On-Call Judges Help Fight Abuse

The O.J. Simpson trial brought domestic abuse to the forefront of the public consciousness in a powerful way. Yet there are still victims of beatings by husbands or boyfriends who are unaware of the help available to them.

For nearly two years, a group of Orange County judges has volunteered to be on call around the clock to sign emergency protective orders, documents that can order an abusive spouse, partner or relative away for as long as five business days. That gives a victim time to apply for a permanent injunction.

Before the judges launched their program, the emergency orders were being issued at the rate of around four per month, the same rate as sparsely populated Shasta County. Now the Orange County total is up to about 50 per month.

Still, an abuse counselor in Fullerton said the orders are not being used to the extent they could be. Some police are unaware they exist; others are dubious about their effectiveness.

But the orders are valuable. Even if an abuser tries to assault someone again, a paper trail that documents previous abuse helps build a stronger case against the assailant.

Superior Court Judge Eileen C. Moore, chairwoman of the Orange County Family Violence Council, says having judges on call to sign the restraining orders provides “access to the courts 24 hours a day.”

A police officer investigating domestic abuse can page the judge on duty. Before the voluntary system, some police understandably were reluctant to wake a judge at 2 a.m. Even when they tried, police sometimes were unable to track a judge down on a weekend.

Under the old system, officers at the scene of a violent domestic dispute in the predawn hours would call the Orange County Jail and let an officer there determine if the situation was serious enough to warrant calling a judge.

But that took time. As Superior Court Commissioner Thomas H. Schulte noted, if a police officer was at the kitchen table with the husband handcuffed, the wife beaten and the children crying, waiting for the emergency order for an inordinately long time, “that’s the last time they’re going to choose to call the judge. . . . “

Although getting one or two post-midnight phone calls a month might not seem like a heavy burden, judges are as reluctant as anyone else to forgo a good night’s sleep. Yet Moore says none of the 31 judges and commissioners who have volunteered for the program has complained about being paged. She says they have “fervor” and want to see the program work. Stopping domestic violence will benefit all of society. The volunteer judges are sending the needed message that these assaults will not be tolerated.