Nashville stakeholders discuss gaps in the justice system for victims of domestic violence

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Wednesday evening, city and county stakeholders revealed what needs to be done to better protect victims of domestic violence. Members of the Metro Nashville Council called a special meeting to hear about the changes the agencies say need to be implemented as soon as possible.

This all comes after the death of Lauren Johansen, a young Mississippi woman, which exposed holes in Nashville’s justice system. Metro Council does not oversee the justice system, but they said they wanted to try to better understand what went wrong.

Seven different city and county departments came to the podium in the City Council Chamber, including Metro Nashville Police Department, Davidson County Sheriff’s Office, Metro Nashville and Davidson County General Sessions Court, and Metro Nashville and Davidson County State Trial Court.

MetroNashville Police Department

MNPD asked council members for six or seven part-time detectives to help investigate domestic violence cases.

“If our department were to have personnel who could conduct in-depth investigations into these cases, it would greatly assist in expanding our risk panel,” said Captain Blake Giles of the Family Intervention Program.

He said they want to strengthen the cases to better assist the district attorney’s office. Captain Giles added that their unit has had the same number of staff since 2015 and that the potential part-time employees could be retired researchers.

The Nashville District Attorney’s Office

District Attorney General Glenn Funk said 50 percent of crimes his office sees are related to domestic violence, adding that it should be categorized as a health crisis.

DA Funk said he wanted domestic violence advocates to start calling MNPD, like mental health advocates are currently calling in the mental health field.

Christina Johnson, assistant district attorney for the Domestic Violence Unit, added that they want to see changes in the law. She said roommates or people who live together but are not in a relationship are often arrested on a DV charge and held for 12 hours. She said this is required under the current statute and should not be so, clogging up the files.

Finally, they want the expropriation of firearms to be enforced and for there to be a safe place to store the weapons.

“That’s a real gap if we don’t have it in the law, then there’s no way to enforce it,” General Funk said.

“It’s not enough for a violent defender to respect the system and say, ‘No, I don’t have a gun in my house’ — okay, we need to do more there,” said Vice Mayor Angie Henderson.

General sessions

Judge Jim Todd said magistrates recently gained access to NCIC, a system that allows them to view a defendant’s records in other provinces or states. He said they are working to set bond conditions for each violation and put them into one system so that bond conditions can be changed and updated.

Judge Todd also said that Court Clerk Howard Gentry is working with MNPD to place them in their ARMS system. This allows officers to review every part of a suspect’s bond conditions at the scene.

They also ask for more staff.

“What we are asking of the Metro Council is to fund six administrative assistants for the magistrates as quickly as possible,” Judge Todd added.

He said these assistants would run NCIC, meet with defendants to discuss bond terms and work with protective orders.

The State Trial Court also brought up moving certain protective cases from the Birch Building to the circuit court at Nashville City Hall. However, representatives said they have not yet had any discussions and the justices have yet to vote.