Law targets domestic violence
ANN WILLIAMSON/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL
Gov. Mark Parkinson signs a domestic violence bill into law Tuesday at the Maner Conference Centre in front of Jana Mackey’s stepfather Curt Brungardt and mother Christie Brungardt. Jana Mackey, a victim of domestic violence, was killed in 2008, and her parents have been a part of Jana’s Campaign to get the bill passed in the Kansas Legislature.
April 20, 2010 - 12:23pm
Gov. Mark Parkinson's signature on the document Tuesday was ceremonial — but it sent a real-world message to perpetrators of domestic violence.
The Democratic chief executive was joined on a stage in Topeka with people devoting their lives to curtail domestic problems, including Curt and Christie Brungardt. They came to be advocates amid the pain and sorrow of the 2008 murder in Lawrence of their daughter Jana Mackey, a law student at The University of Kansas, by a former boyfriend.
Parkinson signed on April 12 a law that carries Mackey's name and put pen to paper a second time at a conference on crime victim rights to amplify his commitment to oppose domestic violence.
The new law is intended to improve tracking of domestic violence through the state's criminal justice system. The files of men and women will literally be tagged if there is an element of domestic violence in a case. The information might help law enforcement, advocacy groups and families as each responds to the "truth about domestic violence in our state," he said.
"Today is a good day," the governor said. "I am confident we are going to reduce the very negative effects that can happen with domestic violence."
Curt Brungardt said the law sent a clear message that domestic violence was a public safety issue, not a private affair, and demonstrated to those who engage in this type of behavior that their actions were unacceptable.
The tag measure should raise the profile of domestic violence issues and provide motivation to support awareness, treatment and education on the subject, Christie Brungardt said.
"This is something we are tackling," she said.
Bob Stephan, a former Kansas attorney general, introduced Parkinson to more than 150 people attending the 13th annual Crime Victims' Rights Conference at the Capitol Plaza Hotel.
Stephan thought the domestic violence tag proposal would sail through the House and Senate, but it took more than two years to gain approval.
"Frankly, I thought this would be a piece of cake," he said.
Parkinson said three legislators, Rep. Jan Pauls, D-Hutchinson, Sen. Tim Owens, R-Overland Park, and Rep. Pat Colloton, R-Leawood, deserved special recognition for not giving up on the bill.
"It likely would not have happened without the three of them," the governor said.
Parkinson also said he was alarmed by the volume of violence against women throughout the world.
"The treatment of women on this planet is shameful," he said.
