“Domestic violence can be so easy for people to ignore, as it often happens without any witnesses and it is sometimes easier not to get involved. Yet, by publicly speaking out against domestic violence, together we can challenge attitudes towards violence in the home and show that domestic violence is a crime and not merely unacceptable.” Honor Blackman

Every nine seconds in the United States, a woman is assaulted or beaten. On average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. Domestic violence is the leading cause of injury to women—more than car accidents, muggings and rapes combined. Every day in the United States, more than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends. In New York State, over 310,000 orders of protection were issued in 2016 and last year over 61,000 family offense petitions were filed in family court.

Given these daunting statistics, one would expect that the legislature would seek to ensure protections for victims of domestic violence, but one would be wrong.

On Feb. 11, 2012, Donna Cassie's husband tried to push her down the stairs of their home. He then twisted her arm. He pushed her up against a wall. After a trial, the family court judge gave her an order of protection. A year later, the Appellate Division, Second Department, reversed, saying that this could not be disorderly conduct since that requires an intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk thereof. Putting aside that they could have found other penal law violations like harassment or assault, they said that husbands can engage in fighting or in violent, tumultuous or threatening behavior against their wives so long as there is no public intent. They dismissed her petition and the order of protection. Welcome home Mr. Cassie.

The year the appellate court decided Cassie, a bill was proposed by Assemblyman Félix Ortiz to correct the problem by a simple amendment to the family court act that eliminates the “public” intent in domestic violence cases. Domestic abusers generally have no “public” intent for their actions. The proposed bill would protect the Donna Cassies of New York and maybe some of the 310,000 who seek orders of protection every year. Unfortunately, Assemblyman Ortiz' bill was sent to the New York State Assembly Standing Committee on the Judiciary. No law affecting the court system gets a vote in the Assembly unless this committee allows it. The bill was tabled in 2013 and it sits there to this day.

Since Cassie was decided it has been cited fifty-two times in New York's appellate courts and many other times in New York's lower courts. The effect has been to deny orders of protection to victims of domestic violence because there was no “public intent.” On April 18, 2018, an order of protection issued after trial was reversed by an appellate court even though the abuser pulled the victim's arm, pushed her against a wall and then made her fall, kicked her and told her he was going to cause her physical harm. Why? Because there was no intent to cause “public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm” citing Cassie v. Cassie. Thankfully, the court found other grounds to issue an order of protection.

On Sept. 30, 2016, President Barack Obama proclaimed that October would be National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Maybe this is the October that someone in the legislature will do something to honor that proclamation.

Michael Friedman is the past president of the Albany County Bar Association. He practiced family law in Albany County from 1977 to 2015.