Loopholes A Killer Can Walk Through

There’s a remote chance Susan Foutz would be alive today if she had lived in Washington rather than Idaho.

If her home had been in Spokane County instead of at Hauser Lake, the mother of two could have obtained a civil protection order against her abusive ex-boyfriend, Stephen A. Cherry.

If Idaho’s domestic-violence laws were like Washington’s, Cherry would have had to see a magistrate for trespassing on Foutz’s property before bailing out of jail May 30. A jail stretch might have calmed the walking time bomb down.

Instead, police say, Cherry quickly paid his $150 bail, armed himself with a 30.06 and ambushed Foutz and her new boyfriend at her home three days later. He allegedly murdered Foutz and wounded her boyfriend. Unfortunately, Cherry then missed his tiny, black heart when he turned the rifle on himself. He’s recovering.

Most likely, Cherry would have committed his crime - restraining order or not, cooling-off period or not. Washington court records show he abused and threatened to kill at least three former Spokane girlfriends. He was the prime suspect, although never charged, in a knife attack on one of them.

Petty tyrants like Cherry know how to manipulate the law until they go too far.

Still, Foutz’s murder points out loopholes in Idaho’s law that should be closed to protect others.

Idaho law doesn’t allow a partner to obtain a civil protection order against a boyfriend or girlfriend - unless they’re living together or have had a child together. That’s nuts. In our troubling times, fatal attraction can victimize someone as young as a junior high schooler.

Also, Idaho law should require an abuse suspect to stay in jail until he sees a judge.

Before her murder, Foutz pleaded for protection, and Magistrate Barry Watson did all he could to help her by raising Cherry’s bond on the trespass charge. But Cherry already had posted the original bond.

The law can’t do everything.

After the Foutz murder, Kootenai County sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger observed: “There’s a lot of people in this county we have to take care of. We can’t just sit on one guy.”

An abused partner must take some responsibility for getting out of a sour relationship. At least, she should seek counsel when verbal abuse gives way to blows. Foutz was trying to get out of her relationship with Cherry after enduring cycles of abuse, followed by his weepy contritions.

Unfortunately, the Cherry she had picked was rotten to the core.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = D.F. Oliveria/For the editorial board