The majority of District Attorney’s Offices in Texas follow the national model of having specialized family violence units, where assigned prosecutors and investigators handle only domestic violence cases. Many Texas law enforcement agencies have specialty domestic violence teams. All of the law enforcement agencies affiliated with an advocacy center assign officers to the center as part of a domestic violence task force.
"*" indicates required fields
The creation of specialized domestic violence prosecution teams has but one goal: conviction of a suspected perpetrator. The advocacy team collaboration of prosecutors, police, social workers, medical professionals, counselors and others are a team in every sense of the word. They share more than a central location. They share belief systems, ideologies, strategies, and a game plan. That game plan is to convict any person charged with domestic violence. The belief system is one that every person charged with domestic violence is a batterer. The belief system also finds every victim of domestic violence to be a battered spouse.
The belief system incorporates extreme arrogance. The family violence team knows better than anyone, particularly the family itself, what is best for them. The team works together in secret, planning and mapping out strategy to forge the future of the family, whether it is in their best interests or not.
“Unfortunately, it won’t really matter what happened that night or how capable she (alleged victim) is of deciding for herself whether or not she needs protection — the court and the prosecutors can still say no. They can stand by and tell that victim that she doesn’t really know what’s best for her and her family. She is a victim — how can she possibly know what’s best after what she’s been through?
Many of these people know exactly what is best for them and their families, and yet are revictimized by the powerlessness imposed upon them by asystem of people who know better.” Janeice T. Martin, Esq.,Domestic Violence – The Other Side of Zero Tolerance
The above statement is not an aberration. It is common to find family service plans forced upon alleged victims by advocacy center social workers to include conditions that require:
- The alleged perpetrator to reside out of the household while the case is pending;
- The alleged perpetrator to have no contact with their family while the case is pending;
- The alleged victim to “assist” in the prosecution of the alleged perpetrator.
Assisting in prosecution means the victim must testify against the defendant. It also often means the victim must pursue divorce proceedings against the defendant. If the victim does not want to divorce or testify, advocates will eventually threaten her with failing to protect her children. Then the protectors will threaten removal of the children unless the victim pledges allegiance to the team and assists in convicting the defendant.
“Women are coerced into accepting their cultish indoctrination via the use of threats, intimidation, and the fear of losing their children…Women are ordered to leave their husbands, even in the absence of real domestic violence or abuse. They are ordered to never let the fathers see their children, or DSS will charge the women with neglect.” Nev Moore, More Families in DSS…More $$ For Everyone: Unhealthy Relationship between DSS and Domestic Violence Industry.
If you are facing allegations of Domestic Violence contact Dunham & Jones, Attorneys at Law. You must act quickly to protect your rights!
