Board Seeks Notification System for Spousal Abusers’ Victims

After hearing an impassioned plea from the mother of a young woman murdered last week when her husband was released early on spousal abuse charges, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Thursday directed the Sheriff’s Department to study ways of notifying domestic violence victims before their assailant is freed from jail.

The informal directive came less than a week after a man who served only five days of a 30-day sentence for spousal abuse was released from County Jail and fatally shot his 16-year-old pregnant wife and her 2-year-old cousin, then killed himself. Two other relatives at the Rowland Heights apartment were also shot but suffered less serious wounds.

Horrified by the tragedy, the supervisors listened intently as the mother of Veronica Daniel, the teenage victim, said in Spanish that “this abuser was released from jail, and [my] daughter was never notified.”

Reyna Daniel said Humberto Huelitl, 22, had been abusing and threatening her daughter for some time.

On the day before a Mass is to be held for Veronica, her mother said she hoped that the county would make changes “so this never happens to any other victims.”

The mother of Betito Hernandez, the toddler who was killed, said through a translator: “It wasn’t my baby’s fault. I feel that it was the fault of the system that released this man too early from jail.”

Attorney Gloria Allred, an outspoken advocate on women’s issues, told the supervisors “the system is still failing to take steps to protect women from spousal abuse.” And she asked: “How many more Veronicas must die before the system begins to change to protect women?”

Allred said the county must take immediate action to notify domestic violence victims before an assailant is released.

Questioned by Supervisor Gloria Molina, a top Sheriff’s Department official said the county does not have a system in place to notify victims when their assailants are being released.

“Why aren’t we doing it?” Molina asked.

Mark Squiers, chief of the department’s Custody Division, told the board that between 1,500 and 2,000 inmates in the county jail system at any time are being held on spousal abuse charges. “We’re talking about thousands of people,” he said.

Squiers said it would be a major requirement in terms of staffing and tracking of inmates to establish a notification system, but that the department was sensitive to the issue and would study it. Later Squiers said he had no immediate estimate of what a notification system might cost, but added that some additional resources would be necessary.

Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke suggested that a hold could be placed on the release of spousal abusers as is done in other cases.

Molina, with backing from her colleagues, asked Squiers to come up with a notification plan within the next two weeks. “We really owe it to the victims,” she said.

With the family members sitting nearby, Squiers said Daniel’s slaying was “God-awful,” and he extended his sympathies.

The issue then turned to the early release of prisoners from the county’s overcrowded jail system. Huelitl was freed after serving five days because the county does not have enough room to house many misdemeanor defendants. County officials say the situation has grown dramatically worse since passage of the state’s “three strikes” law for felony offenders.

Squiers said the department has only “very narrow” discretion in the way it handles early releases, although he admitted that Huelitl’s release so quickly after his arrest and guilty plea was “fairly unusual.”