Bill Would Add Rights for Victims of Stalkers, Domestic Violence

Prompted by the murder of a Ventura woman last fall, a bill providing greater protection for victims of stalking and domestic violence was passed unanimously by the state Assembly on Tuesday.

The bill, introduced by Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), would allow victims to face their tormentors in court before the defendants can be released on bail.

“Current laws don’t protect stalking victims,” Jackson said Tuesday after the vote. “In my own community, I have seen stalkers who go on to commit murder while out of jail awaiting trial.”

The proposed reform was sparked by the December slaying of 37-year-old east Ventura hair stylist Vicki Shade, who was stabbed to death by her estranged boyfriend, Roland Sheehan, before he was killed by police. Although charged with felony stalking and 15 violations of a restraining order, Sheehan had been released on $20,000 bail.

Two weeks after Shade’s murder, Ventura County judges increased the recommended bail for such crimes from $20,000 to $100,000.

The proposed law leaves bail amounts in the hands of jurists, but would change existing law in several significant ways, Jackson said.

“This bill is important because the time between arrest and trial in a stalking case is the most volatile.” said Jackson, a family law attorney. “It’s a time of tremendous danger, and that’s where this bill connects with Vicki Shade. It’s too late for her. But it will protect others.”

The bill now moves to the state Senate, where Jackson said she expects bipartisan support.

It would add two offenses that often occur in domestic-violence cases--making threats and witness intimidation--to the list of felonies that would trigger additional victim protections.

Among those is a mandatory bail hearing when accused stalkers request a bail below the county’s standard for domestic violence. Prosecutors would be required to notify the stalking victim of the hearing, and the victim would be allowed to testify.

Another provision requires county sheriff’s departments to notify prosecutors before accused stalkers are released on bail.

Jackson’s bill requires a bail hearing only in stalking cases in which the bail amount is reduced below county guidelines.

But as a practical matter, prosecutors almost always request a bail hearing in stalking and felony domestic-violence cases, said Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Lela Henke-Dobroth. “This bill broadens the protections for stalking victims,” said Henke-Dobroth, whose office wrote the legislation. “I don’t want to say this wouldn’t have happened to Vicki Shade, but any time you have broader protections, you lessen the chance of harm for the victim.”

Ventura County Public Defender Kenneth Clayman said Jackson’s bill shows that the justice system protects the rights of crime victims.

“This follows the trend,” Clayman said. “Some people think the system favors the accused. This is another example that those peculiarities that may have once existed don’t exist any more.

“And the people who sit in jail every time a bail is raised are the indigent defendants, our clients,” Clayman said. “So I have concerns about this bill from that respect.”