Domestic violence paralegal shares experiences in court, life

As a domestic violence paralegal, Krystle Pullan knows what it is like to be in the courtroom with domestic violence cases and how to maneuver through the court system.

When she herself became a domestic violence survivor, she found even with her experience that she struggled to navigate the system.

"Domestic violence laws mean very little if victims have to become investigators, paralegals, safety coordinators and watchdogs just to get those protections enforced," Pullan said. "I happen to have worked as a domestic violence paralegal. I understand court procedure. I know how to document evidence. I know how to request records. I know what an Order of Protection is supposed to do. I know how to communicate with police, prosecutors and courts. And even with that background, I have struggled tremendously trying to navigate this system. That makes me constantly ask: What happens to the victim who doesn’t know any of this?"

Specifically, Pullan said not all women will know what the Freedom of Information Law is, what records to request or which agency is responsible. Additionally, she questioned what happens to a woman who is working full time, raising children, trying to stay alive and does not have the ability to spend hundreds of hours figuring out what went wrong? All of these reasons and more, she said, is why she chose to share her story with The Post-Journal.

HER HISTORY

Pullan said domestic violence does not begin with one incident, and there is always a pattern. Her relationship with her now ex-husband was an example of that pattern, with increasingly dangerous behaviors that escalated into a serious physical incident that he was sentenced for.

"My understanding from communications I later received was that he had approximately 111 days of jail credit and approximately 254 days remaining on his sentence," Pullan said. "Yet he was released from the Chautauqua County Jail that same day. Initially, I was told it was an accidental release. Later, I was given a different explanation involving the calculation of his sentence or time served."

Pullan questioned how a domestic violence victim can go from believing her offender has been sentenced and incarcerated to discovering he is back out in the community and threatening her, and who is responsible for making sure the calculation is correct before that happens?

"When the person being released has a documented domestic violence history, an Order of Protection, stalking concerns or a victim who may be in immediate danger, there should be safeguards," Pullan said.

The period after a domestic violence offender is released has been proven to be the most dangerous time, and it was no different for Pullan who reports additional physical and sexual violence, continued unwanted contact, harrassment and stalking type conduct, all happening within less than a month of his release. Her children were also exposed to this type of behavior.

"If the system knows someone presents a significant domestic-violence risk, why isn’t the period immediately following release treated like the critical safety period that it is?" Pullan said. "I have experienced firsthand how terrifying it is to have an Order of Protection and still not feel protected. An Order of Protection is an important legal tool. But paper does not physically stop someone from stalking you, contacting you, using other people, watching your house, monitoring social media, appearing at workplaces or finding other ways to maintain control."

Pullan added there should be an aggressive recognition of patterns, noting that things like one phone call, a fake social media account, one drive by, one third party message, one unexplained appearance might all look minor but putting these and more acts together it becomes a campaign of intimidation. The justice system, she said, needs to evaluate domestic violence as a course of conduct instead of repeatedly treating incidents as unrelated individual events.

SPECIFIC CHANGES REQUESTED

There are a few different areas in how domestic violence cases are handled both locally and statewide that Pullan said need to change. This includes things like a statewide mandatory protocol for high risk offenders, that could include things like before someone is released sentence calculations should be independently verified; outstanding warrants and Orders of Protection should be checked; probation/parole status should be checked; the prosecutor should be notified when appropriate; the victim should receive release notification; and there should be a documented safety review when the case has known high-risk domestic-violence factors. Pullan added that victims should not learn about the release after the fact, and there should be meaningful notifications when an offender is going to be released. For victims in qualifying domestic violence, stalking and Order-of-Protection cases, she said when legally permissible notifications should include; that release is occurring; the expected release date or immediate notice when an unexpected release occurs; whether supervision applies; whether an Order of Protection remains active; who the victim should contact regarding violations; and immediate connection with victim services for safety planning. Coordinated safety protocols should be triggered in high risk cases as well, Pullan said, including things such as immediate victim notification; contact from a trained advocate; review of the existing Order of Protection; lethality or danger assessment; information about emergency relocation; coordination among the jail, police, prosecutor and victim-services provider; and a clearly identified person the victim can call when something happens.

"One of the most difficult parts of my experience has been feeling that incarceration does not necessarily stop the abuse," Pullan said. "Someone can be sitting in jail and still potentially obtain information, communicate through other people, monitor a victim indirectly or influence people outside the facility. That means 'he’s in jail' cannot automatically equal 'you’re safe.' The question needs to become: Can this person still exercise control over the victim from inside the facility?"

Orders of Protection in high risk cases, Pullan said, should very clearly address direct communication; indirect communication; third-party communication; social-media surveillance used for harassment; directing another person to contact or intimidate the victim; and attempts to obtain protected information about the victim for an improper purpose.

Other areas that Pullan said need to be addressed by the state include coercive control, noting that domestic violence is often only thought to be physical assault but can include abuse that takes the form of monitoring, intimidation, isolation, financial control, destroying property, repeated unwanted communication, threats, stalking, manipulation, sexual coercion, technological abuse, using litigation, and using other people as extensions of the abuse. Pullan said the state needs stronger recognition of coercive control, all of which these are examples of, and that the law needs to be capable of seeing the entirety of what victims experience.

Related, abusers, Pullan said, should not have the ability to use the court system as a weapon, where another avenue of control can be seen.

