Please make a call to your state rep (and as many more as you are willing to call) to support the Domestic Violence Bill 223 by State Rep. Moreno - it will include "dating partners" in the definition of those covered by the enhanced penalties and provisions of Criminal Domestic Abuse laws. Besides calling as many as you can, please send an email to all - see below for the details on why this DV bill is SO IMPORTANT. Please read them! They will inspire you to do the action and tell others.
Please email every member of the State House Of Representatives to ask them to vote FOR HB 223 (Moreno) on Monday to protect ALL VICTIMS of Domestic Violence, including dating partners. If you prefer to email a smaller number, use the information below to strategically pick those who need special messages to be consistent in their support for victims of violence and to support this bill.
Please email every member of the State House Of Representatives to ask them to vote FOR HB 223 (Moreno) on Monday to protect ALL VICTIMS of Domestic Violence, including dating partners. If you prefer to email a smaller number, use the information below to strategically pick those who need special messages to be consistent in their support for victims of violence and to support this bill.
PLEASE CALL OR WRITE ALL HOUSE MEMBERS
FIND YOUR REP. HERE: https://www.legis.la.gov/legis/FindMyLegislators.aspx
Copy and Paste these into your TO box to email all at one time:
abrahamm@legis.la.gov
abramson@legis.la.gov
amedeeb@legis.la.gov
larep021@legis.la.gov
armesj@legis.la.gov
bacalat@legis.la.gov
bagleyl@legis.la.gov
bagnerisj@legis.la.gov
barrast@legis.la.gov
berthelotj@legis.la.gov
billiotr@legis.la.gov
bishops@legis.la.gov
bouiej@legis.la.gov
broadwaterc@legis.la.gov
browntr@legis.la.gov
brownc@legis.la.gov
carmodyt@legis.la.gov
carpenterb@legis.la.gov
carters@legis.la.gov
carterr@legis.la.gov
carterg@legis.la.gov
chaneyb@legis.la.gov
connickp@legis.la.gov
coussanjp@legis.la.gov
coxk@legis.la.gov
cromerg@legis.la.gov
danahaym@legis.la.gov
davisp@legis.la.gov
devillierp@legis.la.gov
dwights@legis.la.gov
edmondsr@legis.la.gov
emersonj@legis.la.gov
falconerr@legis.la.gov
foilf@legis.la.gov
franklina@legis.la.gov
gainesr@legis.la.gov
garofalor@legis.la.gov
gisclairj@legis.la.gov
gloverc@legis.la.gov
guinnj@legis.la.gov
hallj@legis.la.gov
harrisl@legis.la.gov
harrisj@legis.la.gov
havardk@legis.la.gov
hazelc@legis.la.gov
henryc@legis.la.gov
hensgensb@legis.la.gov
hilfertys@legis.la.gov
hilld@legis.la.gov
hodgesv@legis.la.gov
hoffmanf@legis.la.gov
hollisp@legis.la.gov
hortond@legis.la.gov
howardf@legis.la.gov
hunterm@legis.la.gov
huvalm@legis.la.gov
iveyb@legis.la.gov
jacksonk@legis.la.gov
james.ted@legis.la.gov
jeffersonpo@legis.la.gov
jenkinss@legis.la.gov
johnsoro@legis.la.gov
joness@legis.la.gov
jordane@legis.la.gov
landryn@legis.la.gov
landryt@legis.la.gov
lebasb@legis.la.gov
legerw@legis.la.gov
leopoldc@legis.la.gov
lyonsr@legis.la.gov
macks@legis.la.gov
mageet@legis.la.gov
marcelled@legis.la.gov
marinoj@legis.la.gov
mcfarlandj@legis.la.gov
miguezb@legis.la.gov
millerd@legis.la.gov
millerg@legis.la.gov
montoucj@legis.la.gov
morenoh@legis.la.gov
larep001@legis.la.gov
morrisjc@legis.la.gov
nortonb@legis.la.gov
pearsonk@legis.la.gov
pierrev@legis.la.gov
poper@legis.la.gov
pricee@legis.la.gov
pughs@legis.la.gov
pylants@legis.la.gov
reynoldsg@legis.la.gov
richardj@legis.la.gov
schexnayderc@legis.la.gov
schrodej@legis.la.gov
seabaugha@legis.la.gov
shadoinr@legis.la.gov
simons@legis.la.gov
smithp@legis.la.gov
stokesj@legis.la.gov
talbotk@legis.la.gov
thibautm@legis.la.gov
thomasp@legis.la.gov
whitema@legis.la.gov
willmott@legis.la.gov
zeringuej@legis.la.gov
SUPPORT HB 223 BY REP. HELENA MORENO
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Feb. 22, 2017 - 9:06 AM
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Apr 21, 2017
Louisiana Man Sentenced in Slaying of Deputy Ex-girlfriend
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Feb. 21, 2017
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Mar 14, 2017
Sheriff: Suspect admits shooting police officer, pregnant ex-girlfriend
Jefferson Parish
Westwego – January 20, 2017
Man accused of shooting girlfriend in the head in Catahoula Parish charged with second degree murder
Posted: Feb 22, 2017 10:50 AM CST
Ex-boyfriend arrested in connection to fatal shooting of Baton Rouge mother of 3 after she answered the door her home
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Sheriff: Ex-boyfriend arrested after shooting woman and her family in Houma
WWLTV.com , WWL 4:19 PM. CDT October 26, 2016
Gunman arrested after boyfriend teen killed, 2 women injured in Terrebonne Parish shooting
Updated: 4:52 PM CDT Oct 26, 2016
Drunk Dry Prong woman tried to kill boyfriend in Grant Parish
Town Talk, Oct. 21, 2016
Louisiana ranks 2nd in the nation for domestic violence homicides. In Louisiana, over 70% of domestic homicides involve a dating partner, and over 60% of victims served by the Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence are dating partners.
