Deliver us from Evil: Protecting the Child When Both Parents Ignore the Order of Protection

• Date: 01 October 2019
• Published date: 01 October 2019
• Author: Damian Ramos
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12448

STUDENT NOTES

DELIVER US FROM EVIL: PROTECTING THE CHILD WHEN BOTH

PARENTS IGNORE THE ORDER OF PROTECTION

Damian Ramos

Orders of protection are regularly utilized to protect victims of domestic violence as well as their children, by restricting the

subject from contact or specific activity with the protected parties. Unfortunately, it is common for the adult protected party

to facilitate the violation of these orders in an effort to reconcile with the subject, placing children in danger. This undermines

the protection that these orders were intended to offer; without penalty to the protected party. This Note proposes a model

statute penalizing any party who knowingly endangers children by facilitating the violation of anyorder of protection; family

or criminal.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:

Nearly one million civil orders of protection are issued annually for domestic violence in the United States.

Thirty-eight percent of domestic violence victim households have children under the age of 12 who reside there.

Ninety percent of children exposed to domestic violence directly observed the violence as opposed to hearing it.

In all, 13.5 percent of subjects threatened to kidnap the protected party’s children. Most states do not penalize protec-

ted parties for violating orders of protection.

Keywords: Aiding; Children; Contempt; Criminalize; Enticement; Facilitating; Inducing; Invitation; No Contact; Order of

Protection; Protected Party;Protective Order; Restraining Order; and Violating.

Jaheem Harris (“Jaheem”) was 4 years old when his mother, Danielle Harris (“Harris”), left him

home in the care of her boyfriend, Walter Cordell Williams (“Williams”), along with several of

Jaheem’s siblings, on July 8, 2017.

1

At 11:30 p.m., police dispatch was notified of a child who

drowned in the bathtub of the residence.

2

Jaheem was later pronounced dead but not due to drowning;

he was beaten to death.

3

Autopsy reports showed that Jaheem died of blunt force trauma to the abdo-

men and chest.

4

Despite Harris’s having a no-contact order of protection against Williams, she had

been allowing Williams to stay at the house and watch her six children, including Jaheem.

5

Williams

was subsequently arrested for violating the order of protection and for the murder of Jaheem.

6

Harris

was never charged for the role she played in her child’s death, namely, enabling the violation of the

order of protection.

7

Unfortunately, Jaheem’s case is neither unique nor an anomaly.

8

Across the United States, chil-

dren are being subjected to incredibly dangerous situations due to both parents defying the premier

safeguard issued by our legal system to combat domestic violence,

9

the order of protection.

10

This Note proposes a model statute for states to adopt, criminally penalizing any party who know-

ingly endangers children by facilitating the violation of any order of protection, family or criminal.

11

All 50 states have their own respective procedures and statutes that focus primarily or solely on penal-

izing the subject for violating an order. However, the proposed statute would provide a clear and com-

prehensive approach toward addressing the universal issue of protecting the child when both the adult

protected party and/or the subject refuse to comply with these orders. This statute aims to incentivize

full compliance, doubling the effectiveness of these orders and likely saving many lives.

Corresponding: dramos4@pride.hofstra.edu

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 57 No. 4, October 2019 554–568

© 2019 Association of Family and Conciliation Courts