Seventh Circuit Solicitor's Office - Spartanburg County

5Front Row: Lauren Barnwell, Brooks Segars, Carrie Robinson.Second Row: Kisha Haywood, Scott Howell, Tiffany Freeman,Traci Thornton.Prosecutionteam battlesviolenceagainst womenAssistant Solicitor Cindy Crick would love nothingmore than to work her way out of a job, butshe knows it is not going to happen any timesoon. Crick heads our Violence Against WomenProsecution Team, and her caseload his filled withhundreds of relationship-based crimes that rangein seriousness from verbal threats to homicide.The veteran assistant solicitor is one of four prosecutorson the team. The group’s recent successesinclude several noteworthy murder convictionsand guilty verdicts on cases where victims skippedcourt appearances or lied on the witness stand.“We are making solid progress in our efforts tohold offenders more accountable for their patheticactions, but we still have a long way to go,”Crick said.Spartanburg County recorded more than twodozen domestic homicides over the five-year periodending Dec. 31, 2006. The local sheriff’soffice responds to more than 1,400 domestic violencecalls year after year. The numbers increasewhen the statistics from the Spartanburg PublicSafety Department and 10 smaller municipalpolice departments are factored in. SpartanburgCounty is not alone with its problems.The South Carolina Attorney General’s Officereports more than 36,000 incidents of domesticviolence across the state each year, and the FBIcited South Carolina for having one of the highestviolent crime rates in the nation. The state alsoranks sixth in the nation for the number of homicidescommitted by intimate partners, accordingto the Violence Policy Center, a national nonprofitthat studies crime trends.A federal grant allowed us to hire two prosecutorsand a criminal investigator to focus on the problem.A staff reorganization enabled the team togrow. The team prosecutes repeat offenders andaggravated cases in General Sessions Court. Thegroup also prosecutes first-offense cases inMagistrate Court.The specialized prosecutors have reduced theannual General Sessions case dismissal rate from48 to 36 percent over the life of the Spartanburgbasedgrant program. The group has improvedthe office’s ability to track and aggressively prosecuterepeat offenders. The team also prosecutedmore than 500 first and second offenseMagistrate Court cases in 2006. About 60 percentof the cases resulted in a guilty verdict at trial or aguilty plea.The VAWA Team started staffingCherokee County Magistrate Court in the fall of2006. The expansion of service is sure to holdoffenders more accountable.“Our presence will guarantee the crime is takenseriously,” Assistant Solicitor Brooks Segars said.“If we hold batterers accountable in lower courts,they are subjected to stiffer penalties if they reoffend.”The growth of the VAWA Team coincides withthe development of other important initiatives tocombat domestic violence.In recent years, the Cherokee and SpartanburgMagistrate Court calendars have been centralizedto have domestic violence cases heard in the samecourtroom. The move ensures that the cases arehandled in a uniform manner by trained personnel.Several local police departments have designatedofficers to specialize in the domestic violencecaseload. The Safe Homes – Rape CrisisCoalition continues to do a super job supportingdomestic violence victims. The Spartanburgbasedshelter assisted more than 4,000 local familieswho were impacted by domestic violence in2006.Crick said her goals for 2007 include more communityoutreach. She hopes to partner with serviceproviders to do domestic violence awarenessprograms at local schools.“Education is the key,” Crick said. “We need tofind a way to stop domestic violence before itoccurs.”