To the Editor:
The West Virginia Supreme Court has issued what we believe is a common-sense ruling regarding the state’s domestic violence protection laws.
In a unanimous ruling overturning a Clay County decision, the high-court said a perceived threat of violence is enough to justify the granting of a domestic violence protection order.
Clay County Circuit Court Judge Richard Facemire had ruled that Kimberly Thomas’ request for a protective order against her former boyfriend of 12 years, Joseph Morris failed to prove that acts of domestic violence had occurred. The case stemmed from a July 2008 incident where Morris arrived at Thomas’ Clay County home and spent one to two hours knocking on doors and windows in an attempt to talk to her.
The opinion, written by Justice Thomas McHugh, noted that Thomas and her boyfriend waited until they believed Morris was on the back porch before they ran out the front door to a neighbor’s house about a quarter-mile away to use the phone. Thomas did not have cell phone reception at her home and Morris’ vehicle was parked in the driveway, blocking hers, the opinion noted.
In the two months leading up to the incident, Morris had phoned Thomas at least 150 times, sent her flowers and proposed marriage in an attempt to resume their relationship. Thomas, who now lives in Kanawha County, sought a protective order twice, but was denied on both occasions.
In his opinion, McHugh said that requiring “overt or explicit threat of harm” to be necessary to obtain a protective order ignores the Legislature’s intent for the law to be “liberally construed to further the purposes of deterring, prevent and reducing domestic violence through legal intervention.”
Too often we read of women — and men — who are victims of domestic violence after they have failed to gain a protective order from the legal system. In too many of the cases, the domestic violence results in death or serious injury.
Repeated threats and harassment are certainly justification for a protective order. West Virginia’s Supreme Court makes it clear that such threats are more than enough basis for protection.
