Following Tuesday’s arrest of Foits Dulos for the murder of his wife Jennifer Farber Dulos, state Sen. Alex Bergstein, D-Greenwich, announced Friday plans for legislation intended to redefine how cases of domestic violence and abuse are handled Connecticut family court.
“Jennifer Dulos was my constituent,” said Bergstein, vice chair of the judiciary committee. “We stand here today seeking justice for Jennifer.”
With support from the Connecticut Protective Moms, an advocacy group, Bergstein explained the key points of the proposed “Child Safety First Bill" at a news conference in New Haven. The Connecticut Protective Moms support mothers who are in the midst of divorce proceedings.
The bill seeks to expand the statutory definition of domestic violence or abuse to account for a person’s history of “coercive, controlling behavior.” Among physical violence or sexual assault, coercive behaviors include financial, emotional, and psychological abuse.
The bill would also make abuse “the first factor assessed by the court” in determining custody and the “best interests of the child.”
Evan Stark, who authored the book on coercive control, explained how abusers maintain control over a partner not only through violence, but through threats to take away or harm their children. The United Kingdom
passed laws based on Stark’s work in 2015.
“The fundamental principle about which all of us are concerned is that people should have equal rights to liberty, equality, and dignity. That’s what’s on the table, for children as well as women,” he said Friday.
when courts give custody of the children to a parent who has committed domestic violence, Stark said it “puts the children into indentured servitude, taking away their rights to liberty and dignity.”
A recent
study conducted by domestic violence expert Joan S. Meyer at Georgetown found through an analysis of 2000 cases that “courts are skeptical of mothers’ claims of abuse by fathers [and] this skepticism is greatest when mothers claim child abuse.” Such claims of abuse may hurt the mother’s chances of gaining custody of her own children.
As a result, advocates for the bill said parents may be forced to share custody with an abuser while enduring years in family court to finalize a divorce. Farber Dulos’ own divorce case stretched on for two years. In court transcripts, she said her husband "expects to exhibit complete control over me and the children.”
Dulos, through his lawyer Norm Pattis, has denied any involvement in the disappearance or death of Jennifer Farber Dulos. Pattis called it a “tragic mystery,” and accused Bergstein of “crisis-mongering.”
Hysteria is not a sound basis for public policy,” he said.
“This is a crisis. Domestic abuse and violence has been a crisis forever,” responded Bergstein. "And I would say that anybody who uses the word hysteria in the context of speaking about a women is attacking the credibility of all women.”
The Dulos divorce case had hundreds of motions filed in family court over a number of years, said Bergstein.
“Such cases are often labeled as ‘high-conflict,’ but that is a misnomer," she said. "These cases are often the result of abusers weaponizing the legal system to harass, intimidate, and destroy the person who dared to leave.”
Pointing to Dulos case, state Sen. Alex Bergstein announces new legislation to reform family court
