AUGUSTA — A statewide panel seeking to lower the number of domestic violence deaths in Maine released its latest report Thursday, offering tips to victims and would-be victims.

Maine Attorney General Janet Mills said at a State House press conference that victims of domestic abuse should never return to their homes alone. They should always be escorted by police or other law enforcement officers, she said.
Likewise, police should respond to those requests “very seriously,” she said.

“The end of a relationship is the most dangerous time for a victim of domestic violence,” Assistant Attorney General Lisa Marchese, who headed up the legislative-mandated panel, wrote in the panel’s eighth annual report.

Any victims of domestic violence, including those threatened with violence, should seek a “protection from abuse” order at a local court, Mills said.

“I believe we’ve saved hundreds of lives by taking that measure,” she said.

Few, if any, of the murders examined in the report occurred while a protection from abuse order was in effect, Mills said in a written release.

Another point highlighted by Mills on Thursday was the importance of taking seriously threats of suicide or violence made by family members with mental illness.

Several of the homicide cases studied by the panel involved people with severe mental illnesses, she said.

“Threats can escalate into violence against themselves and family members, and result in homicides that may have been prevented,” Mills said in a release. Domestic violence happens in homes and involves parents, children and siblings, as well as spouses or people in relationships.

A study of 17 cases reviewed over the past year by the panel revealed that three homicides occurred when victims went back to the homes of their abusers, Mills said.

In 2008, two-thirds of the 31 homicides in Maine were domestic-violence related. In contrast, 10 of the 25 homicides in Maine in 2009 were domestic-violence related. In any given year, 30,000 people in Maine are victims of domestic violence, Mills said.

The presence of children at the scenes of homicides is “disturbing,” Mills said. In the 17 cases studied by the panel, 14 children lost a parent or both parents to domestic-violence homicide, she said.

“These kids need therapy, kindness, patience and love,” she said. They also need role models who send the message that it’s not OK to physically abuse someone.

“Prevention, as always, is the key,” Mills said.

Lewiston police Chief Michael Bussiere said none of the points made by Mills comes as a surprise. He’s well aware of the law-enforcement problem posed by domestic violence.

“The numbers are staggering,” he said Thursday.

Although he hadn’t read the panel’s report, Bussiere said domestic violence also poses a threat to his officers.

His department has a domestic violence coordinator, an officer whose job is to follow up on domestic violence cases to make sure anyone who’s charged with the crime isn’t violating conditions of bail or a court order. That helps prevent further domestic violence in those cases, he said.

Protection from abuse orders are an important tool for law enforcement officers to use in keeping abusers away from their victims. “It’s a good start,” Bussiere said.

They are used frequently in the Twin Cities, he said. “But it’s not enough. It’s not a cure-all.”

In some cases, victims must seek shelter with family or at undisclosed locations where they can’t be found by their abusers, he said.

Victims, as well as friends and family, must notify police if abusers have violated conditions of court orders or bail.

“We’ve come a long way” in investigating and processing domestic-violence cases, he said. “This is a top priority,” not just for the Lewiston Police Department, but for every law-enforcement agency in the state, he said.

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Of the alleged perpetrators in the slayings studied by the Maine Domestic Abuse Homicide Review Panel last year:

• Two were found guilty of murder.

• One was found guilty of manslaughter.

• Three were found not criminally responsible by reason of mental disease or defect.

• Two pleaded guilty to murder.

• Two pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

• One was acquitted of murder.

• Three committed suicide at the time of the homicides.

• Two were shot and killed after stand-offs with police.

Source: Maine Domestic Abuse Homicide Review Panel