On December 6, my group and I went to the Criminal Court in Brooklyn, to view domestic violence court dates. We sat in the jury box and observed the cases at hand. I learned that if a defender in a domestic violence case does not plead guilty to a domestic violence action they have to go to trial. When we were in court we saw a case that dealt with a man (the defendant) who choked his girlfriend (the victim). He admitted that he did this action, so he does not have to go trial but he does have to serve time in jail. Within 24 hours of arrest for domestic violence cases defendants are brought to a judge who tells them when their next court date is and the defendants are informed of the order of protection for the victim. The order of protection tells the defendant things they cannot to do to their victim, like: you can’t visit her home or her work or contact her in any way. When in court they go over this again to make sure the defendant understands. When we were in court we saw a case that involved a defendant who has a child with the victim. To know whether or not he can see his child he has to g to the family court. One thing that struck me was the ages of the defendants. There were sixteen year olds defendants! If the crime of domestic violence is not that serious and the age of the defendant is 16-19 they can be part of the YODVC (Youthful Offender Domestic Violence Court) program. The program allows counseling for 12 weeks for dealing with domestic violence problems. Many of the defendants who were part of this program were checking in with their counselors to the court, to show the progress in the YODVC program. Something that surprised me was, the difference between courts in a domestic violence case. When a case has to go to trial in Brooklyn it can either go to the Criminal Court in Brooklyn or the Brooklyn Supreme Court. The criminal court allows cases with under a year of jail sentences times. The Brooklyn Supreme court holds cases with over a years worth of jail time. Before any domestic violence case can go to trial they have to go through court dates. Those court dates are held at the Criminal Justice Court in Brooklyn. One thing that I learned about the domestic violence court system in Brooklyn is when you have a court date there is no juries or witnesses but when there is a trial there are witness and juries. One of the next steps my social justice group and I are going to take will be seeing a domestic violence trial in the Brooklyn Supreme Court. We also are having an interview with the author of Sold (a book about sexual and human trafficking). One thing I would like to remember for the social justices teach-in is the role of the court in different scenarios of domestic violence cases.
