Columnist Jeff German: System fails murdered woman

Wednesday, April 23, 2003 | 10:48 a.m.

Marina Cannon did everything she was supposed to do to protect herself from her estranged husband, Vitaly Zakouto, in the months leading to her Dec. 23, 2000, death.

She obtained a restraining order to keep him away from her. She bought a new home under a different name and installed a high-tech security system. She even purchased a handgun.

For a while, the legal system was on her side, too. In August 2000 Family Court Judge Art Ritchie ordered Zakouto to spend 50 days in jail for breaking into her home in violation of the restraining order, and the district attorney's office later filed felony charges of aggravated stalking against Zakouto.

But when Cannon needed the system the most, it failed her.

On Nov. 22 she pleaded with Ritchie to again jail Zakouto, who had made bail on the criminal charges, for once more breaking into her home. She predicted that Zakouto was heading down a path of violent behavior and would end up killing her.

Ritchie told Cannon she didn't show him enough evidence to put Zakouto in jail, but he left the door open for another hearing.

No hearing, however, ever took place, and a month later Zakouto again broke into Cannon's home, this time killing her.

Late last week, Zakouto was convicted of murder, and a jury recommended that he spend the rest of his life in prison without parole.

Cannon's death exposed flaws in a legal system designed to punish people for committing crimes, rather than preventing crimes from being committed.

Jason Jaeger, one of Cannon's sons, blames Ritchie for letting down his mother.

"He didn't have the vision to see that this guy was a psychotic who was going to keep doing it over and over again," Jaeger said. "Everybody else saw it, why didn't he see it?"

Ritchie insisted that he did everything within the law to help Cannon.

"You'll feel sick about any case in which something like this happens," he said. "You look at yourself and ask what could you have done differently?"

Judges often are hesitant to take decisive action in domestic abuse cases because they must protect the rights of both the victim and the perpetrator. There is potential for both sides to take advantage of the system.

The problem is the system doesn't know how to handle people like Zakouto, who are so obsessed with hurting their spouse, they're willing to break the law to do it.

"Nobody ever thinks domestic violence equals death," said Kathleen Brooks, associate director of Safe Nest, an organization devoted to helping victims of domestic abuse. "They always think it will be resolved."

What the system should learn from Cannon's death is that better training is needed, from the cops on the street to the judges on the bench, to spot potential life-threatening cases of domestic abuse.

This may require judges to become more pro-active and make even tougher calls.

If nothing changes, Marina Cannon won't be the last victim of domestic abuse failed by the system.