Utah lieutenant governor supports lethality assessments for domestic violence reports

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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson threw her assist behind a invoice to require cops to conduct lethality assessments when responding to home violence circumstances.

Henderson spoke to a Senate committee on Tuesday, alongside her aunt and uncle, whose daughter, Amanda Mayne, was killed by Mayne’s ex-husband Taylor Martin final August. Utah legislation enforcement companies have voluntarily used an 11-question evaluation for years, although, no evaluation was accomplished in Mayne’s case.

“I really feel I signify my household and my cousin, however I signify everyone on this state as properly,” Henderson instructed lawmakers. “And there are lots of people, quite a lot of victims, quite a lot of households which have suffered.”

Henderson mentioned Martin had an extended historical past of violent conduct — together with threatening to kill former Utah Gov. Gary Herbert — and thinks {that a} lethality evaluation could have made a distinction.

“There’s a lengthy historical past right here of issues that have been caught, issues that weren’t caught, dots that weren’t related. The circle had not been closed,” she mentioned. “… We have to join the dots. We have to have info for legislation enforcement as they’re within the scenario, to know if this offender is a high-risk offender — if this offender is somebody like Taylor Martin, who has a excessive threat of being violent or escalating.”

Regardless of being restricted from shopping for firearms, Taylor Martin was in a position to acquire a gun and ammunition earlier than taking pictures Mayne 11 occasions, in keeping with Amanda’s father, Kent Mayne.

“That is one of many worst components of this; it shouldn’t be that straightforward for a restricted felon to acquire a firearm,” Mayne instructed the committee.

He mentioned he cannot make certain if a lethality evaluation would have saved his daughter’s life, however mentioned, “it was definitely a chance missed for some additional intervention that may have saved her.”

SB117, sponsored by Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, would require legislation enforcement officers to conduct lethality assessments when responding to studies of home violence between intimate companions. It will additionally create a statewide database of evaluation knowledge and would require knowledge sharing between companies, in order that officers have entry to details about earlier offenses by alleged aggressors.

If handed, the invoice would require all legislation enforcement officers to ask the sufferer the next 11 questions:

1. If the aggressor has ever used a weapon towards the sufferer or threatened the sufferer with a weapon.
2. If the aggressor has ever threatened to kill the sufferer of the sufferer’s kids.
3. If the sufferer believes the aggressor will attempt to kill the sufferer.
4. If the aggressor has a gun or might simply get a gun.
5. If the aggressor has each tried to choke the sufferer.
6. If the aggressor is violently or continually jealous, or controls many of the every day actions of the sufferer.
7. If the sufferer left or separated from the aggressor after they have been dwelling collectively or married.
8. If the aggressor is unemployed.
9. If the aggressor has ever tried suicide, to one of the best of the sufferer’s information.
10. If the sufferer has a toddler that the aggressor believes shouldn’t be the aggressor’s organic baby.
11. If the aggressor follows or spies on the sufferer, or leaves threatening messages for the sufferer.

Weiler mentioned if the sufferer solutions sure to any of the primary three questions, it will set off a direct referral to a girls’s shelter or one other group that may present sufferer providers. Entry to a gun and former cases of choking the sufferer are additionally essential, he mentioned.

“Sadly, we now know that the daddy of the household that was murdered in Enoch, Utah … there was a police report that the eldest daughter had been choked by her father and that appeared to be an indicator of upper threat of violence sooner or later,” Weiler mentioned.

A number of cops and sufferer advocates spoke in favor of the invoice, which in the end obtained a unanimous optimistic suggestion from the Senate Judiciary, Legislation Enforcement and Felony Justice Committee. It’ll now head to the complete Senate for a vote.

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