Domestic terror
Even DA’s best efforts couldn’t stop wife slay
Dr. Ingolf Tuerk is charged with murdering his wife, Kathleen McLean, after already being hit with domestic violence charges, including strangulation, in what had become a tense, contested divorce. The Dover Police deserve credit for arresting Tuerk despite his status in the community.
Right before she was killed, McLean said she wanted to drop the charges. District Attorney Michael Morrissey says he refused, and kept the criminal case going even though the victim wanted it dismissed, as frightened and confused domestic victims often do.
All prosecutors know that once a man puts his hands on a woman’s face or neck, the violence has escalated to a point where the woman is more likely to end up dead. Strangulation is highly correlated with lethality.
Prosecutors also know that the best weapon against domestic violence is jail. Morrissey’s office apparently was using all the tools they had against Tuerk. Many district attorneys don’t, which is why Jared Remy was free to kill his victim.
Victims die because men kill them. But sometimes they also die because district attorneys failed to stop the violence early on.
Prosecutors don’t just drop the charges in other criminal cases because a key witness doesn’t want to testify. They compel witnesses to take the stand, because it’s important to hold criminals accountable — and stop them from offending again.
It appears that Morrissey was trying to do the right thing. Other district attorneys should take note. Women are killed even when prosecutors do everything in their power to help, but more women die when they don’t.
In Massachusetts, it’s even more difficult to stop the violence when the victim is married to her abuser, because the victim can legally refuse to testify under the spousal privilege law, no matter what the district attorney wants to do.
This law should have been changed years ago, as it has been in many states. It gives batterers total control over the criminal justice system, because they can manipulate their wives with threats of violence or loss of house and income to stop them from testifying. Or they say they love them, and promise to change.
But the government’s job is to stop crime, even if the victim doesn’t want them to, because nobody has a right to beat his spouse.
We don’t know how the prior abuse case against Tuerck would have played out, and if Kathleen McLean would have been silenced by the spousal privilege. But we do know that yet again a woman is dead, and Kathleen McLean has been silenced forever.