Battered women turned away

By Timothy Pratt

Monday, Nov. 8, 2004 | 11 a.m.

A program that offers domestic violence victims free legal help is turning away most new clients after having a federal grant denied, an official with the program said.

"We're telling them, 'Sorry, you're on your own,' " said Terry Bratton, administrator of Clark County Legal Services, the nonprofit organization that runs the legal assistance program.

The program, which helped 1,003 domestic violence victims in 2003 -- the vast majority of whom were women -- is cutting back on services because the Justice Department turned down a two-year grant for $371,000, Bratton said.

It is finishing work on existing clients and "pleading poverty" to the few lawyers in town who may work pro bono to help some of the new clients, he said.

But most are being turned away, Bratton said, meaning dozens of domestic violence victims without money to pay for private attorneys now must attempt to navigate custody cases, temporary protection orders and other legal matters by themselves.

Meanwhile, "everybody is scrambling" and appealing to federal and state officials for help to keep the program alive, said Wendy Kamada, an attorney who previously worked with the program and still advocates on its behalf.

Carolyn Muscari, domestic violence advocate for Safe House, a local shelter for domestic violence victims, said that clients the shelter would normally refer to the program are told to come back in several weeks, since the legal services organization hopes it can still obtain funding to replace that which has been lost.

This effectively leaves clients on their own if court dates are imminent, she said.

"We're all in a state of not knowing what to do," Muscari said.

Jack Finn, spokesman for Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., said Clark County Legal Services had contacted his office about the issue, but that he is "not sure what can be done" to help keep the program alive.

Amy Spanbauer, spokeswoman for Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said her office had not been contacted.

Calls to Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., were not returned Friday.

Bratton's organization -- together with Washoe Legal Services and another group that works in rural Nevada -- had received federal funds for the program for four years, with the two northern groups pairing to get the grant for a few years before that.

When the Justice Department's Office on Violence Against Women denied the funding for all three programs only days after the new fiscal year began Oct. 1, the announcement "caught us off guard," Bratton said.

The Sun obtained a copy of the denial letter in which the Justice Department lists the "weaknesses" in the grant. The Justice Department did not return calls seeking further explanation.

Bratton complains that the list is "vague and ambiguous." The legal services administrator said the application was not that different from the ones submitted in previous years, all of which were successful.

Eight of the 20 items on the list of weaknesses referred to the program's budget.

One of those items says "the budget does not include enough compensation for the victim services partner."

The "partner" mentioned is really three shelters -- Safe House, Safe Nest and Shade Tree -- that collaborate with the legal services organization to refer clients who need legal help, Bratton said.

He said the grant budget included $5,000 per year for each of those shelters to pay them for some of the work they do.

" 'Enough compensation' is not defined," said Bratton. "There are no guidelines ... and I don't know how much 'enough' is," he said.

Similarly, the list says the budget item for the salary of the person who directs a separate program that recruits pro bono attorneys for different areas of law -- including some domestic violence-related cases -- was "high."

That person is paid $69,000 -- but from a separate pot of money, Bratton said. The pro bono project is mentioned in the budget not because money was sought from the Justice Department for the program, but because the project's coordinator often refers clients to the domestic violence program, he said.

Bratton said that even if the money that goes to the pro bono project could instead be used for the domestic violence program -- thus reducing the amount of money the legal services organization would need from the Justice Department -- that would leave the organization without a pro bono project.

Other criticisms by the federal government included that "it is unclear whether the budget is ... cost-effective."

Bratton said that hundreds of domestic violence victims in the Las Vegas Valley could never afford the services of a private attorney.

The legal service organization's administrator said he had learned nothing from the federal government's reasons for denying the grant, and would probably submit a similar application two years from now.

"If there were anything productive to come out of this, I would use it," Bratton said.

"But there isn't."