Court Opinion

ID: 9877024
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-27 15:45:21.298503+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:47:17.647744
License: Public Domain

McEvers, Justice,
concurring specially.
[¶ 17] I concur in the result. I agree with the majority, that based on the standard of review and the deference we give to the trial court, we must affirm. Nonetheless, I have grave concerns. While the majority recognizes there is a difference between treatment for anger management and treatment for domestic violence, it does not expound on the importance of the perpetrator receiving the appropriate *333treatment for domestic violence. Majority, at ¶ 13.
[¶ 18] Despite finding a pattern of domestic violence, including the child being present when O’Hara struck Schneider in the face hard enough to knock her down, the district court minimized the potential lasting effects of domestic violence on the child. I also am concerned that the district court appears to have been at least partly persuaded that O’Hara has appropriately addressed his pattern of domestic violence by completing an anger management program. The counselor’s testimony was offered without objection. While counsel for Schneider attempted to point out that anger management was not appropriate for treatment of domestic violence, no expert testimony was offered to support the position.
[¶ 19] The district court noted:
Much of the testimony developed in this trial is related to Mr. O’Hara’s attempt to control Ms. Schneider. The continued threat of not bringing L.K.S.O. back at scheduled times is an inappropriate effort at attempting to control and manipulate Ms. Schneider. Another example of this is the threat of letting L.K.S.O. to stay up until midnight. Another attempt to control or manipulate Ms. Schneider is demonstrated by telling Ms. Schneider that L.K.S.O. was having a reaction to a vaccination when, in fact, she was not. There is also the name calling, all of which is inappropriate. It’s this use of L.K.S.O. as leverage against Ms. Schneider that is inappropriate.
The district court recognized these behaviors were inappropriate, but did not recognize that this evidence also indicates that treatment for anger management has not gotten to the root of O’Hara’s behaviors. Rather, it shows a continued need to assert power and control over Schneider, typical of the cycle of domestic violence.
[¶ 20] It is difficult to be too harsh with the district court, when the only evidence before the district court was that anger management had resolved the domestic violence issues between the parties, as testified by O’Hara’s expert. Schneider’s attorney was unsuccessful in getting evidence that anger management is an inappropriate treatment for domestic violence in the record.
[¶ 21] However, according to a Judicial Checklist prepared by the Judicial Subcommittee of the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence, anger management programs are not appropriate for perpetrators of domestic violence, because they fail tp adequately address the seriousness of the violence, minimize the dynamics of power and control at the root of the behaviors, and have not been shown to reduce violence. While not before the district court here, this checklist is, or should be, available to every district judge in North Dakota. Another resource for the district court when faced with issues of domestic violence is the North Dakota Domestic Violence Benchbook, last updated in 2014.
[¶22] I am hopeful that the remedy fashioned by the district court requiring the presence of a third party or supervised exchanges will be successful to protect the child.
[¶ 23] Lisa Fair McEvers