Protection From Abuse Orders (PFAs): Why a simple piece of paper isn’t enough

By Cindy Scharr, Rse Quinn and Marlene DiGiacomo, The Delaware County Daily Times

They met only once, but 23-year-old Andrea Arrington’s fear left an impression on Ridley Township Detective Lt. Scott Willoughby.

Arrington, joined by two concerned girlfriends, had shown up at Ridley Township Police Headquarters about three weeks ago. She wanted authorities to know she recently had moved from Chester, and that she had an active protection from abuse order against her former boyfriend and 2-year-old son’s father, Aaron Michael Sr.

“She was very pretty, well-spoken, but you could tell this girl was extremely afraid for her safety,” Willoughby said.

It was about 11:30 p.m. July 20 when Ridley police were dispatched on a 911 call for a reported homicide on Constitution Avenue in Woodlyn. Willoughby was among the officers on the scene. A woman had been shot multiple times and had been transported to Crozer-Chester Medical Center, where she later died.

Willoughby didn’t know the woman was Arrington until the following morning.

“When I picked up the Daily Times and looked at the picture on the front page, I was just heartbroken,” said Willoughby, shaking his head, still in disbelief.

“Here was this girl we had just talked to,” he said Friday, leaning back in his chair, reflecting on their conversation.

“She was trying to make a difference in her life, going to school, working full time, raising her son, and here she was, shot to death, 10 or 11 times.”

An aspiring newscaster who was working as a certified nursing assistant, Arrington was laid to rest Saturday in Chester Rural Cemetery.

No Guarantees
Arrington was one of about 1,500 victims of abuse in Delaware County who sought help through a PFA this year, according to Delaware County Court Administrator Gerald Montella.

“Aaron Michael and I were arguing and he pushed me into the bed and choked me. He told me to stop crying. When I wouldn’t, he slapped me in the face,” Arrington wrote in a petition seeking a PFA early last month.

Protection orders, be it emergency, temporary or permanent, are designed to separate victims from their abusers. The Protection from Abuse Act, which was first introduced in 1976, has been amended numerous times.

“No one is immune to domestic violence. It is a tragic part of our society, but it is a part of it,” said Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood. “When I was a young cop, there was no such thing as domestic violence laws. It used to be that you went to a house, you separated a couple and you left.”

While PFAs offer no guarantee of safety, many in law enforcement and the courts agree they are an effective tool in the majority of domestic violence cases. Arrington, they also agree, is an exception.

“This kind of very, very tragic fatality is not the norm,” said Rita Buckley Connolly.

As the executive director of the Domestic Abuse Project of Delaware County, Buckley and her staff try to empower victims by offering them options, information and the tools they need to stay safe.

“There is a big gap between the number of orders granted and these types of outcomes,” she said. “These are the exceptions.”

Said Chitwood, “Every situation is different. The intensity of every situation is different. But the tragedy is that somebody could die, or suffer serious bodily injury.”

Violators Be Warned
Judges issuing protection orders at both the Common Pleas and District Court levels said that the majority of defendants named in a PFA abide by the order.

“Most times the orders do have the desired effect,” said Peter P. Tozer, magisterial district judge for Glenolden and Norwood.

The number of contempt petitions for violators is just a fraction of the number of permanent orders that are issued, said Common Pleas Court Judge James Bradley, one of four jurists who oversee the county court’s Family Division, where permanent PFAs are decided.

“The word is out in the community that if you violate the PFA, you are going to be arrested and charged,” he said.

Abusers like Michael are persistent and don’t let go, said an attorney who has represented petitioners and defendants in PFA cases.

Maureen Repetto represented Kimberly Carsello, who was gunned down by her ex-husband Keith Scavo in 1997.

There were at least three PFAs issued against Scavo when he took an illegally obtained .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol and shot and killed Carsello and her boyfriend.

“These people, they see red when they see their ex-wives or girlfriends,” said Repetto, the sadness obvious in her voice as she recalled how Scavo shot right through his baby daughter’s shoulder to get to his ex-wife. “He hated her that much.”

Repetto and others believe no matter what precautions Arrington might have taken, Michael eventually would have killed her.

“This is just a piece of paper. It’s not a shield,” said Tozer. “Someone who really wants to hurt you isn’t going to care. Even though this evicts the abuser from the house, anything can happen.”

It’s why Tozer encourages the victim of abuse to think about safety.

“It is up to the complaining party to determine if the person they are involved with will respect the order,” Tozer said. “And you can be wrong.

“There’s no question that if someone wants to hurt you, a PFA is not going to stop them. If the thought of going to prison doesn’t stop them, why would a protection order?”

As of June 30, 87 individuals were committed to county prison as a result of violations under the Protection From Abuse Act – a civil contempt domestic warrant, according to John Reilly Jr., superintendent of the facility in Thornbury.

Of those, 16 remained incarcerated as of late Thursday afternoon. While most are male, Reilly was aware of at least one female inmate.

Psychological Assault
A little over a year.

That’s all it took for one Delaware County woman to discover a dark side to her new husband.

He began stealing money to buy drugs, she learned, and had become abusive.

