Post by pacino2367 on Aug 23, 2007 11:14:33 GMT -5
Judge expresses grief, anguish over decision 8:30 AM
Let man return home despite estranged wife's fears
08:30 AM EDT on Thursday, August 23, 2007
By CLEVE WOOTSON JR. / The Charlotte Observer
Judge Becky Tin
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Sonia Long told the judge she was afraid.
Her estranged husband had pushed her to the ground, she said, stuck his knees in her back and choked her. She said he constantly threatened to kill her and had vowed to "make life miserable."
So Mecklenburg District Judge Becky Tin had to decide: Should she kick a man without a violent history out of his own house, and order him to stay away from Sonia Long and their children?
Tin decided to issue a less restrictive restraining order against Anthony Long, which said he was not to assault, threaten or harass his estranged wife. Tin also demanded that he attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
Seven days later, Sonia Long was dead. Police found her body in the east Charlotte home the couple shared. Anthony Long is charged with rape and murder in the slaying. Police say he also stabbed Sonia Long's boyfriend, Roderick Phillips.
Tin, who's been over the recording of the Aug. 9 dozens of times, said she is "traumatized" by the slaying. But she said she doesn't know what else she could have done.
"I said based on this record, I will order him not to assault, harass or threaten you, but I will not order him away from the home," Tin told the Observer. "There was no way, based on the evidence in front of me, to fathom that this guy would snap the way that he snapped."
But those close to Sonia Long, whose funeral is today, said Tin should have done more.
Her boyfriend questioned Tin's judgement. "A man threatened to kill you and your kids, then you're going to make a person go back and live with that person?" Phillips asked. "Sonia would probably be here now if it wasn't for that decision."
14 minutes in court
In a recording of the Aug. 9 hearing, Anthony Long sounds frustrated but composed. The 35-year-old construction worker said he'd been living on the streets after his wife filed a temporary restraining order against him 10 days prior. They'd been married for seven years and separated for one. Sonia Long, 32, had moved out twice, but was evicted both times. Anthony Long said he helped her find places to live because he wanted his to have a stable home.
He said he was upset that Sonia Long had become pregnant by another man. What really angered him, he said, was that when he got home from 12-hour days at work, "her boyfriend would be sitting on my couch."
Tin said Anthony Long's words, in addition to a lack of documented abuse, led her to allow the two to continue living together.
Sonia Long did not agree with the decision, her boyfriend said.
Hours after the hearing, she moved into a battered women's shelter and began looking for a new place to live.
A fatal trip
On Aug. 16, Sonia Long had a lead on a new apartment. Her poor rental and credit history made it hard to get a place, but after hearing about her domestic situation, managers at one complex said they'd rent her an apartment. But they needed identification for everyone who would live there. That would require a trip back to the home on Medford Drive.
"She said 'I don't want to be at the women's shelter no more. ΒΌ I want to go and get these birth certificates so I can get in this apartment,' " Phillips said. "We didn't expect him to be there."
They saw Anthony Long's gray Chevrolet Astro van in the driveway, but Sonia Long decided to go in the house anyway. She asked Phillips to stay in the car with their baby.
If Anthony Long saw him, she said, there could be trouble.
Phillips said the last time he saw his girlfriend alive was 30 minutes later, when she came to the house's front window and mouthed to him that everything was OK.
He said Anthony Long later called him into a back room of the house, saying Sonia Long had a seizure and fell. Then, he says, he was stabbed in the back and arms, before running out of the house with the baby in his hands. 'A different standard'
Bea Cote, executive director of IMPACT, a batterer intervention program, said that she doesn't think Tin's decision was faulty. It was the judge's job to balance the safety of the plaintiff and the freedom of the defendant, she said. "You do have to have more than 'I'm afraid of him.'." Cote said. "You have to be able to tell the judge what he has done to cause you to be fearful of him."
People in the criminal justice system, while admitting that laws could be tougher, said victims should take advantage of government or social resources. For example, they should call a deputy whenever they have to be near a person under a restraining order.
Mecklenburg District Judge Rickye McKoy-Mitchell, who rotates through domestic violence civil court with Tin, said one of her biggest fears is that a decision she makes will inadvertently result in the injury or death of someone who sought help.
Still, she said, the best a judge can do is make a decision with the information in front of her. "To otherwise hold us to a different standard is to expect us to have some vision beyond what any other human has," she said.
