Justine Wettschreck
Worthington Daily Globe - 10/20/2007
WORTHINGTON — In 2006, 20 women and at least 12 children were murdered in the State of Minnesota in domestic violence cases. Three of those women and two of the children died from strangulation, according to the 2006 Femicide Report, published annually by the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women.
Domestic assault is considered a misdemeanor on a first conviction. A second charge in 10 years would be a gross misdemeanor, and a third a felony. On Aug. 1, 2005, a new statute went into effect in Minnesota
making strangulation a domestic assault felony.
“Domestic assault-strangulation gave us the ability to charge a felony level offense on the first offense if it involves a strangulation behavior,” explained Nobles County Attorney Gordon Moore. “It ups the ante on cases that otherwise would have been ticketed as misdemeanors.”
The law defines strangulation as “intentionally impeding normal breathing or circulation of the blood by applying pressure on the throat or neck or by blocking the nose or mouth of another person.” If convicted, a defendant may be sentenced for up to three years imprisonment, be fined up to $5,000, or both.
For a long time, strangulation wasn’t recognized for being as dangerous as it is.
“It is amazingly pushed aside, even by victims,” said Ruth Hubbling, Director of the Southwest Crisis Center. “It doesn’t appear as violent as being hit or kicked.”
Worthington Public Safety Director Mike Cumiskey agreed that the victims don’t realize how serious strangulation can be.
They think, ‘It didn’t break any bones, I can still breathe, it’s not that bad,’” he said. “I think they just don’t see it. They don’t realize how bad they’ve been treated.”
But strangulation is very dangerous, and the effects of the act can show up days later.
“A person can lose consciousness so quickly,” Hubbling explained. “And the air cut-off can cause brain damage. Death occurs more quickly than people think it will.”
Victims have even been known to die days later, Hubbling added.
Some of the signs of strangulation, besides redness and bruising around the neck, are easy to dismiss unless they are looked for. A victim’s raspy voice and red eyes could easily be attributed to crying and screaming. Even bruising behind the ears could easily be missed.
“I think we’re all learning to ask questions differently,” Hubbling said. “We don’t just say, ‘Are you a battered woman?’ because many of them don’t think they are.”
An abuser that goes from hitting to strangling is very dangerous.
“To put your hands on somebody’s throat? Definitely a sign of escalation,” Cumiskey said. “If you put your hands on a police officer’s throat, prepare to be shot — we consider that to be deadly force.”
Authorities, advocates and even television are learning to use the proper phrases when it comes to domestic violence — they know the difference between strangulation and choking.
Choking is an accident that happens when food becomes lodged in the windpipe, blocking breathing. Strangulation is intentional, and is generally caused by another.
Even if the idea that domestic violence exists is more common knowledge these days, people still tend to believe it happens in the big cities or in poor areas — not in their neighborhood.
Strangulation, especially, can be easy to hide. Bruises around the neck can be covered by high-necked blouses and sweaters, a raspy voice can be explained by a cold.
“It is easy to trust the home town people,” Hubbling said. “And batterers don’t show that side of themselves to their friends.”
Yet in 2006 the Southwest Crisis Center, which covers Pipestone, Rock, Nobles, Cottonwood and Jackson counties, served 488 individuals for domestic assault.
The numbers from the crisis center vary by county, from three domestic assaults in Rock to 39 in Nobles County. And those numbers don’t necessarily correspond with the number of cases charged out by the
county attorneys from each county because not all people who report it to the crisis center report it to the authorities and vice versa.
Of the 49 misdemeanor assault cases charged out in 2006 in Nobles County, Moore speculated a third of them, if not more, were domestic assaults, but said if someone walked in and pleaded guilty to a ticketed misdemeanor assault charge, it would not necessarily go through his office.
The strangulation felony count was charged out 11 times n Nobles County in 2006, and has been used 16 times from the day it went into effect until the present.
“The law went into effect August 2005, and I remember we started charging cases on that almost immediately,” Moore said. “We have charged it frequently.”
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