Overcoming Battered Lives

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06/01/10--11:00: Tee Off With Women/Combating Domestic Violence (chan 1362049)

Community Renewal Team is sponsoring a women's golf classic fundraiser on July 29 at Tower Ridge Country Club in Simsbury.

Money will go to support CRT and Interval House, Hartford's domestic violence shelter.

Honorary chair is Jeanne Milstein, Connecticut Child Advocate.

For more information -- or to register -- go here.

 




06/04/10--11:55: Is House Arrest Enough? (chan 1362049)

The Associated Press reported today that the former White House attorney charged with trying to kill his wife at their Connecticut home is expected to post bail and immediately undergo treatment at a mental health hospital.

"John Michael Farren, 57, who worked in both Bush administrations, appeared Thursday in Stamford Superior Court, where a judge lowered his bail to $750,000 from $2 million and set conditions for his release.

Farren's lawyer, Eugene Riccio, says he expects Farren to post bail Monday and go directly to the Institute of Living in Hartford. After treatment, he will live at a relative's home in West Hartford under house arrest.

Farren has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and other charges. Police say he beat Mary Farren in their New Canaan home in January, after she filed for divorce."

Read previous coverage of the Farren case here.

(AP photo)








06/07/10--12:09: Should Abusers Get A Second Chance? (chan 1362049)

Selami Ozdemir got a second chance. Instead of facing charges that he abused his wife, the West Haven man got a deal: If he completed a 9-week course on family violence, the charges would be erased from his record. No prosecution, no jail time.

But that's not what happened.

Nearly a month before his first class was to start, Ozdemir abused his wife again. When he got out of custody, he returned home and shot her four times before killing himself.

The case has led to calls for changes in the way the state deals with domestic violence offenders, including adding more slots to the family violence education program so offenders do not go months without counseling or supervision, as Ozdemir did.

But State Victim Advocate Michelle Cruz has raised a different concern: Why was Ozdemir given a second chance at all?

Read Arielle Levin Becker's full story on courant.com

(Above Photo of Selami Ozdemir courtesy of West Haven Police Department)


06/08/10--07:52: New Domestic Violence Law Requires GPS For Certain Offenders (chan 1362049)

High-risk domestic violence offenders in Bridgeport, Danielson and Hartford may be subject to monitoring by GPS under a new domestic violence law signed by Gov. Rell.

Read full story on courant.com

(Photo by Michael McAndrews/Hartford Courant)



06/11/10--09:53: Emotions, Booze and World Cup Soccer (chan 1362049)

Salon.com has a story today about police in Great Britain launching an awareness campaign to prevent domestic violence during the 2010 World Cup Games.

In 2006, when England had soccer matches, authorities tracked a 25 percent average increase in domestic violence reports. The day England was eliminated from the tournament, the number rose to 30 percent, according to the U.K.'s Home Office.

Emotions, naturally, run high among die-hard fans during sporting events. Fueled by alcohol and a losing score, those feelings can turn ugly and violent, especially when negative emotions get redirected toward intimate partners. How easy is it to forget that it is just a game?

Read more of The World Cup of Domestic Abuse

(Above photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP) 


06/14/10--07:13: See a posey, support a domestic violence shelter (chan 1362049)

Come to an open home and garden tour on Sunday, July 11 at 289 West Avon Rd., in Avon.

The $5 donation will be split between My Sister's Place and The Interval House.

The garden includes a double-tiered pond and landscaped hills. The home is a historic Greek revival filled with art and period antiques. Refreshments will be served.

For more information, call Interval House at 860-246-9149, or My Sister's Place at 860-895-6629.

Flickr photo




06/17/10--04:57: Thousands of women fall down the stairs every day. (chan 1362049)

 No. They don't.  




06/18/10--07:46: In the brutal Mortimer murders... (chan 1362049)

Avon native Thomas Mortimer IV is in custody for the suspected murder of his wife, two children, and mother-in-law. A prosecutor called the crime "horrific, disturbing, and unspeakable."

Here's a timeline of the arrest.

AP photo

 




06/20/10--04:09: Make a Father's Day declaration (chan 1362049)

You can start here.

As Nathan Harvey at Huffington Post says: It's time to man up.

Flickr photo




06/21/10--07:02: A condom with teeth (chan 1362049)

And no, that's not a euphemism. A South African doctor has created a female condom that includes teeth to fight rape.

You can read more on Dr. Sonnette Ehlers here.

And thanks, Mike, for the link.




06/22/10--07:11: Mark your calendar for July 11 (chan 1362049)

A concert to benefit the Gail Burns-Smith Dare to Dream Fund starts at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 11, at Shea's American Bar and Grill, 103 Tolland Turnpike, in Manchester.

Bands include -- but are not limited to -- The Stingrays, Shakedown, and Dave and Tara, an acoustic duo.

Suggested donation is $20 and will benefit a fund that was established to mark the legacy of Burns-Smith, long-time executive director of Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services until her retirement in 2004. Burns-Smith died last year.

Tickets are available from Nancy Kushins, CONNSACS executive director. Checks should be made payable to CONNSACS GSB FUND. Tell everyone you know.

Kushins is at nancy@connsacs.org, or at 860-282-9881. You can also snail-mail her at CONNSACS, 96 Pitkin St., East Hartford, CT 06108.

Flickr photo




06/23/10--08:21: We turn now to the Word From Tiger Beatdown (chan 1362049)



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As TB dissects a 911 call made from Marie Celeste Arraras, a woman known as the Katie Couric of Spanish television, in which said woman is told not to be "silly" while her boyfriend is choking her:

Right here.

How long, O Lord, how long?

And thanks, CTLW, for the link.




06/24/10--11:35: Another sad story out of Haiti (chan 1362049)

 

The New York Times has a story today about sexual assaults in the wake of Haiti's devastating earthquake.

AP photo




06/28/10--09:23: Was it an act? (chan 1362049)

When Chris Brown broke down at Sunday's BET Awards while singing Michael Jackon's "Man in the Mirror," was it a real display of emotion? Or was it a self-serving display meant to sway? And yeah, we're sitting in the Judgment Seat here.

And here's a question, just up at CNN.com: Are we ready to forgive?

And thanks, Todd, for the link.




06/29/10--23:22: Gentle Reader, (chan 1362049)

Today we bid farewell to the Overcoming Battered Lives blog.

For the last year, The Courant and Fox CT have focused on the issue of domestic violence, after the murder of Alice Morrin by her estranged husband. Alice was the executive assistant to Richard Graziano, president, publisher, and CEO of the Courant and Fox CT.

Domestic violence had hit home.

Over the next year, reporters, columnists, photographers, videographers, and bloggers kept the focus on the scourge of domestic violence. We hosted forums, and gave speeches. We fielded impossibly tough phone calls from victims, and directed them to caring domestic violence workers who knew exactly what to do. As we did with Alice, we tried to put a face on the countless victims of intimate partners.

We'd like to think that we helped accomplish some good, but please do not think that because the blog is going dark that our interest has waned. This issue isn't going away, and we aren't, either. In addition to continued interest on the part of the newspaper and the television station, I will continue to write about domestic violence, both in my column and on my blog, Fear, Itself. If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions for future topics, you can reach me at scampbell@courant.com. If I'm not the appropriate person, I can find that person.

Thank you so much for the discussion. Let's not let it end.