Lawmakers eye ways to help abused spouses avoid harm

Thursday, March 13, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

"I can give you the names of 10 lawyers in Carson City with similar experiences," Adler, D-Carson City, said during a Senate Judiciary hearing on a bill to help protect domestic violence victims.

The bill would set up a state-run program to give fictitious addresses to such victims of domestic violence. The committee decided Wednesday not to take action until technical amendments are done.

Under the bill, victims likely would be given a fictional address through a post office box number at the secretary of state's office in Carson City. Only the secretary of state and the Division of Child and Families Service would have access to the victim's actual address, where mail sent to the post office box would be forwarded.

Steps also would be taken to ensure those in the program - similar to a witness protection program - could vote in elections.

After the hearing, Sue Meuschke, director of the Nevada Network Against Domestic Violence, said the idea is not foolproof but will make it harder for abusers to locate people whom they have victimized.

Meuschke said victims will not testify before the committee because even a Legislature hearing room is not a safe place.

"These people are running for their lives," she said, adding they face "people who are obsessed in finding you. They go to your friends. They go to your family. They go to the Internet."

Adler acknowledged that even with the fictional address program, some domestic abusers might find victims by stalking them at the workplace or following them when they see them in stores.

"This program probably will work better if they (victims) move from the community (to another part of the state)," he said.

The program to set up a fictional address program was proposed by Judiciary Chairman Mark James, R-Las Vegas, who patterned it after a similar procedure in Washington. About 1,500 people have been assigned fictional addresses at the capital in Olympia, Wash.