Victims' advocates have said the repeal is a budgetary game that could cost people their lives. Topeka repeals domestic violence law

City leaders in Topeka, Kansas, voted on Tuesday night to repeal the local law against domestic violence in a move officials blame on budget cuts.

In September, the county’s district attorney stopped pursuing prosecutions of domestic violence in the city, citing a 10 percent budget cut, the Associated Press reported.


But the mayor and city council want the DA to take up the cases again and believe repealing the city’s domestic violence law will add pressure on him to renew prosecutions of domestic violence and assault cases.

In the month since new prosecutions of domestic violence stopped in Topeka, there have been at least 35 reported cases of domestic battery or assault, and 18 people jailed have been released without facing charges.

Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor said the 10 percent budget cut forced his hand at a time when his office is bogged down by other cases. In response, he decided in early September that his office would drop its prosecution of misdemeanors - which include domestic violence and battery without a weapon - in Topeka.

City officials, however, say they don’t have the money to pay for jailing inmates or to hire staff to deal with the prosecutions - which had previously been the responsibility of the county. Interim city manager Dan Stanley said at Tuesday’s city council meeting that repealing the law would give the city leverage in its talks with the county over who should foot the bill for prosecuting the crimes.

“I think it draws a line in the sand,” he said. “It says we will remove all ambiguity from this question, and we will negotiate from a position of strength.”

But victims’ advocates say the city is acting recklessly in a budgetary game that could cost people their lives.

“I absolutely do not understand it,” Rita Smith, executive director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, said according to the AP. “It’s really outrageous that they’re playing with family safety to see who blinks first. People could die while they’re waiting to straighten this out.”

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Kansas

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