Sweeney, Weinberg to Introduce Legislation to Toughen Requirements for Domestic Violence Pre-Trial Intervention

Senate President Steve Sweeney and Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg announced on Thursday their intention to introduce legislation that would toughen the eligibility rules for pre-trial intervention in cases of domestic violence, which allows offenders to avoid jail time under certain conditions.

“The Ray Rice case highlighted the need to bring more clarity and definition to the standards used to allow pre-trial intervention in domestic violence cases,” said Senator Sweeney. “The program shouldn’t be used to allow violent offenders to get out of jail for free. Abusers need to know they will be held accountable for crimes of violence.”

The legislation will be crafted from information Senator Sweeney received from the Attorney General’s Office in response to his request for a review of the state PTI law.

“Domestic violence has been a hidden crime that too often allowed abusers to avoid responsibility and punishment,” said Senator Weinberg. “The current law allows too many offenders to automatically avoid jail time. Prosecutors need a stronger law to work with and these changes will give it to them.”

The bill would eliminate the automatic assumption that aggravated assault in first time cases of domestic abuse qualifies for non-imprisonment, add additional crimes such as robbery and criminal coercion to the definition of domestic violence and clarify the definition of threatened harm to go beyond an “imminent” threat. The bill would also revise the PTI law to require domestic violence offenders to have a guilty plea held in abeyance before being admitted to PTI.

Two new important provisions would also be added to the definition of “aggravating factors” that could disqualify defendants from eligibility; when the abuse is committed in the presence of a child and in cases of repetitive acts of violence.

Senator Sweeney and Senator Weinberg introduced separate legislation Thursday that would create a three-year Domestic Violence Court Pilot Program in Monmouth and Camden counties to handle all domestic violence cases in their respective counties. Judges assigned to the courts would have extensive knowledge and experience in criminal law and sentencing.

The Administrative Office of the Courts would monitor the effectiveness of the pilot program and report back to the Legislature after 12 months with recommendations on whether it should be continued or expanded.

The PTI bill will:

• Eliminate the presumption of non-imprisonment for aggravated assault against a person protected under the domestic violence act. Now, aggravated assault causing significant bodily injury is a 3rd degree crime which carries a presumption of non-imprisonment for first-time offenders. The bill would change the law so that attempts to cause or causing significant bodily injury would be graded as a 3rd degree crime but without the presumption of non-imprisonment.

• Specify additional crimes in the definition of “domestic violence” to include robbery, contempt and criminal coercion. These crimes are often committed in the context of abusive relationships and should be brought under the umbrella of the domestic violence law.

• Clarify that the definition of criminal coercion be revised to include threats made for any time frame, not just an imminent threat. (For example, by threatening “If you leave me, I’m going to find you and kill you” as opposed to “I am coming over there right now to kill you”).

• Revise the PTI statute, to require certain more serious criminal and DV defendants to plead guilty in order to be admitted into the program. This would apply in the following circumstances: (1) where a defendant is charged with a 1st or 2nd degree crime; (2) where a defendant is charged with any crime where there was a prior 1st or 2nd degree conviction; (3) where a defendant is charged with a 3rd or 4th degree DV crime; (4) where a defendant is charged with any DV crime or offense in violation of a DV restraining order; and (5) where a defendant is charged with criminal contempt of a DV order.

• The PTI statute would also be amended to require prosecutors and judges to give added weight to the victim’s position on whether the defendant should be admitted to PTI in formulating their own recommendations (which is consistent with recent revisions to the Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights).

• Add two new DV-related prongs to the sentencing provisions, including repetitive DV acts and incidents in the presence of a child as aggravating factors, and remove the current presumption of non-imprisonment for DV convictions for first-time offenders if either of these factors apply.