By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Columnist

A restraining order won't keep you safe. It's just a piece of paper. Yet it's the best means our judicial system has for ordering a dangerous person who has vowed to do you harm to leave you be.

A bill worming its way through the Legislature threatens to make that piece of paper an even less effective safety measure.

The thinking behind House Bill 1378 seems to be that Family Court is inundated by liars who make up stories of abuse to gain leverage in divorce and child custody proceedings. Further, the assumption seems to be that Family Court judges can't tell the true victims from the fakers and thus legions of wrongly accused people are pressured into admitting to crimes they didn't commit.

HB 1378, which goes to a Senate floor vote this morning, contains several points aimed to beef up the rights of the accused. The most dangerous of these measures states that any finding of fact or ruling made in connection with granting a restraining order or protective order shall not be binding in any other Family Court proceeding, including child visitation.

Oh, please!

It's already hard enough for many victims to prove abuse. Unless you're walking into court with a black eye that perfectly matches the outline of the accused's fist, it often comes down to "he said, she said." If the abuser stood at the foot of the bed in the middle of the night holding a knife and saying, "I'm going to kill you and the kids," there is no way to prove it happened beyond the victim's sworn statement.

Domestic abuse, by its very nature, takes place behind closed doors without witnesses. It is the judge's responsibility to evaluate each claim on its merit. The judge is trusted to, well, pass judgment. That's why they get to sit on the high chair and wear the black robe.

Sure, it happens sometimes. People make false claims in court. Abusers themselves often try to file retaliatory claims of abuse: "I was only defending myself. She threw first."

But what happens most often is that victims go unprotected. Restraining orders are violated. Violence and terror and harassment continue with impunity. THAT is the tragedy in our community. THAT is what is unfair. THAT is what legislators should be most concerned about in this regard.

The bottom line where temporary restraining orders and orders for protection are concerned is safety of the victims, period.

Why our legislators — and the list of lawmakers who have voted to support this measure is very long — are looking for more ways to help lying, manipulative abusers get to their kids, keep their victims in unwanted marriages and weasel out of court orders is beyond reason.

If there are procedures that need to be changed in Family Court, fine. But let the judiciary handle that. Don't weaken the only legal protection victims have.

Reach Lee Cataluna at lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8172.