“I think it was the drugs,” said the woman, whose name is being withheld to protect her identity. “He went off the deep end.”

Fearful for her safety, she began locking her bedroom door to keep him out. This infuriated him all the more.

“He’d break the door down to get in,” said the woman, who is in the process of getting a divorce. “He was becoming more and more erratic.”

To protect herself, she went to police and then to the courts and was granted a PFA. Her husband was evicted from their home and ordered to stay away.

The ink on the court order was barely dry when the late night phone calls began. He broke into her home and car and damaged her property. He stalked her and her friends.

“I’m constantly looking over my shoulder,” she said.

Each time he violated the PFA, the woman called police. A court hearing would follow, during which the victim would have to take off from work.

“On the days when I have to go to court I’m a nervous wreck,” she said. “He just glares at me from across the room. I just avoid looking at him.”

The courtroom where the protection hearings are held Thursday is always packed, the woman said.

“There are so many people, it just amazes me,” she said.

The last few times she has appeared in court for a hearing, she asked and was given the opportunity to speak directly with the judge.

“I want them to realize how exhausting this is emotionally, to keep going to court over and over,” she said.

Her estranged husband was able to stay out of jail because he had to work to pay child support from a previous relationship. That happened at least five times, the victim said.

When he showed up at her workplace and police found him there, he was jailed for violating the PFA. Though he’s been in jail for several months, he is scheduled to be released soon.

“I’ve been pretty anxious for what that means for me,” said the victim. “He spent months in jail already and he’s not going to be happy that I did that to him.”

The victim said she has considered moving, but a poor job market and the housing slump is forcing her to stay put. At least for now.

“It’s taken a lot out me,” she said. “He is in jail now, but my concern is that when he gets out I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

The woman fears that her days of freedom are coming to a close. She worries that once her estranged husband is let out of jail, her nightmare will start all over again.

“The stalking is just as horrible as someone coming and physically assaulting you,” she said. “It’s a psychological assault having to live that way. I feel like a prisoner in my own home.”

Opposing Views
Reilly, who served as an assistant district attorney for 13 years, thinks it’s time to reevaluate the provisions of the Protection from Abuse Act.

“Our approach is wrong,” he said. “It was a great idea when it was enacted. Now we need to go back and look at the way we do things.”

Reilly thinks that whenever a PFA is issued, “there should be an automatic arrest warrant,” with a hearing to follow within 48 to 72 hours.

“I would use the civil mechanism, but give it the urgency of a criminal arrest warrant,” he said. “There is no reason we can’t pick them up and put them on ice for 48 hours, just to ensure that everything is fine.”

Repetto disagrees.

“That’s kind of a leap of putting everyone of these PFAs on the same level,” said Repetto, who helped write an amendment to the Protection from Abuse Act with state Rep. Mario Civera, R-164, of Upper Darby. Repetto said PFAs are not criminal in nature.

“It’s not criminal until there is a violation,” she said.

Some police officers believe that anyone who violates a PFA should go to jail without benefit of bail.

Repetto believes each case should be evaluated on an individual basis.

“When there is a violation, common sense needs to kick in,” she said.

Weekend Duty
It’s during their turn at weekend duty when magisterial district judges like Tozer and Richard Cappelli deal with emergency protection orders. Weekend duty rotates among all the judges.

Cappelli and Tozer agree that the orders are an important part of the system. Where they differ is how they view a situation from the bench.

Cappelli, whose jurisdiction includes Concord, Bethel, Chadds Ford and Thornbury, said he’s more apt to believe every victim’s story. When he’s on-call, that jurisdiction expands to include Chester, Media, Upper Providence, Lower and Upper Chichester, Aston and Middletown.

Tozer is looking for evidence of the recent physical abuse. His jurisdiction expands to include Springfield, Ridley, Prospect Park, Tinicum, Folcroft, Darby and Colwyn when he’s on call for the weekend.

“It’s about protection,” said Cappelli. “We have a limited amount of time and a limited amount of facts to base this decision.

“Generally, I’m just going to believe that this person is telling me the truth because the risk of not doing so is too great.”

Even if Cappelli suspects an exaggeration of the facts — cases of which many in the legal arena agree are rare — he still will err on the side of caution.

For Tozer, he’s looking for the essential “emergency” factor.

“The primary goal is to protect from physical abuse,” said Tozer, who said he always has two or three requests on a weekend. “I guess everyone has their own definition of emergency. In my case, I am looking for signs of recent physical abuse. If I can’t document that in some way, I don’t want to evict someone from their home.”

Should a person come to Tozer and say, “My husband threatened to shoot me,” he said he wants that person to call the police and have that man arrested.

“If somebody threatens your life, it’s a crime,” he said. “If a guy is threatening to kill you, is that piece of paper going to protect you?

“It’s just a piece of paper, it is not a shield. There is no question that someone who wants to get you, the PFA is not going to stop them. If the thought of going to prison doesn’t stop them, why would a protection order?”

There also is the immediacy factor, according to Tozer.

“If a woman comes before me and tells me, ‘My husband hit me three weeks ago,’ I’m not going to say it didn’t happen. I am going to say that the emergency was three weeks ago.”

