Patrick Leahy: “I recall very well the incident of which the Senator from Maryland speaks. I am pleased this is a case where the…”

“I recall very well the incident of which the Senator from Maryland speaks. I am pleased this is a case where the perpetrator was arrested and prosecuted. One of the things I learned in my years as a prosecutor is that too often nobody wanted to pursue those cases. All that meant, of course, was that somebody else would be a victim. In this case, it was the Senator from Maryland. But from my experience, had the person not been apprehended, not been convicted, then someday it would be somebody else. So I commend the people of Baltimore who rallied to her. At least out of that sorry thing there was adequate prosecution. But we have so much violence against women that we never see. I recall so many times police officers seeing a badly battered woman, and where we would bring prosecution, but as I talked to her, I would find this had happened several times before in a domestic situation and that they had gone to law enforcement, and others, and had been turned back where nothing had been followed up on. We had a very aggressive program in my office where we would follow up on it. I have to think there are a number of deaths, though, that have occurred and do occur in places where it is not followed up on. This is something you do not see in the sunny ads and the perfect homes and domestic situations that we see on our television. The fact is, there are a lot of places in this country where there is enormous violence against women.”