Rebecca Griego bill passes Senate unanimously

OLYMPIA – A bill designed to help protect victims of domestic violence, crafted after the tragic murder of Rebecca Griego by her estranged former partner at the University of Washington in April 2007, passed the Senate today on a unanimous vote. Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, sponsored Senate Bill 6357, and has made campus safety one of her major priorities for the 2008 Legislative session in Olympia.

“I do not want to see any more tragedies happen to anyone in Washington. This bill will provide some measure of help for domestic violence victims,” said Kohl-Welles during floor debate.

Currently, protection orders must be served on the abuser in person, and there are no clearly defined limits to how many times a victim must return to court if the authorities are not able to locate and serve the abuser. Under Kohl-Welles’ bill, courts may not require a domestic violence victim to make more than two attempts at serving a protection order in person. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported in May 2007 that Seattle police say they weren't able to serve about 40 percent of the protection orders they received from courts in 2006, in most cases because the subject could not be found.

“In the UW murder-suicide tragedy, although Rebecca Griego made it clear that she wanted a permanent protection order in place when her abuser was found, neither Rebecca nor authorities were able to locate him and personally serve him, even though he continued to call and threaten her” said Kohl-Welles. “This legislation will provide uniformity across the state in making it easier for victims to serve process by mail or by publication when an abuser has successfully avoided being served in person.”

After today’s emphatic vote, the bill moves on to the House, where it must be cleared before the March 7 cut off deadline. The passage of SB 6357 compliments two other domestic violence bills passed this week: Senate Bill 6500 by Sen. Tracey Eide, D-Federal Way, which allows domestic violence victims to use shared leave, and Senate Bill 5900 by Sen. Debbie Regala, D-Tacoma, which allows employees to take leave if they or a family member is a victim of domestic violence.

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