"Repeated filings can force the victim to keep appearing in court, taking time off work, paying attorneys, arranging childcare and repeatedly facing the person she is trying to escape," Pullan said. "That doesn't mean an accused person should lose legitimate access to the courts. Due process matters. But courts should also be able to recognize when legal proceedings are being used in bad faith as another form of coercion or harassment."

Pullan also called for a lethality assessment system for high risk cases, as domestic violence often escalates, triggering heightened intervention at a certain level. Locally, she said Chautauqua County could work on a coordinated case review team for high risk cases that could include representatives from law enforcement, the District Attorney's Office, probation, corrections, victim services, domestic-violence advocates, and other agencies when legally appropriate. The team would be to answer one question, what does the victim need to remain alive and safe?

"Right now victims can fall into the cracks between agencies," Pullan said. "Police say one thing belongs to the DA. The DA may say another issue belongs to the sheriff. The jail handles incarceration. Probation handles supervision. Family Court handles one piece. The criminal court handles another. Victim services handle something else. Meanwhile, the victim is standing in the middle trying to coordinate everybody. That needs to change."

Additionally, Pullan said the system itself needs accountability when there is a mistake, with a specific look at changing things so it does not happen again. To Pullan, there should also be independent reviews when conflicts or appearances of conflicts exist, as can be a problem in small counties when people know each other either personally or professionally, better data about order of protection violations, measuring aggregate data annually, and having one specific person help victims navigate the system whose job would be to make sure the victim does not disappear between agencies. Pullan added that domestic violence should be seen as an economic crisis with everything abuse costs victims, and victim assistance programs should move faster.

EFFECTS ON CHILDREN

Children also need to be recognized as victims of domestic violence, as Pullan noted one of the hardest parts of her experience was everything her children witnessed.

"Children do not have to be physically struck to be harmed by domestic violence," Pullan said. "They hear it. They see it. They see the police. They hear threats. They watch their mother check cameras. They become afraid when someone drives past the house. They change the way they sleep. They change how safe the world feels. Domestic violence policy needs to stop viewing children simply as witnesses standing nearby. They are affected too."

AWARENESS AND ACCOUNTABILITY

Not everything that happened in Pullan's case goes back to bail reform, she said, adding that her case involves broader questions of sentence calculation, release procedures, victim notification, enforcement of Orders of Protection, stalking, repeat conduct, interagency communication, victim safety planning, prosecution, correctional procedures, and accountability. She also noted that not everyone in the system fails in cases like this, citing specific officers and professionals who have taken her seriously. Pullan does have specific questions for elected officials involved in her case, looking for explanations and transparency for things such as what happens when an offender gets unexpectedly released and how victim notification works.

Statewide, Pullan said there are ways Albany can help address these kinds of cases, especially as a recognition of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Legislational changes should include; Mandatory DV victim release notification, Independent sentence-release verification, Coercive control, Abusive litigation, Lethality assessments, Better protection from third-party abuse, Accountability following government errors, Better statewide DV data, and Dedicated high-risk DV navigation.

There are things that Pullan said should have happened differently in her case, specifically with the unexpected release and lack of notification to her until after. Pullan is continuing to fight for justice in this case, but is also asking to hear the truth and to learn exactly what happened and if anything has been changed because of it, also asking people to consider if the current local and state safeguards are adequate. Initially, she said she began by being quiet and working her way through the system, but that doing so was not making her safer.

"Eventually I realized that many of the issues I was experiencing were bigger than my individual case," Pullan said. "Once I started speaking publicly, other women began telling me their stories too. That changed something for me. I realized this wasn't only about getting justice for myself. If something that happened to me exposes a hole in the system, then I want that hole fixed before another woman falls through it."

Especially as Domestic Violence Awareness month continues, Pullan said she is continuing to ask for accountability in her case, looking for honesty, what failed and why it failed. While she is looking for accountability for what happened to her, she is also looking for other forms of justice as well besides prosecution.

"Obviously, I want accountability for what happened to me," Pullan said. "But real justice would mean another victim benefits from everything I have had to go through. Justice would be: A woman receiving a phone call before her abuser walks out of jail. A sentence calculation getting checked twice. A police officer seeing 20 seemingly small incidents and recognizing a stalking pattern. A judge recognizing coercive control. A prosecutor recognizing abusive litigation. A victim getting emergency assistance before her electricity gets shut off. A child getting counseling before trauma becomes something they carry into adulthood. A county admitting when something went wrong and fixing it. That’s what justice looks like to me now."

Pullan said it should not have taken her four and a half years of paralegal experience for her to be able to navigate the justice system. The next woman, she said, might not have that knowledge or experience, and the system should still work for her anyway.

"Domestic Violence Awareness Month cannot just be purple lights, proclamations and photographs," Pullan said. "Awareness without accountability doesn't protect anybody. If elected officials truly stand with survivors, then show us the procedures, show us the data, show us what happens when the system fails, and show us what you're changing."

Pullan is not telling her story for people to feel bad for her, but rather to get people asking if this is something that could happen to someone else tomorrow. If that answer is yes, she said there is still work to be done.

"I cannot change what happened to me," Pullan said. "But if telling the truth about it changes a policy, strengthens a law, creates a notification requirement, forces better communication or keeps one woman and her children safer, then something good came out of something horrible. As a mother, as a survivor and as a paralegal, that's what I'm fighting for."