Huckleberries Online

Protection Order Didn’t Save Woman

Posted by DFO

Feb. 14, 2009 12:29 a.m. • 17 comments

A no-contact order filed two months after Becky and Uriah Brosnan were married in 1997 showed early signs of domestic abuse. After that, there were no police reports or repeated emergency calls to the couple’s home indicating trouble – until Becky Uriah was beaten to death and her husband charged with murder. That pattern isn’t unusual, authorities say. “In most cases where there were domestic violence homicides, there had been almost no contact with police,” Spokane police Detective Jan Pogachar said. Instead, victims often go to shelters or seek help from family members. Becky Brosnan, 32, died Jan. 28 after she met with her estranged husband at his workplace parking lot to discuss child custody arrangements/Jody Lawrence-Turner. More here.

Question: Are restraining orders worth anything more than the paper that they’re written on? In other words, do they provide any real protection against an abusive former partner?

17 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Cis on February 14 at 11:53 a.m.
for the life of me, I have never understood why women meet with their ex…or to be ex by themselves. Even in the best of times, it is ALWAYS better to have 3 friends with you… unless you meet at the lawyers office. Then the 3 friends can sit in the waiting room for you.
JeanieSpokane on February 14 at 12:09 p.m.
I don’t think restraining orders are any protection at all if the one they are restraining really wants to hurt the victim. He’ll be extra motivated to “get even.” They don’t care about any consequences if they are caught within the prohibited zone - and if they can actually hurt or kill, so much the better. In their mind.
Dennis on February 14 at 12:11 p.m.
A “Protection Order” is only as good as the person who is being protected. If he/she follows it to the letter, then it’s a great tool. If he/she starts making up their own exceptions, then it becomes a piece of toilet paper.
Bob on February 14 at 12:30 p.m.
Someone once told me that 90% or higher of all victims of domestic homicide had protection or restraining orders at the time of their murder. Don’t know but I don’t think that’s an indictment of them or even a reason NOT to get one (it was assumed in that statement that getting restraining/protection orders can instigate the perp) but that people who get killed in DV tend to have been part of an escalating pattern in which they had to get one out of self protection.
BethB on February 14 at 1:10 p.m.
Protection orders can escalate tensions so, in the worst cases, protection orders can make things worse. This is why I think that law enforcement makes a mistake if it relies too heavily on protection orders. But it’s great that the orders exist. It is a gift that we have, over these past years, come to understand more about domestic violence and its patterns. I do think the Cycle of Violence - where there is tension-buildup, then explosion (the abuse), then a honeymoon (where the abuser is sorry) and then tension build-up again (see the cycle?) - is an accurate description of what can occur behind closed doors. If suddenly there is a protection order plopped down into the middle of this cycle, then there is no place for the upcoming tension and the explosion. So, in the worst cases, the orders lead to more danger as the abuser (and possibly even the abused, now that she or he is trained) is looking for outlets, especially when the underlying purpose of the abuse is control over the abused and the abused suddenly has gained the upper hand.

BUT - all that said - protection orders do work in a vast majority of cases. They are an important law enforcement tool, and just may be the way that some relationships don’t go down the “worst” path at all.
jreighley on February 14 at 1:14 p.m.
Anyone can kill anybody at any time, and there isn’t a whole lot that anybody can do proactively to change that.

Freedom works in a moral society. As disdain for morality grows, so will the violence. Free people without morality are dangerous and destructive.
marmitetoasty on February 14 at 1:27 p.m.
Twice my X has punched me so hard that he has broken my ribs…. a restraining order would not of prevented that…..

It did cost him though :) - cos the $30,000 caravan he had on his land disappeared under cover of darkness with no forced entry………and it is now sunning its self (the caravan that is) in the South of France somewhere LOL……

One should always change the locks on field gates when one does not want old partners to have access LOL

x
marmitetoasty on February 14 at 1:27 p.m.
ps………… and NO it was NOT insured…………… dont mess with me sonny LOL

x
Liz on February 14 at 2:06 p.m.
yet another indicator of how inadequete it is to rely on the legal system and/or the government as the big fix for complex social issues. It is a bandaid at best…

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.