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• FALCON HEIGHTS CITY COUNCIL MINUTES -6- November 10, 2004 City Prosecuting Attorney -Minnesota's Domestic Violence Statutes (continued) Mayor Gehrz said that, for example, there is a situation where you have a married couple, there is an incident of domestic violence and the man is taken away. There is a no contact order. If the victim needs information that the perpetrator has, is there a process by which communication can occur in a safe way? Attorney Joseph said there are always going to be circumstances where the victim and the abuser will need to have some kind of contact, child care issues, monetary issues, etc. They can utilize a Victim Advocate from the Tubman Family Alliance. It is not uncommon for the Victim Advocate to communicate with all of the parties involved to try and straighten issues out. It is a very fine line for everyone to walk. There are ways to solve those problems. Mayor Gehrz said she had a question about communication between law enforcement, agencies and prosecutors. You have a situation where someone is reported in a shopping mall committing domestic violence on their spouse and a passerby calls that in. The domestic assault occurs in one location but the parties live somewhere else. Does the prosecuting attorney check with the • city or county the people live in to see if there is a prior history of domestic abuse? Is that looked into? Attorney Platzek said that one of the things to understand about the system is that everyone is trying to work together. Communication is always a problem and everyone is working hard to improve upon it. The no contact orders typically have strict language included in them. The order is to be enforced throughout the state and any law enforcement agency is directed to enforce the order. Victims are encouraged to carry their copy of the order with them, so that it can be provided to law enforcement on the spot. The system is not perfect but it is always improving. Mayor Gehrz asked if there is anything being advocated at the legislative level to help improve on what we have now in the area of domestic violence. Attorney Costello said that the list of qualified domestic violence offences could be improved. It is an independent crime to interrupt an emergency telephone call, i.e. tear the phone out of the wall or throw a cell phone down and break it. These are common occurrences during domestic violence cases. That should be added to the list of qualified domestic violence. Another change he would like to see is that the State law mirror the Federal law. Under the Federal law, a perpetrator cannot possess a firearm during the time they are subject to a restraining order. That is not true under the current State law. You have to be convicted of the violation first and then there is a much more limited firearms disqualification. In his opinion, that should be expanded so that while an individual is subject to a restraining order, they should not be allowed to possess firearms because they are often used in subsequent domestic violence situations. Another one is that it would help if the State laws required communication. For example, with regard to no contact orders or restraining orders for protection, have it mandated so that this information would be communicated, at least to the • county of residence and really state wide. 6