Ex-cop's murder-suicide suggests domestic abuse loophole

Mevlida Dzananovic told an Urbandale detective on Feb. 16 that she didn't want to press charges against her boyfriend, a former Des Moines police officer who split open a man's head during a traffic stop, because she feared for her life.

"If I do something about it, I will have to watch every single day for somebody to kill me or my kid, because he's crazy. He doesn't have mercy for anything, nothing in this world," she told Urbandale Detective David Cook in a recorded interview.

Her words turned out to be prophetic.

Two months later, Dzananovic, 24, was found strangled in the back of an SUV that she and her boyfriend, former officer Mersed Dautovic, had taken to a concert in Chicago on April 17. Just a few feet away, the body of Dautovic, 32, was found hanging from a rope in his apartment garage in Urbandale.

MORE DETAILS: Secret affair at heart of ex-D.M. cop murder-suicide

Police investigative reports and court records analyzed by The Des Moines Register show a destructive relationship, the difficulty some people face breaking away from their abuser, and a legal system that failed to stop the violence before it turned fatal.

Police responded at least five times in nine months to reports of fighting or disputes between the two before the murder-suicide. Yet the only time an arrest was made was March 28, when Dautovic was accused of hitting Dzananovic at a Waukee gas station. He was released from jail the next day.

The incidents reveal the difficulty the legal system faces in dealing with relationships plagued by chronic violence, particularly when those abused won't pursue charges, law enforcement officials and domestic abuse experts say.

"Those relationships are very intertwined and are very complex. And there's always help available if someone wants to take advantage of it," Polk County Attorney John Sarcone said. "But if you don't want to take advantage of it, no one's going to force that."

But advocates for abuse victims say repeated violence without more serious legal repercussions illustrates weaknesses in Iowa's domestic violence laws, which don't apply to dating relationships. A recent attempt to toughen those laws to include dating couples failed in this year's legislative session.

Repeated problems

Dzananovic and Dautovic started seeing each other when he was released from prison on Jan. 17, 2014, after serving 13 months of his 20-month sentence for beating a man during a traffic stop while he was a Des Moines police officer.

On June 5, 2014, West Des Moines police responded to a report of a fight between Dzananovic and Dautovic in an apartment. Dautovic left to avoid problems.

On Oct. 19, 2014, Urbandale police responded to Dautovic's apartment for another report of a fight between them. This time, Dzananovic left. Once again, no one was charged.

On Feb. 14, Dzananovic called 911, saying Dautovic had pulled her around the apartment by her hair and had grabbed her neck after drinking beer. Cook, the Urbandale detective, investigated and encouraged Dzananovic to pursue charges during their recorded conversation. She refused.

"If I press charges against him and go to court, I'm going to have to go every single day of my life in fear," she said in the interview. "I would rather move away."

"What do you want us to do?" Cook asked.

"I'm not going to text him or call him; I don't want to see him in my life again," Dzananovic replied, telling Cook she would go to her parents' house. "I feel safe there."

"I'm going to the county attorney, but they may still pursue charges," Cook told her. "It's going to be their decision."

But Cook wrote in his report that he could not substantiate any of Dzananovic's injuries and would need her to testify that Dautovic had pulled out her hair. The detective told Polk County Assistant Attorney Shannon Archer who the suspect was and described the case, the investigative report stated. Archer said if the victim wasn't willing to cooperate, she couldn't pursue charges.

Lindsay Pingel, a spokeswoman for the Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said it's common for victims not to press charges.

"If you're asking a victim that has been so brutalized to put their batterer into legal action, it can be more traumatizing," Pingel said.

Arrested but released

In the March 28 incident, when Dautovic was arrested, Dzananovic told an Iowa state trooper that he hit her in the mouth, twisted her hand and tore her leggings when she refused to let him see her cellphone, according to the trooper's report.

Dzananovic had a cut lip and scratches on her hand. Dautovic was charged with domestic abuse assault and booked into the Dallas County Jail, but a judge released him the next day.

Because Dautovic was charged criminally, the judge filed a no-contact order that barred Dautovic and Dzananovic from seeing or speaking with one another.

