by Laura Adelmann
thisweek newspapers

Jan Swenson remembers the panic and fear she felt living through what she was sure would have been her own murder.

She'd been on her knees getting ready for prayer and asked her then-husband to join her.

He knelt down beside her, and she touched his face.

She said, "Thank you. This means a lot to me."

Without warning, he began beating the back of her neck. Disabled from the waist down, Swenson found herself on the bed, lying numb and helpless as he continued to pummel her.

"I remember laying there thinking this is my last moment of life. This is how I'm going to die," said Swenson.

Intense pain would later shoot up her back, arms and neck, compounded in severity from previous injuries never treated. Medical bills, she'd learned, angered him; better to suffer quietly in hopes of a good day.

His attacks, her fear -- that was life with this man, this five-year marriage which had turned her into someone she no longer recognized.

Withdrawn.

Insecure.

Alone -- he'd tried to make sure of that.

She had slowly been cut off from most of her family and friends, that emptiness consumed by worry and fear.

That day on the bed, his rabid beating continued until she thought she could no longer bear it.

Then, from the hallway came the sound of footsteps and a voice. It was her 20-year-old son -- later she would call him her savior.

With the young man's arrival, Swenson's husband slowed his assault.

"Alright honey, you have to calm down first and I'll let go," he said.

Disoriented, bloodied and bruised, Swenson had survived another attack. Her son was next to her.

"Mom, what the hell is going on?" he said.

Increasing anxiety

For Swenson (a Dakota County resident who requested her real name not be used in this story) and many people victimized by someone who is supposed to love them, fear paralyzes any thought or attempt to escape.

"Something happens. You lose your instinct for fight or flight," said Swenson.

Add to those fears an intimidating judicial system, and for some, culture and language barriers, and escape from abuse becomes even more difficult, said Mary Ajax, president and CEO of Community Action Council.

"It is particularly difficult for people from another culture to understand or even use that system," said Ajax. "They don't understand what the police will do if they call 911. … They don't understand the courts and orders for protection. Their challenges are much much greater trying to use our systems."

To address those additional challenges, Dakota County is seeking a $135,321 federal grant to begin a two-year program that would, in part, reach out specifically to local Latino populations.

"The Latinos are a fast growing population group in our community," said County Attorney James Backstrom. "One of main focuses for the grant is how to improve our interactions with members of that community and to address the additional challenges posed."

A full-time victim/witness specialist would be funded with the grant, and would be charged with evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency by which domestic abuse cases are investigated, prosecuted and processed.

Independent of the grant, Ajax is gathering others involved in domestic violence issues to examine best practices used around the globe to protect victims and treat perpetrators.

Some of the initiatives likely to be investigated include tracking more serious repeat domestic abuse offenders, as police track level three sex offenders, and the possibility of instituting a special domestic abuse court.

Such courts allow one judge to hear multiple case types, from matrimonial to criminal, that relate to one family where the underlying issue is domestic abuse.

One of the primary goals of such a court is to help victims get the support they need and to help them feel safe enough to testify against their abuser.

Dakota County Domestic Violence Task Force Member and Assistant County Attorney Debra Schmidt said these types of cases are especially challenging because victims often refuse to testify against their abusers.

"They choose not to cooperate for a lot of reasons. It can be very valid fear, it could be that they love this person, they just want the violence to stop. Some have been told they will be beaten or won't see their children again. Often they are financially dependent, they've been cut off and isolated from their families," said Schmidt.

She said many people don't understand how victims could stay in the relationships, and thus they ask the wrong question.

"Instead of why does she stay, the question should be why does he keep abusing her?" Schmidt said.

She added that the courtroom atmosphere, is not only formal and intimidating, but the system should be changed because it usually requires the victim to face the abuser while testifying.

Anyone, male or female, can be a victim of domestic abuse.

For example, Burnsville Police report that through Oct. 31 of this year, the department investigated 171 cases of domestic assault; 149 of the suspects were male, 22 were female.

Lakeville Police have received 93 domestic abuse calls this year and made 79 arrests; 15 percent of those were females.

They attribute the difference between calls and arrests to an increase in the number of cases involving juveniles.

Backstrom's office prosecutes felony-level domestic abuse cases, including a new law effective Aug. 1, 2005 making it a felony to attempt strangulation.

Since the law passed, 85 people have been charged with felony strangulation; one was a female. Four of those defendants charged have been charged with a second felony strangulation and one was charged with a third such offense.

Getting away

In Jan Swenson's case, however, she found the Dakota County court system to be excellent in helping her divorce her abuser.

Of the advocates that worked with her and the court officials in the courtroom, Swenson said, "They protected me way above and beyond the call of duty and it was the first time in five years that I felt safe."

She said she and the abuser were in separate rooms until they went before the judge.

"[My ex-husband] was not allowed to look at me, not allowed to do any manipulating, even though he tried. … I had an advocate who was great. … They kept me out of panic mode," she said.

Officials involved with domestic abuse say there is intergenerational value in helping victims take a stand and prosecuting the abusers because it is a learned behavior.

"Sons learn it from their fathers. Children who grow up in that have very unhealthy ideas about what a relationship should be like," Schmidt said.

Laura Adelmann is at dceditor@frontiernet.net.