BREAKING THE CYCLE: PROGRAM OFFERS ALTERNATIVE TO PROSECUTION

Stopping the cycle of violence in abusive relationships within Cape Girardeau County is the goal behind a program created and implemented by the prosecuting attorney's office in conjunction with area probation and parole officers.

The Domestic Violence Diversion Program, proposed two years ago by Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle, has had a 97 percent success rate in diminishing domestic violence. Of the 36 people who have completed the program, only one has assaulted his victim again.

Another person enrolled in the program was dismissed but not for assaulting his spouse.

The yearlong program, part of what the Board of Probation and Parole calls the "deferred prosecuting program," allows people accused of domestic violence to avoid prosecution by admitting their guilt and accepting supervised probation.

If a defendant successfully completes the program, which includes participation in some form of anger management counseling, then the charges against him will be completely dismissed, and he will have no criminal record whatsoever related to the incident.

But before a defendant is allowed into the program, he must sign a written statement admitting his guilt. A statement from the victim saying that she wishes the defendant to enter the program must also be obtained.

Under the guidelines issued by the prosecutor's office, a person who fails to complete the program will have the assault charges refiled against him and he will be prosecuted.

The prosecution is made easier by the signed statement in which the defendant admits to the assault.

Swingle said that the program grew out of the desire of those within the prosecutor's office to see an end to what experts call the "cycle of violence" in abusive relationships.

"A person, usually a man, assaults another person, usually a woman, often his wife or girlfriend. The man is arrested and begs for forgiveness, and the woman drops the charges. Six months to a year later, it starts all over again," Swingle said.

When looking for a way to end the cycle of violence, the prosecutor's office instituted a no-drop policy in domestic violence cases, meaning that even if the victim decided not to press charges, the prosecution would continue with the case.

The problem for the prosecution came in actually trying the cases. If the victim of the violence was the spouse of the defendant, she could invoke spousal privilege and refuse to testify against her husband in court.

If, on the other hand, the victim was a girlfriend rather than a spouse, she would often be an uncooperative witness. Sometimes she would refuse to testify.

"She could be held in contempt of court for refusing to testify, but then we would be punishing the victim," Swingle said.

In March 1996, the Domestic Violence Diversion Program was proposed by Swingle to deal with the problem of abuse.

Most of the people who have gone through the program were men who abused their wives or girlfriends. One person who went through the program had abused a grandparent. In one case, a husband and wife were both put into the program for abusing each other.

Probation and parole officers Betsy McCoy, who first oversaw the program, and Vicky Lankford, who currently directs the program, said that the board conducts a thorough investigation of every person referred to the program.

Guidelines for the program require that the defendant may not have been previously convicted of a felony or misdemeanor in order to qualify for the program.

As a condition of participating in the program, a person must agree not to use alcohol for a year, similar to a condition of probation often placed on people by a judge.

"Alcohol often plays a significant role in domestic violence," Lankford said.

"More often than not we read the phrase 'had been drinking' in the police reports. Typically, the person was intoxicated at the time," she said.

Once a person has gone through the program, he is ineligible for it again.