NEW YORK'S HIGHEST COURT UPHOLDS CONVICTION IN DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CASE: RULES THAT CHILDREN WHO WITNESS ABUSE OF MOTHER ARE ALSO VICTIMS

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said today that a ruling this week by the New York Court of Appeals, the State's highest court, upholding a conviction obtained by the Queens District Attorney's office is "a significant victory for children trapped in abusive families."

District Attorney Brown said that the Court's ruling in People vs. Theodore Johnson "makes New York the second state in the nation whose highest court has recognized that children who witness domestic violence in the home are also victims."

According to the District Attorney, the defendant, Theodore Johnson was convicted following a non jury trial before Acting Supreme Court Justice William Erlbaum of a number of felonies in connection with the violation of an order of protection previously issued to his ex-girlfriend. He was also convicted of menacing, intimidating a witness and endangering the welfare of a child. He was sentenced to four years in prison.

District Attorney Brown said that the charges were brought in connection with an incident that took place on March 7, 1997, when the defendant accosted his ex-girlfriend as she was walking home from the supermarket with their baby and two other children, aged 7 and 12. He dragged her to her apartment and continued to beat her throwing things and yelling and screaming. The children saw Johnson strike their mother and threatened to kill her and then spent ten hours hiding in their bedroom while he physically and verbally abused their mother. The victim finally managed to escape out and call the police.

The defendant appealed his conviction on endangering the welfare of a child charges on the grounds that he did not cause direct harm to the children.

The Court ruled yesterday that the defendant's actions were, in fact, "likely to be injurious to the physical, mental or moral welfare" of the children and upheld the conviction.

District Attorney Brown said, "The Court's decision means that an abusive spouse is subject to arrest and prosecution both for the abuse of the other spouse as well as for endangering the welfare of any children present."

Assistant District Attorney John Castellano, Chief of District Attorney Brown's Appeals Bureau, argued the case.