Editorial: A tough, but right, decision

Monday, April 8, 2002 | 9:03 a.m.

Having someone to talk with in a time of crisis is invaluable. Listeners and counselors with patience and understanding, and who are qualified to offer advice and empathy, can save people from suicide. They can save people from nervous breakdowns. They can restore a person's confidence and lead the way toward healing. Nowhere is the role of listener-counselor more important than within domestic violence programs. District Judge Michael Cherry realizes this, as evidenced by the difficult decision he made last week in a case involving a man accused of stabbing a woman in the face.

As so often happens in domestic violence cases, the woman recanted her original story and now says she was the aggressor and that she was stabbed accidentally. To allow for a jury to hear, at least secondhand, what the woman had originally said and to learn how terrified she had acted immediately after the incident, prosecutors sought to force officials at Safe Nest, a local domestic violence agency, to turn over the name of the victim advocate who had assisted the woman. Safe Nest refused and Cherry agreed.

We respect both the decision by Safe Nest and the decision by Cherry, even though it is agonizing to have testimony withheld that jurors might find illuminating. No one wants to see domestic violence suspects avoid guilty verdicts simply because the victims recant or because other testimony could not be admitted. The likely consequence: more victims. We can only hope that won't happen.

But Judge Cherry understood how critical it is for victims to be able to have complete trust in the people at domestic violence shelters. Victims turn to these shelters in their times of crisis and they do so trusting in the confidentiality that the shelters have worked hard to protect. How many victims would pour their hearts out to a stranger if they thought that person in a matter of weeks would be recounting the whole conversation in open court, for all the world to hear? And how many volunteers would shelters be able to recruit if testifying against allegedly violent people was part of the job?

We believe maintaining confidentiality is vital for the continued success of domestic violence shelters. Judge Cherry was right to conclude, "We need to protect the program. It's too valuable to the community."