I've spent time recently observing domestic-violence cases and plan to continue doing so in the coming months.

I want to understand why our area is plagued with a high rate of domestic violence. But the way abuse plays out in the home and the court system is more complicated than I imagined.

Victims sometimes recant stories, making prosecution all but impossible. In some cases, women abuse the system by filing flimsy charges. But I've mostly seen legitimate cases and evidence of real abuse.

A Georgetown case has caught my attention. It illustrates why women sometimes don't want to prosecute.

A 24-year-old woman, Erin Collier, was stripped, searched, shackled and handcuffed, and jailed for a day. That was a few weeks after she reported being beatened, choked and pulled to the ground by the ponytail by a live-in boyfriend while she was holding their 7-week-old baby.

She was jailed for charges that she was making harassing phone calls to family members of her former boyfriend. Elizabeth Brachna, a victim's advocate, said that's the first time she's had a client jailed for such an allegation.

Robert Maring, the lawyer for Collier's former boyfriend, Wilson Goude Jr., said he doesn't discuss ongoing cases but during a Family Court hearing said his client has admitted no guilt.

The court will settle whether Goude is guilty. From Collier's view, the process is off to a rocky start. She said she felt mistreated for having to spend a day in jail and said an officer suggested she not file charges, saying, in effect, "Don't you get angry sometimes, too?"

And Goude was initially charged with simple assault, not the criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature and unlawful conduct toward a child charges he now faces.

Collier and her mother said they had to struggle to get the charges increased. Cpl. Neil Johnson, a spokesman for the Georgetown County Sheriff's Department, disagreed. He said Collier, not police, signed the initial warrant and no officer suggested she not pursue justice. The higher charges were the result of a deeper investigation, he said. They were upheld during a probable cause hearing.

I understand police and prosecutors have difficult decisions to make. I don't expect a perfect system.

But improvements are needed. We need to make sure victims don't feel abused at home and in court.

ONLINE | To read past columns, go to Bailey's page at MyrtleBeachOnline.com.