King County's Efforts to End Domestic Violence

This month we commemorate the 30-year anniversary of Washington State's landmark Domestic Violence Prevention Act.  The 1979 Legislature set the framework for our comprehensive approach to domestic violence (DV) that we have built in the three decades that followed.  The Act was also noteworthy for its statement of legislative intent, that it was designed to not only change the law, but to change societal attitudes that allowed domestic violence to be tolerated.

The Domestic Violence Unit in the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office (PAO) is the office's largest unit, with 20 deputy prosecuting attorneys (DPAs) and 30 victim advocates, paralegals, and legal administrative specialists.  It is also the only unit where the office combines misdemeanor and felony prosecutions under one roof, because in our experience, those labels do not necessarily reflect the degree of danger to the victim and to the children caught in the spiral of domestic violence.  We take it seriously because we know domestic violence kills.

A recent fatality review focused on the years 1997 to 2008 revealed that the lethality of domestic violence in our state.  A total of 635 people in Washington State lost their lives as a result of domestic violence, including 35 children, 274 women who were killed by intimate partners, 4 law enforcement officers, and 139 male abusers who committed suicide after killing their victims.

We also take this opportunity to remember the victims of domestic violence who were killed in King County in 2008 and 2009:

• Cheri Stewart was beaten to death, and her husband has been charged with this crime.

• Nancy Floren was allegedly shot to death, and her husband has been charged with this crime.

• Thomas Thong was shot to death, and his son has been charged with this crime.

• Harjinder Basra was strangled to death.  Her husband has been charged with this crime.

• Markesha Monroe was shot to death.  Her boyfriend has been charged with this crime.

• Sarah Metzger was murdered, and her son has been charged with this crime.

• Stephanie Campeau was assaulted and killed, and her caregiver boyfriend has been charged.

• Baerbel Karin Roznowski was stabbed to death, and her boyfriend has been charged.

• Eldora Earlycutt was stabbed to death, and her husband has been charged with this crime.

• Debra Bonilla was stabbed to death by her husband with a BBQ fork in front of her children.  Her husband has pleaded guilty to this crime.

• Jane Kariuki was stabbed to death.  Her boyfriend has been charged with this crime.

• Joe and Karen Hously were murdered by their son

These statistics, and the facts of each crime underlying the statistics, are sobering and underscore our community's continued need to find new ways to respond to and combat this terrible crime.

On October 2, the PAO awarded the Norm Maleng Outstanding Law Enforcement Award to Detective Kathy Bumpus from the Des Moines Police Department, Sergeant Michael Myers and Sergeant Barclay Pierson, both with the King County Department of Adult and Juvenile Detention, for their extraordinary work on domestic violence cases.