Raymundo Estrada, 26, of Charlotte, had been charged six times in the last five months with harassing his estranged wife after she filed a restraining order against him. He was not prosecuted, and never attended a court-ordered treatment program, says the Charlotte Observer.
Victims’ advocates say the system failed to stop him. Last Saturday, police say he shot his estranged wife’s boyfriend and killed himself.
The judge who gave Estrada’s wife the protective order failed to fill out a line that would have ensured Estrada attended the New Options for Violent Actions treatment program for abusers. The restraining order “it is not worth the paper it’s written on,” said Kathy Broome, NOVA’s case management supervisor. “Obviously it’s not. Look at how many people ended up dead out of it.” Attending NOVA might not have kept Estrada from shooting Carter, but fewer than 8 percent of the batterers who complete the 32-session program are arrested again within a year in Charlotte’s Mecklenburg County.
Link: http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/news/11625219.htm