Anti-strangulation effort seeks funds, policy changes
Progress at risk of stalling, task force tells lawmakers
Members of a state task force organized to address a widespread aspect of domestic and sexual violence that has largely remained invisible — despite its severe effects — say they are making strides this year in raising awareness about strangulation and have begun to train first responders, medical professionals and prosecutors to identify this type of abuse.
But progress will stall without a surge in funding and policy changes, the group told a legislative committee during an emotional hearing Friday, when two New Mexico lawmakers spoke of their own experiences with domestic violence.
The Intimate Partner Strangulation Task Force, created through a state Senate memorial during this year’s legislative session, followed more than five years of failed bills aimed at ensuring offenders are held accountable for a crime that can cause brain trauma with lifelong effects or even death.
Lawmakers have been loath to create new laws or to toughen penalties, the group’s organizers said, especially for an issue that is poorly understood.
“Obviously, you can’t ask somebody to take something seriously that they don’t know anything about,” Sheila Lewis of the nonprofit advocacy group Santa Fe Safe told members of the Legislative Health and Human Services Committee.
Choking or suffocating an intimate partner is a type of violence that most often leaves no mark. The lasting injury, while potentially life-altering, is unseen and most often undiagnosed. Symptoms can be difficult to recognize.
“Strangulation is a form of power and control used in domestic violence that is much more serious than any of us have ever understood before,” Lewis said. “Specifically, law enforcement did not understand it, and as a result, when they went to a domestic violence scene and they saw a black eye, they saw a broken arm, they documented those. But nobody ever asked, ‘Did he put — or did she put — hands on your throat? Did anyone try to choke you?’ … They weren’t asking, so nobody was telling.”
Even if suffocation was noted in a police report, Lewis said, it didn’t stand out to emergency medical providers.
According to the task force’s analysis of data collected by organizations in the state that serve victims of domestic violence, there were nearly 18,000 reported incidents in 2015, and 13 percent of the victims had reported being strangled — a
rate far higher than the national average.
More than a third of New Mexico women who reported that they had been raped in 2014 also reported being choked, the group said in its initial report presented to lawmakers.
Friday’s hearing at the Capitol came just days after Santa Fe County Sheriff Robert Garcia announced he had fired a deputy accused of trying to strangle his girlfriend. The woman told Albuquerque police that Christopher Gonzales, 26, began to choke her “with his thumbs on her throat and both hands wrapped around her neck” for 15 seconds, according to the complaint.
Based on the task force’s report, that’s enough time to cause brain damage and even loss of consciousness.
The task force is scheduled to release a full report on the issue in New Mexico and recommendations on how to address it later this month. The effort comes after a legislative report critical of the state’s overall response to domestic violence. It also comes amid heightened awareness of domestic and sexual violence and sexual harassment following a wave of allegations against Hollywood executives and other high-profile people, beginning with movie magnate Harvey Weinstein.
The allegations revived a social media campaign called #MeToo, which offers men and women a simple way to speak out about sexual harassment and violence they have faced.
State Rep. Christine Trujillo, D-Albuquerque, became emotional Friday, saying the hearing had brought up her own memories of domestic violence.
“It did happen to me,” she said. “I never reported it. It was really scary. … In the situation that I was in, what can you say? I don’t think men know their own strength.”
“I just wanted to say me, too, in a first marriage,” added a tearful Rep. Joanne Ferrary, D-Las Cruces, “and I hope that we can bring this to more women, to talk about it with each other.”
Among the task force’s accomplishments so far is the launch of a training program for doctors, sexual assault nurse examiners, prosecutors and law enforcement officers on strangulation and traumatic brain injury. Those who have been trained are now offering training to colleagues and have served as expert witnesses in domestic violence cases, the group said.
Officers with the Santa Fe Police Department also received such training through the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence, who has taken a lead role on the task force.
The group also is working with Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center to test a tool to screen patients for signs of strangulation.
“We recognize that strangulation is an issue in domestic violence and we are working to train our staff to recognize when it has occurred,” said hospital spokesman Arturo Delgado. “Rarely is there immediate evidence so it’s important that our staff is trained to deal identify this.”
Contact Cynthia Miller at 505-986-3095 or cmiller@sfnewmexican.com.