Maryland
Legislative Agenda for Women
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What You Can Do to Take Action on Legislation
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Criminal Procedure –
Pretrial Release – Violation of Condition of “No Contact” – Penalty Synopsis: This
bill creates a new crime associated with a violation of the no contact condition of a pre-trial order
and permits the arrest of a defendant who violates the no contact condition. Committee(s): House
Judiciary and Senate
Judicial Proceedings Lead Sponsor(s): Delegate
Kathleen Dumais, 410-841-3052, Senator
Jennie Forehand, 410-841-3134 Lead Group(s): Maryland
Network Against Domestic Violence
Michaele Cohen, 301-352-4574
Cynthia Lifson, 410-531-1619 Background Information: In
addition to the civil order of protection from domestic violence, those dealing
with domestic violence also may access the criminal justice system to address
their concerns. It has been long observed that many defendants who are
charged with crimes associated with domestic violence are not jailed in advance
of trial but may be released promptly after an initial encounter with the
criminal justice system. Often, the defendant’s release is conditioned
on an order that requires the defendant to stay away from the victim of the
crime. While the no contact condition order is useful, that there is no
effective sanction to enforce this provision of a court order in criminal
matters in pre-trial situations. This is particularly important in
volatile domestic violence cases where an irate abuser may initiate further harm
or injury on a domestic partner who has filed a criminal complaint. To
remedy this gap in the law, the proposed legislation would create a new crime
related to violation of pre-trial orders so that if the criminal defendant does
not obey the no contact provision of the pre-trial order, the criminal defendant
will not only face criminal charges for a new crime, but will face incarceration
for the duration of the pre-trail period. |
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