The city elevated strangulation from a misdemeanor to a felony in hopes of reducing domestic violence. But hurdles often occur in convincing victims to come forward as well as securing evidence.
They met on social media two years ago and began to date, according to court testimony, sharing a routine of takeout dinners and relaxing nights in front of the TV, smoking weed.
But three months in, police were summoned to a Northwest Washington apartment building on a Thursday night in January by a panicked neighbor. When they arrived, court records state, they found a woman sitting on the ground in the hallway with Joseph Coles standing over her. An officer documented red bruises around the base of her neck. They came from Coles, the woman told police.
Coles, 35, was charged with felony strangulation, in an early test of a law seeking to combat domestic violence in the District by enhancing the penalty for an act experts say is linked to escalating harm. He was also charged with simple assault, a misdemeanor.
After two days of testimony last week, a D.C. Superior Court jury convicted Coles of the lesser charge in the January attack but deadlocked over the felony, resulting in the judge declaring a mistrial for the most serious charge. One juror, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said 11 of the 12 jurors had found Coles guilty of strangulation. But one male juror, she said, was not convinced by the woman’s account of Coles wrapping his hand around her neck and squeezing. Coles and his lawyer declined to comment.
The case underscores the complexities of responding to and prosecuting instances of suspected family and intimate partner violence, which D.C. police data show killed 19 people in the District last year. Victims often are afraid to testify or lack the financial resources to flee their abuser, among other factors, said Sharon Marcus-Kurn, chief of the sex offense and domestic violence section for the U.S. attorney’s office. The attacks often leave little physical evidence and are frequently committed in private, leaving prosecutors without direct evidence to help build a case, she said.
Still, Marcus-Kurn’s office has charged about 70 people under the new legislation, which brought the District in line with 49 states in creating a stand-alone felony charge for strangulation. The measure, initially passed in 2023 as part of an emergency bill aimed at curbing a generational spike in violence, elevated the crime from a misdemeanor with a possible 180-day jail sentence to a more serious crime, punishable by up to five years in prison.
The heightened criminal offense also added prison time if the victim had previously sought a protective order against the attacker or if the assailant had been court-ordered to not contact the victim or had been convicted of a previous intrafamily offense.
“Strangulation is a serious offense and can be a key indicator of future lethal violence in domestic and intimate partner situations,” said council member Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), the sponsor of the legislation. “By establishing a stand-alone felony offense for strangulation, we have enabled the District to better hold individuals who engage in this conduct accountable and hopefully prevent future harm.”
The change allows prosecutors to ask that someone charged with the crime be held until trial, addressing a concern often voiced by victims who fear reprisal and intimidation for coming forward.
“This period of time is a very dangerous time and potentially a period of high risk for the victims,” said Marcus-Kurn, who has been prosecuting sexual and domestic violence cases in the District for more than two decades.
Strangulation by an intimate partner, Marcus-Kurn said, can scar a person not just physically, but also mentally and emotionally.
“Keep in mind that with intimate partners, hands are supposed to be used for acts of comfort and affection. But these enraged domestic abusers take that tool to send a very strong, very effective message that these hands can kill you at any moment,” she said.
The U.S. attorney’s office said 19 of the nearly 70 domestic violence cases that were charged with felony strangulation resulted in convictions. Some others are still pending, or ended with the defendants being acquitted or convicted of other offenses, the office said.
At Coles’s trial, prosecutors faced many of the kinds of hurdles Marcus-Kurn said often surface in instances of domestic violence. The victim, a 40-year-old geriatric nursing assistant, told the jury that prosecutors compelled her to testify against her will with a subpoena, and said she still cares for Coles.
That night began like many others, she said, with the pair eating dinner and smoking. Then she recalled Coles becoming erratic and accusing her of seeing other men, including his brother. Things escalated and he pushed her against the wall of his apartment, choking her with his left hand, she told the jury.
“I began gasping. I couldn’t breathe and I just closed my eyes,” she said. “I thought I was going to die.” He stopped when his phone fell out of his pocket and he bent to retrieve it, she testified. It was then, she said, that she quickly exited his apartment.
There were inconsistencies with her account that experts say can be common for trauma survivors, whose memories from a crisis can be disjointed. She told a grand jury weeks after the attack that Coles had choked her for two to three minutes. At trial, she recalled the incident lasted about 20 to 30 seconds. She insisted, during her testimony, that she did not return to Coles’s apartment after he strangled her. But a security video showed her walking back inside. The woman said the pair had a brief romantic encounter once more, initiated by her, five months after police were called.
Prosecutors told the jury of seven men and five women that the attack, as is the case with most domestic violence cases, “was about control.”
“When he could no longer control his girlfriend, he lost control of himself. He snapped,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Callie Hyde told the jury.
Coles’s attorney Karen Minor said that her client never strangled his former girlfriend and that the bruising around the woman’s neck was a result of Coles grabbing her and pushing her outside of his apartment. “It’s her word against his,” she told the jury. “The government can’t prove this.”
Coles did not testify.
When jurors at first struggled to reach a unanimous verdict on the strangulation charge, Judge Erik Christian ordered them to continue deliberating. Hours later, the jurors sent a second note, saying they were still deadlocked. Christian ultimately told the attorneys he did not want to “force a verdict” and sent the jury home.
Coles sat down in his chair, buried his head in his clasped hands in front of him and shook his head.
On Wednesday, prosecutors offered Coles a plea on the strangulation charge, but declined to discuss the details in open court. Coles’s attorney said they need time to review the offer; the parties are scheduled to return to court Oct. 21.
Original Source: Keith L. Alexander, The Washington Post. Click here to view original post!