Dzananovic violated the order the day Dautovic was released, showing up at his apartment complex at 4:20 p.m., according to an Urbandale police report.

TIMELINE: Mersed Dautovic's downfall

Dautovic called the police, but Dzananovic wasn't there when officers arrived.

The couple died before the court could decide whether Dautovic would have been indicted under the criminal or civil domestic abuse charge. The case was dismissed May 12, after their deaths.

Pingel said some may wonder why the victim broke the no-contact order or stayed with an abuser.

"I think we need to rephrase the question and say, 'Why does he hit? Why does she hit? Why does the batterer feel the need to exert this power, fear and violence on someone else," Pingel said. "Once we start asking that question and focusing attention on the batterer and their issues, we might be able to do something and give victims the comfort and support they need to walk away from the relationship and rebuild their lives."

Strengthening the law

Pingel said the cases also show Iowa's laws need to better protect abuse victims in dating relationships.

Although Dzananvoic told police during the Feb. 14 incident that Dautovic was her fiance, the two were never married in Polk County, records show.

Iowa law allows a judge to sign a criminal no-contact order without the victim's consent — but only against offenders who abuse a cohabiting family member, present or former spouse, someone they have lived with for more than a year or with whom they have children.

In those cases, Pingel said, "They are automatically arrested, can get enhanced penalties for offenders who repeat and have to go through a batterer's education program."

Those offenders can't post bond and get out of jail without first appearing before a judge.

That law doesn't apply to dating or former couples, Pingel said. Victims can apply for a temporary civil protective order, but must fill out paperwork in person at the courthouse and face their accuser in a civil proceeding.

"It takes a strong victim to have the wherewithal to go apply for it in the first place and know the abuser is going to get the petition they file, and then face them in court," Pingel said. "That's very scary."

MORE: Dautovic charged with beating second black person

A bill that would have included dating couples under Iowa's domestic abuse protections passed unanimously in the Democrat-controlled Senate in this year's legislative session. But it died in the House, which has a Republican majority.

Senate President Pam Jochum, a Democrat, said local law enforcement and victim advocates from her hometown of Dubuque alerted her to the discrepancy in the law.

"They told me they are finding the majority of cases of women who are coming to them have been abused in dating relationships," Jochum said. "But there was nothing much they could do about it."

Rep. Chip Baltimore, a Republican from Boone, chaired the House Judiciary Committee, where the bill stalled. He said in the five years he's been a legislator, no one has brought him "objective language" that defines a relationship.

Adding the definition from civil law, which the Senate offered, leaves too much to interpretation, he said. Baltimore's fear is that juries would deliver varied decisions in domestic abuse cases involving dating.

"If you're just trying to get somebody to stay away from you and leave you alone, that's one thing," Baltimore said of a civil protective order. "It's another thing to make it a crime and enhance a penalty based upon a subjective interpretation of whether or not you're in an intimate relationship."

Still, according to 2009 data from the Iowa Uniform Crime Report, dating relationships accounted for 51.7 percent of domestic abuse relationships. Spouses comprise 26.8 percent.

Baltimore said he's open to other language proposals.

"I ask this every time," he said. "How many times do I have to take someone out to a movie before I am in an intimate relationship? Is it the first date? Is it the fifth? We're criminalizing behavior. We have to be clear about what's a crime and what's not."

Warning signs of domestic abuse

CONTROL

You can't make decisions without your partner's approval.

You need your partner's permission to do things.

You can't express your opinion or feelings around your partner.

HUMILIATION

Your partner embarrasses you and makes fun of you in front of family and friends.

Your partner says horrible things about you, and you begin to believe they are true.

You feel like you are nothing without your partner.

GUILT

Your partner says he/she lost control because of alcohol, drugs or something you did.

You make excuses to family and friends for your partner.

Nothing you do makes your partner happy.

INTIMIDATION

You often give in to your partner out of fear of what his/her reaction will be.

FEAR

You are afraid of your partner.

Your partner has used violence in the past to get his/her way.

You can't leave out of fear of what your partner will do.

Source: Domestic Violence Services, a program of Children & Families of Iowa

Where to get help

Call the Iowa Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-942-0333.