathias
Review of minutes of October 27, 2006. Minutes approved by vote of the Board.
Legislative Initiatives: Presentation by Laura Hudson
4 legislative committees developed legislative agenda. All had diverse representation and large numbers of participants.
Committee Chairs:
Margaret Frierson: Children’s Committee
Bill Matthias – Juvenile Committee
Vickie Bourus – Family Violence Committee
Laura Hudson – General Crime Committee
1) Laura worked heavily w/MADD on Gen’l crime and chaired their public policy committee. Last year 4047 was introduced and they’re working off of that language.
Marian Jackie Olsen and Jami Goldman sat on committee. MADD initiatives will be separate bills but will be considered as one. Sen. Lourie is trying to work on underage drinking, keg registration, increasing penalties for underage possession and consumption.
SCVAN and MADD are in agreement with recommendations to committee. Arguments during the year may be: What is rebuttable when you’re arrested? What kind of errors law enforcement makes to throw out cases? Who is allowed to go into PTI? Meeting on the 13th with the Council about how to introduce bill before it hits committee process. Anticipate argument from defense attorneys about what constitutes host and hostess party. There are legitimate concerns about parental responsibility and how far that goes.
Biggest change in DUI law will be graduated penalties.
Ignition interlock is another recommendation from MADD.
2) No current statutory law that tracks intimidation of victims. Existing law (tampering with witnesses) is a misdemeanor. Gang legislation needs something with teeth in it. May attach to Sen. Knotts gang legislation or may be stand-alone bill. Wording will include victim and witness and will include during trial and post conviction.
3) Child fatality – Coroners have bill that Senator Moore introduced
4) Sen. Knotts introduced 2 tiered approach to interfering with communication devices while in the commission of a crime. It is currently a misdemeanor but is not related to the crime that’s committed. If the crime you intend to commit is a felony, interfering w/communication is a felony.
5) Barry Barnette’s initiative: crossing the center line, no drug or alcohol test done, a death ensues. Barry wrote a bill that says if you kill someone in a car crash and you’re under suspension or have a bad driving record, those facts can be considered in a trial.
6) Diversionary / mental health courts. Prosecutor must sanction courts, according to Chief Justice Toal. MOAs have been written to use mental health courts. Failure of notification to victim (lack of cooperation between mental health and law enforcement) is precisely how Mary Lynn Witherspoon was able to be murdered. Sen. Merle Smith tried to pass law last year but no one could agree on language. Richland County is doing a good job with their mental health courts.
7) Expungement law – Sen. Sheheen. We will join solicitors with their initiative.
Larry asks about expungement of sex offenders’ records. They are doing it in Lexington County. Who do we allow to expunge records? PPP are pardoning sex offenders, but pardons are not necessarily expunged.
VOTE ON TOP 3 OF GENERAL CRIME:
Board approves top 3 recommendations.
CHILDREN’S COMMITTEE
1) Romeo clause: Constitution establishes when youngsters can give permission to have sex. Attorney General wrote an Opinion that new law was unconstitutional. Certain counties threw out cases before AG’s Office came forward with Opinion. AG, solicitors and other groups want to clarify law to make it consensual (found in a court of law) misdemeanor 3-5 years, eligible for PTI, and offenders do not go on sex offender registry. You can be charged under this law if there is a four year age difference between actor and victim, even if it’s proven to be a consensual act by the court.
Michelle Dhunjishah: Attorney with the Foster Care review Board
Governor’s Office does not necessarily endorse the following legislative initiatives, but she is here to provide research and information.
2) People did not realize that it’s a crime to fake a false report of child abuse. Punishment is fine and jail time but does not allow for community service. Law enforcement wanted to add community service for young people who falsely report.
3) & 4) Licensing and background screening for youth camps. Camps are not licensed and do not have to do background checks or report. No regulations (may be voluntarily accredited) except for check for cleanliness in kitchens, etc. Statutes do define summer camps in Section 20-7-2700. Proposing at a minimum to screen people, employees and volunteers, bus drivers. There may be an exception for educational institutions, which may be under their own standard. Accreditation might be through Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. What about clinical settings where care is delivered, as in weight clinics and academic camps? Colleges are running a number of these clinics. Recommendation: with the exception of accredited programs that include safety, security, etc. Who will do licensing? DHEC? Penalties should be in place for failure to screen. Lots of opposition from universities and churches. Group homes aren’t regulated. Average parents are not aware that these camps are not screening workers. Are there situations where facilities are used after school and programs are run by other groups? Yes, YMCA, Boys Club, etc. Should they be regulated? Yes. DJJ subcontracts with churches, and DJJ requires screening through their own policies. DSS has specific definitions of what constitutes childcare centers. Some church nurseries have to comply with DSS regulations, as in weekend church nurseries. Some insurance companies won’t insure them if they don’t have policies. Background screening costs $8 per person if you’re a nonprofit, $20 for institution, $50 for a national screening. Individuals applying for jobs may be willing to pay if they want the job.
