Senator vows to push for ‘Jennifer’s Law’
Kasser’s proposed bill would expand definition of domestic violence
NEW CANAAN — The coronavirus pandemic cut the legislative session short, but a Greenwich state senator plans to continue pressing for the groundbreaking law she proposed that would change the definition of domestic violence for family court cases like the divorce involving Jennifer Dulos, who is presumed dead after a contentious custody battle with her estranged husband.
“Everything stopped and nothing has moved forward for any legislation,” said Sen. Alex Kasser, DGreenwich, who also represents Stamford and New Canaan, where Jennifer Dulos lived until she disappeared on May 24, 2019.
“This bill is going to be a top priority for me,” Kasser said of when the legislature reopens.
A public hearing had been planned in March for “Jennifer’s Law,” which expands the definition of domestic violence in family court cases beyond physical violence and stalking to include psychological abuse, isolation, threats to take the children away from one parent, intimidation and financial abuse.
Kasser proposed the law after speaking with victims and advocates, and reviewing the issues related to the Jennifer Dulos case, which she said represents thousands of others around the state involving women who are being controlled by their partners with threats to take away their children.
Jennifer Dulos sought a restraining order and emergency custody of her five children when she left her husband in 2017, but was denied since she was unable to show he had physically harmed her. However, Fotis Dulos had threatened to take their five children away and engaged in other controlling behaviors, according to court documents.
Jennifer Dulos is presumed dead after vanishing in May 2019 during a nearly two-year acrimonious divorce and custody battle with her estranged husband.
Fotis Dulos died Jan. 30 from an apparent suicide as he faced murder and other charges in connection with his estranged wife’s death and disappearance.
In the weeks after moving to New Canaan with the children and filing for divorce in June 2017, Jennifer Dulos testified her husband chased her out of their Farmington home after yelling in her face when she refused to sign a custody agreement giving him the children most of the summer, court documents state. The 50-year-old mother also explained other incidents when she claimed her husband exhibited threatening behavior.
But a judge denied Jennifer Dulos’ request for emergency custody and relief from abuse applications after reviewing applicable law and determining she had “not established by preponderance of the evidence that there is an immediate and present risk of physical danger or psychological harm” to their children.
“There has been no justice for Jennifer and thousands of women in similar situations,” Kasser said. “We need to reform our legal system, we need to change our culture and I will not stop until we do.”
The change in the definition of domestic violence is needed, Judge Michael Albis, chief administrative judge for family matters for the Connecticut Judicial Branch, wrote in an op-ed supporting Kasser’s bill earlier this year.
“In many cases, the abuser will exert his or her power through psychological abuse — for example, restricting a victim’s financial resources, prohibiting the victim from leaving the house or working, and isolating the victim from family and friends,” Albis wrote in the opinion piece. “While no bruises may be left, the impact is just as devastating.”
But at the same time, Albis acknowledged that current state law on family restraining orders “severely restricts the circumstances under which a court has the authority to grant an order of protection.”
“This statute falls far short of giving the court the authority to enter an order of protection based on nuanced signs of power and control or psychologically coercive behavior,” Albis wrote. “So, even if judges suspect emotional abuse, for these reasons, there is no provision in the statute to grant the order on that basis.”