ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 5, 1996 TAG: 9601050068
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: By ROBERT LITTLE STAFF WRITER
Three months ago, when Alesha Johnson was being stalked and battered by a former boyfriend, her relatives looked to the police, the courts and Virginia's lawbooks for help.
Thursday, her murder heavy on their minds, they left their Roanoke home for the state capital, bent on changing the system that failed to keep her alive.
"I waited for the system to work," said Sylvia McCollum Johnson, Alesha's mother. "The system didn't work, and my daughter is dead."
Alesha, 21, died Oct. 19 - shot, police believe, by her 26-year-old boyfriend, Larry Mack. Hours later, Mack killed himself with the same 9mm handgun.
The police, the courts and family members knew Mack was violent: He had been arrested before for assault and battery of his girlfriend, but released soon thereafter. Prosecutors tried two days before the killing to protect Johnson by having Mack thrown in jail. But the judge - and the law - wouldn't allow it.
"It's time to get to some level of extreme consequences," said Angela Johnson, Alesha's sister. "Let's eliminate the guessing game of who is and who isn't capable of murder."
Alesha's family was in Richmond on Thursday to ask the Commission on Family Violence Prevention for changes in the state's domestic violence laws. Made up of 25 legislators, judges, public officials and residents, the commission will meet again today to adopt its package of proposed legislation for 1996 - much of it designed to protect victims like Alesha Johnson.
Central to the recommendations will be changes in the criteria for protective orders granted by the courts.
Alesha never got an order barring her ex-boyfriend from making contact with her, trespassing on her property or abusing her further. And she probably didn't qualify for one.
If the commission's proposals become law, situations like Alesha Johnson's could change. Among the possible recommendations:
Making it easier for victims to get protective orders. Currently, victims must show evidence of assault and battery for courts to issue restraining orders. The new laws would allow them simply to show a fear that they might be harmed.
Broadening the laws that protect against spouse abuse to cover the more-general "family abuse." Changes would allow protective orders to be issued against relatives, live-in partners or other members of a household, not just spouses.
Allowing protective orders to be in force longer.
Requiring judges to issue protective orders as a condition of release whenever someone is arrested for assault and battery of a family member, and requiring automatic arrest when people violate those orders.
That proposal - making arrest or protective orders mandatory in some cases - could be among the commission's more controversial recommendations. Some members fear that non-victims could too easily lie to punish an estranged spouse. The rights of the accused are important as well, they say.
But supporters say such changes are among the most effective in assuring that volatile situations are identified early, before violence erupts.
The man who police believe killed Johnson's sister, for instance, was arrested weeks earlier for attempted abduction, and assault and battery. If a protective order could have been issued, he would have been prohibited from contacting Johnson. More important, perhaps, the law also would have allowed police to confiscate his firearms.
"I think the case in Roanoke indicates it clearly: The most dangerous time for potential victims of domestic violence is right when they leave a relationship," said Harriet M. Russell, executive director of the commission.
"Problems need to be identified quickly. That's what we hope these changes will do."
But even with the new changes, Johnson's sister still might not have been protected, because her attacker was not a relative or household member - key to making the "family abuse" laws apply.
And the panel also wants new programs in the state to educate police, magistrates and other law enforcement officials to better recognize stalking, family abuse and other problems as crimes - not simply relationship troubles. "One thing we've learned," said Sen. Janet D. Howell, D-Reston, chairperson of the commission, "is that there is a big leap between having a bill and a law on the books and having something happen because of it."
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