4) Terminating parental rights of institutionalized parents. Have a father in jail for a long period of time. He is “supporting” his child (sending cards, etc.) while children are in foster care. These children are in foster care and ineligible for adoption. Legislation from Rhode Island says let court decide about termination. If parent is incarcerated for an extensive period of time, child has the right to be adopted. We are talking about a limited population since most kids have some relative who can raise them in these instances. 5,000 kids are in foster care in our state. Brian White in Anderson is interested in supporting this.
Child endangerment is something Committee is still working on. Example: recent case of a car jacking where children are in car, and kidnapping wasn’t charged. Need a new statute to include child endangerment. Example: Wife of sex offender allowing pedophile to live in house. Need feedback from others to perfect ideas.
VOTE ON FIRST FOUR LEGISLATIVE INITITATIVES:
BOARD VOTES TO ACCEPT ALL PROPOSALS
BILL MATTHIAS: Juvenile Committee
1) S. 601 blending 2 probation departments into one separate department. We did not support that concept believing it was not a good thing for crime victims. Bill was amended to incorporate issues brought forward by DJJ. Wanted releasing authority on certain misdemeanors. Bill was passed. Senator Fair and SCVAN agreed to not release ABHANS, ABWIKS and certain sex offenses we intend to go back in and eliminate those issues. Saylor will review legislation before its entered in floor.
2) Definition of gang members. It’s not a crime to be a member of a gang, but it is in the commission of a crime. Want to enhance penalties. Sen. McConnell formed Criminal Justice Task Force in order to get the chief opponent to gang legislation (Sen. Malloy) in the same room so they could hear law enforcement discuss how bad gang legislation is. Senator Knotts will probably get this Bill passed this year. Legislation includes a lot of prevention initiatives.
3) Reclassification of disturbing schools. Judge Byars says kids are coming in to DJJ that don’t rise to the level of criminal acts. (example: cursing a school administrator). SCVAN is concerned that South Carolina does not report enough crime in schools as it is. If they get an overbroad definition of disturbing schools, that will give them a reason to not report a crime in schools. We want to limit definition to maintain accurate reporting. Byars wants a crystal clear definition of “minor” crimes in disturbing schools. We want to be careful about giving too much discretion to report crimes. Saylor is hearing a tremendous number of cases where mentally ill kids are disturbing schools and there is a move to send them to DJJ. Recommendation by Matthias: two tiered disturbing schools approach: “spitballs vs. bodily injury”.
4) YOA – biggest issue: DOC has 29 people in YOA under violent offenses. Ozmint’s response (is correct) when a judge tells him what to do with kids, he has to do it. Do we want legislation that says if a judge is inappropriately sentencing people, agency heads may put them into the general population?
5) Extension of probation /restitution until 21. We may not be able to extend probation, but extension for restitution purposes is definitely needed. Saylor agrees. Probation ends at age 18, but can automatically be extended until 21. If victim does not get notified, victim never gets restitution. It will keep some people on parole through DJJ, but it will help victims who are difficult to track down.
VOTE ON TOP THREE INITIATIVES:
BOARD VOTES TO APPROVE 3 INITIATIVES
NEXT ISSUE: TAKE UP SCHOOL SAFETY SUBCOMMITTEE - Matthias
Discussing youth and delinquency issues, you begin to discuss school safety issues. School planning is totally inadequate. Some school safety plans are “illegal” – in case of incident, principal is in charge. We find inadequate relationships with law enforcement. Some schools have had no prior contact with law enforcement. Important information needs to be shared: for example, if you have a bomb threat, how far to get kids away from school. No similarities across jurisdictions. Standardization is not practical, but approach should at least be similar. Plans are done by schools and also by law enforcement, but limited coordination exists between them. No annual review of plans by districts, attorneys, school boards. Policies are questionable: example: fire department folks. If they get bomb threat, fire department will respond, but if the school blows up, they can only put the fire out. Some schools recommend that teachers should do searches for bombs. Bill has never seen a plan that incorporates victim services. Some schools do not address front office personnel’s responsibility with child custody issues: they will release to non-custodial parent.