HB 223 bill would include “dating partners” as persons who could be charged with Domestic Abuse Battery as opposed to simple battery. This is important because Domestic Abuse Battery includes enhanced penalties for crimes involving burning, strangulation, pregnancy and child endangerment, in addition to requiring a defendant to undergo domestic abuse intervention treatment and being dispossessed of a firearm following if convicted.
The NRA is opposing adding “dating partners” to the Domestic Abuse Battery Statute, claiming that the definition of dating partner is too broad for use in criminal prosecutions. This is simply not true. The definition of Dating Partners proposed in HB 223 is the very same definition currently used in 10 Louisiana statutes, going back to 2003.
Most statutes refer to “dating partner as defined in 46:2151”, and no court has ever had a problem with its application. As a matter of fact, the Louisiana Supreme Court has itself acknowledged this definition in Welborn v. 19TH Judicial Dist. Court, 974 So.2d 1 (La. 2008), where the Court recognized that:
“the legislature expanded Chapter 28 in 2001 by adding "Chapter 28-A. Protection from Dating Violence Act." Act No. 1180, 2001 La. Acts 2594. That Act made a "dating partner" eligible "to receive all services, benefits, and other forms of assistance provided by Chapter 28 of [Title 46]." La.Rev.Stat. § 46:2151(A).
A "dating partner" was defined as any person who is or has been in a social relationship of a romantic or intimate nature with the victim and where the existence of such a relationship shall be determined based on a consideration of the following factors:
(1)The length of the relationship.
(2)The type of relationship.
(3)The frequency of interaction between the persons involved in the relationship.
The plain language of the statute makes clear the intent of the legislature to provide "dating partners" with the same relief it had previously made available to "household members" and "family members."
The NRA had no problem whatsoever when the Dating Partner definition was added to Gwen’s’ Law by Rep. Joe Lopinto in 2015, or added to the Domestic Abuse Assistance Act by Rep. Robert Billiot in 2015, or added to the new bail restrictions law by Sen. Dan Claitor and the Louisiana Law Institute, effective January 1, 2017.
Significantly, the NRA had no objection when the Dating Partner definition was added to the types of victims of abuse which could get a temporary concealed handgun permit by Rep. Valerie Hodges in 2016 and her co-authors: Reps. Bryan Adams, Beryl Amedee, Tony Bacala, Larry Bagley, John Bagneris, Taylor Barras, John Berthelot, Chris Broadwater, Terry Brown, Thomas Carmody, Jean-Paul Coussan, Kenny Cox, Paula Davis, Phillip DeVillier, Reid Falconer, Ray Garofalo, Jerry Gisclair, John Guinn, Kenny Havard, Chris Hazel, Cameron Henry, Dorothy Sue Hill, Frank Hoffmann, Dodie Horton, Frankie Howard, Barry Ivey, Mike Johnson, Tanner Magee, Denise Marcelle, Blake Miguez, Jay Morris, Barbara Norton, Kevin Pearson, J. Rogers Pope, Steven Plyant, Jerome “Dee” Richard, John Schroder, Alan Seabaugh, Kirk Talbot, Malida White, Tom Willmott and Jerome Zeringue.
Clearly, if an act of abuse perpetrated upon a dating partner is so serious that a temporary concealed handgun permit is necessary for protection from the abuser, then these same legislators would agree that district attorneys should be able to prosecute those serious acts of abuse under the Domestic Abuse Battery statute. To vote with the NRA in opposing adding the same definition of dating partners to the Domestic Abuse Battery statute defies logic.
It is clear that the Louisiana Supreme Court, the Louisiana Law Institute, and the State Legislature have consistently approved and accepted the definition of “dating partners” in the civil and criminal context without complaint by anyone, except the NRA. And the NRA is being blatantly hypocritical in opposing a bill which would protect the greatest group of victims of domestic abuse battery in Louisiana after agreeing this vulnerable population needs expedited concealed gun permits to protect themselves.
STATUTES WHICH USE “DATING PARTNER”
RS 46:2151
Dating violence
Last Modified 10/22/2003
CCRP 320
Conditions of bail undertaking (Claitor and Law Institute)
Last Modified 01/03/2017
RS 46:2132
Definitions (Domestic Abuse Assistance Act)
Last Modified 08/14/2015 (Billiot)
RS 46:2140
Law enforcement officers; duties
Last Modified 08/14/2015 (Moreno)
CCP 3607.1
Registry of temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction or permanent injunction
Last Modified 08/28/2014 (Moreno)
CCRP 313
Gwen's Law; bail hearings; detention without bail
Last Modified 01/03/2017 (Lopinto)
CCRP 895
Conditions of probation
Last Modified 08/08/2016 (Moreno)
RS 17:81
RS 40:1379.3.2
Temporary concealed handgun permit; protective order; time limitations
Last Modified 09/16/2016 (Hodges)
RS 46:1842
Definitions
Victims Rights Act – includes dating partners as defined in 46:2151