Either way, Tozer said, “It’s a very difficult area.”

Lingering Stigma
Tozer and others in the legal system suspect that the stigma surrounding domestic violence continues to stop some women – and men – from seeking help through the courts.

Sadly, Tozer thinks the vast majority of abuse cases still go unreported. He attributes that to the shame attached to domestic violence, which he likened to mental illness.

“For some families, it remains their dirty little secret,” Tozer said.

In Upper Darby, for example, Chitwood estimates at least 30 percent of the domestic cases go unreported.

According to Chitwood, there are two or three domestic violence incidents in Upper Darby every day.

“If it’s domestic violence and we can make an arrest, we make an arrest. It’s that simple,” he said.

Situations involving domestic violence aren’t always so clear cut.

Chitwood pointed to an incident Wednesday involving the report of a woman assaulted with a knife. Police arrived to find the woman sitting on the step outside her apartment. Sitting next to her was her fiancée.

The woman was upset and had a huge gash in her left cheek. She told the officer she was walking along West Chester Pike and a black female slashed her for no reason. When the officer spoke with another man in their apartment, he was told the woman and her fiancée had been arguing. When the investigator caught up with the woman at the hospital where she was being treated, she told him she wanted nothing to do with filing a report.

“We have to leave,” Chitwood said. “These are the types of things we see over and over again.”

Under Pennsylvania law, a police officer has probable cause to make an arrest if he observes evidence of physical injury or other evidence substantiating violence.

Once the matter reaches the courts, the officer can testify under the exception to the hearsay rule, said Springfield Lt. William Clark. Even if a victim wants to withdraw the charges, the officer can testify and the defendant can be held for court, Clark added.

Chitwood said he sees women who come to court and drop the charges, saying they love him, there are children involved, they have nowhere to go.

“They are all legitimate reasons. But at the end of the day, they are putting themselves in harm’s way,” he said.

Willoughby, too, sees apprehension by some victims. A lot of women, he said, never take that step of seeking a protection order. Arrington was not one of them.

“This girl was in such fear that she took that step,” he said.

Last Week in PFA Court
The defendant was shackled and in court Thursday, but it didn’t stop him from screaming at the woman standing just a short distance from him. The judge had to shout several times for him to be quiet.

In another case a spouse described his former wife as his “best friend.’’ The slim woman just stood crying. She obviously was upset by what her attorney said was her ex-husband’s abusive and threatening behavior toward her because of his alcoholism that remains untreated.

They were two of the 93 cases that came before Bradley in Delaware County Court recently involving protection from abuse matters — that have mushroomed from a total of 1,176 in 1998 to 3,018 in 2008.

On any given Thursday morning, the courtroom is filled with people whose lives have been shattered by threats and assaults and who are looking for the court – and that special piece of paper – to grant them some security.

Bradley agreed that the PFA is not a bulletproof vest, but in most cases it is effective.

“We tell people this gives you the protection of the law. If the person contacts you, you call the police and they are immediately arrested. Police take these threats very seriously, but it’s not a Kevlar vest,” said Bradley.

Andrea’s Voice
The petition for protection from abuse Arrington filled out July 2 detailed, in her own words, some of the abuse she had suffered at the hands of the father of her 2-year-old son.

In neat penmanship, she wrote that Michael had pushed and choked her, slapped her in the face and had thrown his keys at her, hitting her in the hand.

“Last month, (he) slapped me, grabbed me by the throat, would not let me leave (the) house,” Arrington wrote. (He) kicked me in the side. A couple years ago he gave me a black eye. A couple days ago he threatened to hit me in the head with a wine bottle.”

After Arrington received the PFA, the harassment escalated, family members said.

In an attempt to get away from Michael, she moved from an apartment in Chester to Constitution Avenue in Ridley Township to live with her grandmother, Dorothy Thornton.

“He’s been calling here every day,” said Thornton, the morning after Arrington was murdered. “He has his friends calling telling her to watch her back because he wants her to drop the PFA.”

Michael slashed the tires on both Arrington’s and Thornton’s cars, family members said. His harassment was relentless and terrifying.

“If you don’t drop the charges I’ll kill you,” said Thornton, repeating what Michael said to her granddaughter in a phone conversation days earlier. “If you do, I’ll leave you alone.”

Arrington was determined to get away from Michael and move on with her life. She refused his demands to drop the PFA.

Six days before her murder, Arrington called Chester police and reported Michael had violated the PFA. The specifics concerning that violation are unknown.

An arrest warrant had been initiated but still was winding its way through Chester Court the day Michael ambushed Arrington.

Ultimate Act

After Michael murdered Arrington, authorities said he called two friends and claimed responsibility for the unsolved deaths of two of his six children.

Lamar Patrick was 4 when he died in 2005. Alijah Townes was four months old when he died in 2007.

Then, Michael walked out of his house, aimed a gun at a cop and was shot and killed, taking his secrets with him.

“It was selfish and abusive,” Repetto said, noting that the boys’ mothers and authorities may never know the truth.

“It was the ultimate act of abuse,” she said.