School nurse / state health manual was written in 1987. Problems: parents signing off for schools to administer medication to children, but does not address securing medications, disposing unused medications. 3 terms that do not appear in manual: suicide, sexual assault and protection of evidence, and mental illness. Bill Gummerson, Lex. 3 Superintendent, added that there an organization called Midlands School Superintendents, 9 school superintendents from Midlands, including DJJ/Birchwood and K-12 programs at Ft. Jackson. DHEC is in charge of the manual. Would they consider adding to it? They replied, in essence, that it is “too much trouble. Each individual district is doing its own,” but that is not accurate. Recommendation: pull together parents, Victim Advocates, SCCADVASA, Bergmann and request meeting with Director or Board of DHEC. Manual is out of date and irrelevant. There is a person who is joint staff between Dept. of Education and DHEC. Recommendation: select her immediate supervisor, and include Ritchie, DMH, other school-based services, and hold a meeting.
Promising practice: Of all school plans submitted, one school has taken each child w/mobility problems and has one page of information on the child. Depending upon the degree of mobility, they have determined how many people to go get that child in the event of a catastrophe, and made plans about who would assist that child. This is a no-cost option.
Would approach be to get a uniform process to school safety plans? Yes. Mike Pool in Lex. 5 has done a good job. Model process needs to be developed. School plans should be mandatory and some means of enforcement through liability insurance. Can General Assembly help? Not yet. Office of Safe Schools had a woman who was in charge of that, paid consultants, but the effort was ineffectual. They are now dealing with youth courts and truancy, not school safety. Trying to develop a common format for reporting school plans. Begin in the Midlands w/interested parties to develop format. Education committee in the senate is headed by John Courson. He could give supervision to development of process. Mathias made a list of topics that need to be addressed. Police want advanced knowledge about strength of “covered bridges” at schools whether they will support cops on top.
DV – criminal penalties for violations of restraining orders
TJ Geary recommended graduated penalties for DV offenders. Would really put teeth into violations of bonds and ROs. Nothing has been written on this issue yet. Received as information no action taken.
2) We don’t enhance CDV charges from another state. Expand our definition of conviction to include out of state convictions, would be charged from 2nd offense. Would run on Nat’l NCIC. Defense arguments could be made that elements from one state don’t match ours, but we believe most do. Also want to expand definition of conviction. Right now in DUI if you’re nolle prossed, Brady motions, Alford pleas… it’s considered a conviction. Would like to copy same in CDV law. Rep. Murrelll Smith to be asked to sponsor.
4) Tenancy bill: protect victims from eviction when offender damages property in the commission of a crime. Offender breaks a door down, under a RO, tenant still pays.
SCCADVASA supports this bill.
VOTE ON TOP THREE BILLS
ALL IN FAVOR
5) no date violence definition in CDV statutes.
6) Support the enforcement of federal gun restrictions. Cross deputize state sheriffs and police officers to support federal law if you’re convicted of CDV, you lose your weapon.
7) SCCADVASA requested proviso requiring courts to develop comprehensive computerized data collection. Need to know stats on sex assault.
8) Family court stuff didn’t pass last year – all child support payments be made through family court. You can only pay to an individual if you have made a prior arrangement and opt out.
9) 48 hour hold on CDV offenders. Victim requests offender be held. Has to be a hearing about that before he’s let loose.
10) Bills sponsors want to reintroduce: Jay Lucas: CDV offender must pay medical costs of a victim. Sen. Thomas – CDV HAN would be a ground for a divorce. Clemmons: Requiring state to add Nat’l DV and sexual assault hotline to back of drivers’ licenses.
11) Proviso: $275K for CJA to expand DV training. Was approved in house but not senate, but Sen. Fair recommended.
Most initiatives were recommended by Task Force. Expecting some argument from solicitors about some of these recommendations. Some solicitors have embraced solicitors in lower courts. Sol. Peace likes having this presence in lower courts. Still no comprehensive report on solicitor based CDV actions in summary courts
ELECTION
OF BOARD MEMBERS:
ELECTED TO BOARD as Ex Officio members:
Luck Campbell
Chief Patty Patterson
Jami Goldman
Suzanne Mayes
Beebe James
Cassandra Keller
Martha Busterna
Motion to move Renee Mattox to voting board
All Board members voted in favor.
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