Task force will study training on abuse for judges

General Assignment Reporter

Mary went through a process of having a custody evaluation done by a psychotherapist in 2016. She has said the mental health professional who performed the evaluation did not document a history of abuse by her ex-partner, with whom she shares a 12-year-old son. Mary, using a pseudonym at her request, stands for a portrait in her home on Friday, August 5, 2022, in Denver, Colo. (Timothy Hurst/The Denver Gazette)

A bill to study training on domestic violence and sexual assault for judicial officers passed on the second-to-last day of Colorado's legislative session.

The legislation, House Bill 23-1108, is one piece of a broader effort to tackle what some lawmakers say is a phenomenon of abusive people using manipulative tactics to exert control over their partners in court cases. The bill creates a task force for studying training on domestic violence and sexual assault provided to judicial officers around the country to determine best practices for education in Colorado. It mandates members to meet four to 10 times between July 1 this year and Jan. 15 next year.

Under the proposal, the task force must submit a report with recommendations on best practices by February next year to the judicial branch and the legislature's judiciary committees.

Gabe Evans, a Republican from Weld County who sponsored the bill, along with House Majority Leader Monica Duran, said it is intended to give judges tools for distinguishing when abusers are making up accusations against their partners and painting themselves as victims to get an upper hand.

The first-term lawmaker's perspective comes from his background in law enforcement and the extensive training on domestic violence that police go through. Evans said he understands the importance of avoiding re-traumatization of victims as much as possible during the court process.

"You get a smart abuser that says, ‘If people are going to believe every victim, all I have to do is try to cast myself as the victim,’" he said. "Then that becomes a way that they can actually control a legitimate victim by trying to redirect and divert (from) who the actual victim is in these cases."'

Rather than directly mandating training for judges, the legislation is designed to work around the constitutional separation of powers between each branch of government.

Maralee McLean, executive director of Moms Fight Back, has expressed her frustration about the hoops the legislature has had to jump through rather than directly mandating training on abuse for judges. She said it has been a key priority for advocates of overhauling Colorado's family court system, and they originally hoped to implement it through legislation passed two years ago that established oversight for parental responsibility evaluators in the Office of the State Court Administrator.

"Why would any judge want to sit on the bench when they aren't trained in domestic violence, child abuse, child sexual abuse, coercive control, any of this stuff?" McLean said in a previous interview.

Evans acknowledged the legislative gymnastics the task force bill creates. He said while lawmakers could have taken a heavier-handed approach with more direct mandates, they wanted to avoid creating a power struggle with the judicial branch.

"The victims (would) suffer because nothing's actually happening, because this issue got politicized," he said, later adding, "I think some of us would have liked to take a stronger stance on this. But, at the same time, we recognize the fact that it's not going to be very constructive to pick an all-out fight with the judiciary."

House Bill 23-1108 cleared its final hurdle in the legislature on Sunday before heading to Gov. Jared Polis’ desk.

It's a companion piece to another legislation that seeks to increase scrutiny on the qualifications of experts who wish to be admitted in child custody cases to provide expertise on domestic violence and sexual abuse. A prime sponsor of that bill, Democratic Rep. Meg Froelich from Greenwood Village, has said it's intended to help right imbalances of power that come up when abusive parents have resources to hire experts to rebut accusations against them. It passed both chambers at the end of April.

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General Assignment Reporter