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Lawmaker
regrets criticizing domestic violence victims
April
27, 2005
By WALLACE
McBRIDE
Index-Journal
senior staff writer
S.C.
Rep. John Graham Altman circulated a written apology Tuesday
for comments made during a television interview about domestic
violence victims.
Altman questioned why women return to
abusive relationships, and his choice of words led to demands
for sanctioning from his colleagues and public protests on the
Statehouse grounds from advocacy groups.
“Many of us found
those comments to be totally inappropriate,” said S.C. Speaker
of the House David Wilkins. “But I would hope that those
comments would not tarnish the hard work of this House over
the past 10 years to strengthen our criminal laws.”
“He’s
always given his true opinion with no color coating,” said
state Rep. Anne Parks, D-Greenwood.
“I didn’t think
it was very cordial or nice. But knowing Rep. Altman over the
years, that was just his opinion.”
“I certainly disagree
with his original comments about spousal abuse, but he did
apologize,” said state Rep. Paul Agnew, D-Abbeville. “I
believe the House is ready to move on from the issue. We have
a bill addressing this important issue in process and hope to
bring it to the floor for passage soon.”
Altman’s words
followed the failure of a bill that sought tougher penalties
for criminal domestic violence offenders, a bill he helped to
kill as a member of the House Judiciary Committee.
The bill
met with resistance over perceived flaws in its text, said
committee chairman Jim Harrison, R-Columbia.
“We had a
vehicle before us that did have some problems with it,” he
said. “The day after the bill failed I met with (S.C. Rep.)
Gilda Cobb-Hunter and we had a conversation on how to best
proceed on a bill that is stronger than the bill we had last
week.”
Harrison said the result is a document that “doesn’t
have 15 different subjects in the same bill.”
But
Cobb-Hunter, an Orangeburg Democrat, dropped her sponsorship
of the new bill Tuesday morning, complaining about Republicans
taking marquee roles as co-sponsors.
Altman is among those
co-sponsors.
“I am not going to be a part of a Republican
whitewash. I am not going to be part of an effort to clean up
the Republican caucus problem,” Cobb-Hunter said.
“In
deference to (Altman,) I’m going to keep our conversations
private,” Wilkins said. “The fact that he’s on the bill as a
sponsor is something that shouldn’t be glossed
over.”
Wilkins said the bill was expected to be introduced
Tuesday, and would increase penalties for domestic violence
offenders. The current penalty for a first conviction on a
criminal domestic violence offense is 30 days in jail or a
$500 fine. The new bill would raise these penalties to 30 days
in jail and a fine up to $2,500.
Penalties rise in
subsequent offenses, with a third offense classified as a
felony punishable by one to five years in prison.
CDV
crimes committed in the presence of a child would also be
subject to charges of criminal domestic violence of high and
aggravated nature, a felony offense.
The bill would provide
training for state judiciary, Wilkins said, and allow for
first-time CDV offenders to participate in the Pre-Trial
Intervention program.
That bill could be debated as early
as Thursday directly on the House floor instead of moving
through the Judiciary Committee.
Concerned Citizens of
South Carolina will have a rally at the north side of the
Statehouse at 1 p.m today. Scheduled speakers include S.C.
Attorney General Henry McMaster, S.C. Coalition Against
Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Executive Director Vickie
Bourus and First Lady Jenny Sanford.
The Associated
Press contributed to this article.
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