Posted February 21, 201210:28 am
Cleveland, OH -- More than 30 years after Ohio created comprehensive domestic violence laws, spotty enforcement of protection orders still leaves victims vulnerable.
Particularly perilous is some law enforcement officers' and agencies' reluctance to respond to civil protection orders, issued mainly by domestic relations courts.
"They see it as a civil matter and they don't see it as having the same oomph of a criminal order," said Alexandria Ruden, a Legal Aid Society of Cleveland lawyer and expert on domestic violence law.