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Victim says more severe penalties are needed for domestic abusers

Jessica VanEgeren  —  11/19/2008 5:42 am

In October, a domestic violence victim named Shadayra Kilfoy-Flores did something few abused women do. She went public with her story while the case was still working its way through the court system.

Her story didn't end with the physical abuse she endured on Jan. 1 at the hands of her attacker, 35-year-old Christopher Burns, whom she had been dating for several months. In telling her story, she also blasted the Dane County District Attorney's Office staff for what she said was a violation of her rights as a victim: failing to inform her that they had offered Burns a plea bargain, which he accepted.

The plea deal dropped a felony burglary charge against Burns, drastically reducing the maximum amount of time he could spend in prison from just over 11 years to 18 months, a sentence Kilfoy-Flores said hardly fit the crime. Kilfoy-Flores is planning to file a formal complaint with the state's Crime Victims Rights Board.

District Attorney Brian Blanchard said in October that his prosecutor did not think they could convict Burns of burglary, which would have required them to prove that he entered Kilfoy-Flores' apartment with the intent to commit another felony. An earlier prosecutor, now retired, filed the burglary charge and a judge ruled there was probable cause to hear it at trial, but Blanchard said last month and still maintains that a later prosecutor's recommendation to drop the burglary charge was the legally correct one.

Kilfoy-Flores' move to go public with her story prompted an outpouring of community outrage. At least 40 people, including some who knew nothing about her story until they read about it in The Cap Times, wrote letters supporting her to Dane County Circuit Judge Patrick Fiedler. Last week, Burns was in Fiedler's court for his sentencing hearing. Kilfoy-Flores, surrounded by friends, family members and advocates from the Domestic Abuse Intervention Services, waited somberly for Fiedler to deliver the sentence. Dressed in black, they clutched fistfuls of tissues in anticipation of tears.

Burns' attorney, Sarah Schmeiser, suggested that he receive one year in jail, rather than prison, as part of three years of probation. But Fiedler handed down the maximum penalty available for first-degree substantial battery: 18 months in prison, to be followed by two years of extended supervision. The 229 days Burns already had served in jail will be deducted from his prison term, meaning he will serve less than one year in prison.

Before making his decision, Fiedler flipped through several photos of Kilfoy-Flores that were taken shortly after the attack, which left her with a swollen-shut right eye that needed to be rebuilt with metal plates, five fractures to her face and a broken jaw that had to be wired shut for eight weeks.

Fiedler noted that Kilfoy-Flores was the fourth person Burns had attacked, three of them in domestic abuse cases, since 1992. Fiedler said there are certain people who cannot be trusted to be out in the community, and that Burns is one of them.

"I don't know if you realize just how wrong this is," Fiedler told Burns. "You are old enough to know that this is not a reasonable way to act. ... How are you a better person than you were in 1992 when you battered the first person?"

Before the beating, Kilfoy-Flores repeatedly hit Burns' car with a hammer during an argument outside her home, but Fiedler and Deputy District Attorney Tim Verhoff dismissed the idea that Kilfoy-Flores provoked Burns.

"This is someone who stated he knew she was going to do something to make him put his hands on her," Verhoff said. "That speaks to his character. In essence, he's saying, 'I'm justified to do what I did because you made me mad.'"

In asking for a lighter sentence for Burns, Schmeiser wrote in the sentencing memo: "The full facts show that Chris overreacted to the severe damage caused to his property." Fiedler and Verhoff countered by saying that when the fight reached that point, Burns had the option to drive away and should have. Instead, he made the choice to go after Kilfoy-Flores, breaking into her apartment and then assaulting her.

"I hate that I let myself get that far to do that," Burns said. "I've been trying to work on my anger problems. I just want to let Kilfoy-Flores know that I am not a bad person. I know that I do bad things from time to time."

Burns said he did not feel he deserved the maximum penalty. He also expressed a desire to see a psychologist so he could possibly get on some medication "so I don't do this again."

"An apology from you is meaningless and would be insincere, since I know that you would not mean it," Kilfoy-Flores said in court prior to Burns' apology at the hearing. "Save your breath and spare me and the court from listening to an empty apology. I believe that you are sorry, but only for yourself, sorry for the time and the freedom that you have lost."

A day after the hearing, Kilfoy-Flores said she was torn about the outcome of the trial. While relieved the process was over, she said she still would have liked to have seen Burns receive more time for his crimes. She said she will continue to raise awareness about the penalties domestic abusers face and wants to shed light on the staffing needs of the district attorney's office so that attorneys are able to spend more time with each case.

Twenty-nine attorneys now work for the Dane County District Attorney's Office. Eleven more are needed, according to the state Department of Administration.

Kilfoy-Flores said she finds hope in what she described as the post-election wave of optimism sweeping the country, a wave that she feels is mobilizing people to fight for change.

"The penalties currently available are a complete injustice to domestic violence victims," she said. "They are a huge slap in the face. These are men hitting woman, sometimes the mothers of their children, and they need to be held accountable. The law is the law, and clearly it needs to be changed."

Jessica VanEgeren  —  11/19/2008 5:42 am