Let man return home despite estranged wife's fears
08:30 AM EDT on Thursday, August 23, 2007
By CLEVE WOOTSON JR. / The Charlotte Observer
Judge Becky Tin
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Sonia Long told the judge she was afraid.
Her estranged husband had pushed her to the ground, she said, stuck his knees in her back and choked her. She said he constantly threatened to kill her and had vowed to "make life miserable."
So Mecklenburg District Judge Becky Tin had to decide: Should she kick a man without a violent history out of his own house, and order him to stay away from Sonia Long and their children?
Tin decided to issue a less restrictive restraining order against Anthony Long, which said he was not to assault, threaten or harass his estranged wife. Tin also demanded that he attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
Seven days later, Sonia Long was dead. Police found her body in the east Charlotte home the couple shared. Anthony Long is charged with rape and murder in the slaying. Police say he also stabbed Sonia Long's boyfriend, Roderick Phillips.
Tin, who's been over the recording of the Aug. 9 dozens of times, said she is "traumatized" by the slaying. But she said she doesn't know what else she could have done.
"I said based on this record, I will order him not to assault, harass or threaten you, but I will not order him away from the home," Tin told the Observer. "There was no way, based on the evidence in front of me, to fathom that this guy would snap the way that he snapped."
But those close to Sonia Long, whose funeral is today, said Tin should have done more.
Her boyfriend questioned Tin's judgement. "A man threatened to kill you and your kids, then you're going to make a person go back and live with that person?" Phillips asked. "Sonia would probably be here now if it wasn't for that decision."
14 minutes in court
In a recording of the Aug. 9 hearing, Anthony Long sounds frustrated but composed. The 35-year-old construction worker said he'd been living on the streets after his wife filed a temporary restraining order against him 10 days prior. They'd been married for seven years and separated for one. Sonia Long, 32, had moved out twice, but was evicted both times. Anthony Long said he helped her find places to live because he wanted his to have a stable home.
He said he was upset that Sonia Long had become pregnant by another man. What really angered him, he said, was that when he got home from 12-hour days at work, "her boyfriend would be sitting on my couch."
Tin said Anthony Long's words, in addition to a lack of documented abuse, led her to allow the two to continue living together.
Sonia Long did not agree with the decision, her boyfriend said.
Hours after the hearing, she moved into a battered women's shelter and began looking for a new place to live.
A fatal trip
On Aug. 16, Sonia Long had a lead on a new apartment. Her poor rental and credit history made it hard to get a place, but after hearing about her domestic situation, managers at one complex said they'd rent her an apartment. But they needed identification for everyone who would live there. That would require a trip back to the home on Medford Drive.
"She said 'I don't want to be at the women's shelter no more. ΒΌ I want to go and get these birth certificates so I can get in this apartment,' " Phillips said. "We didn't expect him to be there."
They saw Anthony Long's gray Chevrolet Astro van in the driveway, but Sonia Long decided to go in the house anyway. She asked Phillips to stay in the car with their baby.
If Anthony Long saw him, she said, there could be trouble.
Phillips said the last time he saw his girlfriend alive was 30 minutes later, when she came to the house's front window and mouthed to him that everything was OK.
He said Anthony Long later called him into a back room of the house, saying Sonia Long had a seizure and fell. Then, he says, he was stabbed in the back and arms, before running out of the house with the baby in his hands. 'A different standard'
Bea Cote, executive director of IMPACT, a batterer intervention program, said that she doesn't think Tin's decision was faulty. It was the judge's job to balance the safety of the plaintiff and the freedom of the defendant, she said. "You do have to have more than 'I'm afraid of him.'." Cote said. "You have to be able to tell the judge what he has done to cause you to be fearful of him."
People in the criminal justice system, while admitting that laws could be tougher, said victims should take advantage of government or social resources. For example, they should call a deputy whenever they have to be near a person under a restraining order.
Mecklenburg District Judge Rickye McKoy-Mitchell, who rotates through domestic violence civil court with Tin, said one of her biggest fears is that a decision she makes will inadvertently result in the injury or death of someone who sought help.
Still, she said, the best a judge can do is make a decision with the information in front of her. "To otherwise hold us to a different standard is to expect us to have some vision beyond what any other human has," she said.