Victim advocates Thursday accused a lawyer-lawmaker in the S.C. House of trying to weaken a domestic-violence bill that would stiffen penalties for batterers.

But the attorney-legislator under fire this time wasn’t Republican Rep. John Graham Altman of Charleston.

Instead, it was Rep. Todd Rutherford, a Columbia Democrat.

The House adjourned debate on the bill — which was expected to be on a fast track — until Tuesday after Rutherford planned to introduce at least eight amendments that would strip tougher penalties from it.

‘Todd Rutherford killed us,” said an angry Laura Hudson, spokeswoman for the S.C. Victim Assistance Network. “This is all about him trying to make a good living while criminal domestic-violence victims suffer.”

But Rutherford said he believes the bill, unless changed, would actually result in fewer convictions and court backlogs.

“Nobody in this General Assembly, including John Graham Altman, wants to see a woman get beaten,” Rutherford said. “I don’t dispute that we need to do something, but we’re not doing it right.”

Several state senators warned Thursday the bill could be in jeopardy if the House doesn’t pass it next week. But Rep. Bob Leach, R-Greenville, the lead sponsor, said he expects to get it to the Senate by then.

“I feel we will be able to table every (amendment) that doesn’t strengthen the bill,” Leach said.

Sen. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, said Thursday that Sen. Glenn McConnell, president pro tempore and Judiciary Committee chairman, appointed him to head a subcommittee to handle the House bill and several related Senate bills. A hearing is scheduled for next Thursday.

House leaders introduced a revised bill this week after an uproar over what critics called insensitive remarks by Altman to a WIS television reporter and during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the original bill.

The House was expected to quickly pass the bill this week. But it stalled Thursday after Rutherford and other lawmakers began offering amendments.

Rutherford proposed allowing convicted first-time offenders to have their records cleared after one year if they don’t get into any more trouble. The bill sets a five-year expungement period. The House adjourned debate without voting on that amendment.

Rutherford was planning to offer other amendments that would eliminate higher fines and minimum mandatory sentences.

Under the bill, the minimum fine for a first offense would be $1,000, up from a maximum $500. For a second offense, the minimum fine would be $2,500, up from a maximum $500.

It also calls for minimum mandatory sentences of 30 days in jail for second offenses, and one year in prison for third and subsequent offenses and criminal domestic violence of a high and aggravated nature.

Rutherford said many don’t realize that defendants actually would pay double the fine when court costs and surcharges are included.

High out-of-pocket costs, combined with the possibility of serving mandatory sentences, would cause more defendants to seek more trials instead of pleading guilty, said Rutherford, a former prosecutor. That would cause a backlog in the court system, he said.

Trials in first-offense cases often end in acquittal because of victims’ refusal to cooperate with authorities or a lack of evidence of injuries, he said.

The revised bill would do more of a disservice to the victims of criminal domestic violence, he said. He also said he has spoken with judges and prosecutors who agree.

But fellow Democratic Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter of Orangeburg, the lead sponsor of the original bill, said Rutherford’s proposal “waters (the revised bill) down.”

“We would basically be at the status quo, and the status quo would not be good enough for the women of this state,” she said.

Nancy Barton, director of Sistercare, which operates shelters for battered women in the Midlands, said legislators are “resistant to holding batterers accountable.”

But she has some concerns about increasing penalties, especially for first-time offenders. High fines could hurt women who are wrongly arrested and convicted of CDV, she said. Such situations can occur when both parties accuse each other of abuse.

Rutherford wasn’t the only lawmaker Thursday to offer an amendment to the domestic-violence bill.

The House, for example, approved an amendment by Rep. Doug Smith, R-Spartanburg, that would make a prior domestic-violence conviction an aggravating factor in prosecutors seeking the death penalty in a domestic-violence slaying.

Reach Brundrett at (803) 771-8484 or rbrundrett@thestate.com