Ga. Domestic Violence Victims Must Testify or Face Fines, Class Action Says

In a new civil rights class action lawsuit, a Georgia woman says the city of Columbus, Ga. unlawfully compels domestic violence victims into participating in their attacker’s prosecution.

Plaintiff Cleopatra Harrison is challenging a city policy that requires victims of domestic violence to participate as a “prosecuting witness” in the alleged perpetrator’s criminal prosecution.

Victims who decline to participate are assessed a fine of at least $50, according to the lawsuit.

In addition to the victim participation fine, Harrison says victims are also billed for the amount of time that police officers spent investigating the case.

She claims the hourly rate at which victims are billed is “ad hoc” and has no relation to the actual cost of police services.

Harrison says the victim participation policy offers victims no way to challenge these fees. Victims are given no meaningful notice that the fee will be assessed, and the fee doesn’t come in the form of a judgment that the victim could appeal, she says.

Harrison claims she was assessed a fee for declining to testify in a criminal prosecution against her boyfriend, who was accused of assaulting her.

She says that in a preliminary hearing, she affirmed the facts of the assault as recounted by police officer Michael Lincoln but told Judge Michael Cielinski she preferred not to be a witness herself.

Judge Cielinski, whom Harrison now names as a defendant, then levied a $150 victim participation fee against Harrison. The judge warned her that if she failed to pay the fee within one week, a warrant would be issued for her arrest.

She says Judge Cielinski has implemented the city’s victim participation policy with “reckless disregard for the rights of Plaintiff and similarly situated crime victims.”

As chief judge of the Columbus Recorder’s Court, Judge Cielinski has authority to limit the fees assessed under the challenged policy, Harrison claims.

The judge has failed to exercise that authority to limit fees, the lawsuit states.

Harrison also argues the assessment of these fees runs contrary to Georgia law. State statute allows for penalties to be assessed against a complainant only on a judge’s finding that the original complaint was both “unfounded and malicious.”

Judge Cielinski made no such finding in her own case, she says.

Harrison also brings claims against Officer Lincoln for arresting her minutes after she spoke in the preliminary hearing.

She alleges that after she left the courtroom, Officer Lincoln “grabbed her, shoved her against a wall, and handcuffed her.”

Officer Lincoln allegedly told her he was charging her with providing false information to a law enforcement officer.

Her victim participation class action lawsuit claims the Columbus policy violates the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment and of the Free Speech and Petition clauses of the First Amendment.

Harrison is also bringing claims against Officer Lincoln for false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and violation of the Fourth Amendment.

Harrison proposes to represent a plaintiff Class consisting of all persons who, within the four years prior to the filing of this action, paid money under the Columbus victim participation ordinance without any inquiry being made into whether their complaints of violence were “unfounded and malicious.”

She seeks an award of damages and attorneys’ fees and an injunction barring the defendants from continuing to implement the victim participation policy.

Harrison is represented by Sarah Geraghty and Ryan Primerano of the Southern Center for Human Rights and Mark C. Post of Harp Poydasheff Post & Sowers LLC.

The Columbus Victim Participation Policy Civil Rights Class Action Lawsuit is Harrison v. Consolidated Government of Columbus, Ga., et al., Case No. 4:16-cv-00329, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia.