Experts Say Restraining Orders Won't Stop Killers
By Franci Richardson
Originally published in The Boston Herald, March 28, 2002
A restraining order by itself won't save the life of victims like Dorothy Giunta-Cotter, whose high-school sweetheart husband was intent on killing her, experts in the field said yesterday.
"If the abuser sees it as something they have to respect, it can work," said Marianne Winters, director of education at Jane Doe in Auburn. "Given the circumstances of this murder, it can feel to an abuser like another piece of paper."
The success of any law, said Winters, depends on any given person's willingness to abide by it.
"Does a law against murder work?" she asked, then added, "If people respect the law like the vast majority of people do, it can work."
Giunta-Cotter, 35, was gunned down in her home at 7 Green St., Amesbury, Tuesday night by her husband, William Cotter, 39, who then killed himself.
Compared to the number of restraining orders issued each day, the Cotter case is an anomaly that shouldn't be used to judge the effectiveness of the 51As, experts say.
"By and large, they're effective," said Suzanne Dubus, director of the Women's Crisis Center in Newburyport, where Giunta-Cotter sought shelter from her abusive husband. "Rarely does it end up like this."
But for the tougher cases, where the abuser won't stop terrorizing the victim, advocates say a victim will only be safe if he or she has a restraining order backed up by an emergency plan and the court system.
"We focus too much on having a strong restraining order law, which is crucial, but sometimes we don't realize there are other pieces of the system that need to be there for the person who is being battered," Winters said.
A safety plan usually involves an array of activities from helping a victim plan the safest way to exit a house to checking in with a neighbor or friend every night and taking a different route home.
"It really has to help the person think through all the conditions in their life," Winters said.
Dubus said the judicial system also has to play an important role in protecting victims. In the Cotter case, prosecutors or police should have assessed whether William Cotter was dangerous, she said.
Giunta-Cotter not only had an active restraining order in place that she would have renewed yesterday, but emergency cell phones for herself and two daughters, as well as an alarm system that was connected directly to the police system as a guard against her chronically abusive husband.
Ultimately, William Cotter made good on his prediction that the restraining order wouldn't protect his wife against him because "he could get to me before the police ever could," according to an affidavit Giunta-Cotter filed at the Newburyport Probate and Family Court.
