In May, Darryl Richardson was charged with felonious assault after he repeatedly punched Ms. Rivera in the face and body, fracturing her facial bone, according to court records. Prosecutors dismissed the charge against Mr. Richardson on June 2. Court records indicate that Ms. Rivera twice failed to appear in court; the state was out of time and could not prosecute without the victim, and the detective who filed the charge could not find Ms. Rivera.
Mr. Santonio Holmes faces domestic violence and assault charges in connection with a June 19 incident involving LaShae Boone, his Columbus girlfriend and the mother of one of his three children.
She has told the prosecution she wants the charges to be dropped. But the prosecution still has the 911 call she made that night and a statement she gave police in which she accused Mr. Holmes of “choking (her), throwing her to the ground, grabbing her arms, and slamming her into a door, leaving her with bruises, pain, and a torn shirt.” “We would subpoena her and place her on the witness stand,” said Mr. McIntosh. “How strong a witness she would be for us would be the issue. Then we would have to debate the issue of contempt.”
Darryl Richardson as stated above, walked away with out facing prosecution for domestic violence against Lori Rivera in June. Now, in August he is in jail having been charged with the beating death of Lori Rivera on August 18th. The prosecution has not dropped the charges against Santonio Holmes, yet it's been stated he will probably not get any jail time.
Infact in an earlier Pittsburg Tribune review article Holmes attorney Sam Shamansky tried to downplay the episode:
"These are two young people who don't have a negative history," Shamansky said. "As (domestic violence) cases go, this one is not World War III. This is not a woman with her eye swollen shut."
It's been announced that Marcy Kaptur has gotten a $197,446 grant to help study what more can be done to combat domestic violence for Lucas County.
It's pretty obvious what part of the problem is, we have the public as well as attorney's who downplay domestic violence. It doesn't matter if it wasn't World War III this time, it could very well be the next time. Lori Rivera let Darryl Richardson get away with abusing her and she ended up paying for that decision with her life. LaShae Boone either lied about the 911 call or she was a victim of domestic violence. If she lied then she should be prosecuted, people who make false domestic violence claims hurt those who really have been victims. Even if she wants to drop the charges it either happened or it didn't happen. I applaud the prosecutor's office in Columbus for not dropping this and I wish that it would happen more often.
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3 comments:
You know, it's too bad that the law doesn't take domestic violence issues just as serious as other crimes.
Could this be because there is a significant portion of our society who believe that "wives need to be obedient to their husbands"?
I agree Domestic Violence is a serious problem in America. I have worked in law enforcement and the criminal courts.
It is diheartening however to see the attorney blamed.
It's disheartening to see domestic violence be excused away because there wasn't swollen or blackened eyes. Being pushed, choked, thrown to the floor and having a shirt ripped, is not exactly excuseable behavior. Which is why I stated if the 911 call and the report is true, I don't think an attorney should be out there making those sorts of public statements trying to excuse Holmes behavior.
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