Topeka, Kan., considers legalizing domestic violence

The city council in Topeka, Kan., may make domestic violence legal in its town so that it can save money by not having to prosecute domestic battery cases at the municipal court.

City officials claim they are not mercenary, just desperate. Shawnee County District Attorney Chad Taylor announced in September that he would no longer prosecute misdemeanors committed in Topeka, including domestic battery, after his budget was cut 10 percent, the Topeka Capital-Journal reports. That decision forces the city itself to take on the task, and the cost, of prosecuting those crimes.

Interim city manager Dan Stanley said that the city attorney’s office doesn’t have the time or resources to do this, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal. If Topeka makes domestic violence legal, the thinking goes, Taylor's office will be forced to pick up the city's domestic violence cases once again.

Topeka Mayor Bill Bunten assured attendees at a city council meeting on Tuesday that the council still believes in punishing people who beat their wives and other family members, the Topeka Capital-Journal reports. “The question is who prosecutes them, the municipal court or the district court, and who pays for it, the city or the county or a combination?” Bunten said.

The political maneuvering is not sitting well with some victim’s advocates.

"No matter how political you want to be, or you want to play hardball with peoples’ lives, how can you in good conscious say it's okay to repeal domestic battery as a crime in the city of Topeka just so you can get out of prosecuting them?" domestic violence victim's advocate Claudine Dombrowski remarked to WDAF-TV, a Fox affiliate.

The city council will vote next week on whether to repeal the section of its public offense code that bans domestic battery, the Topeka Capital-Journal reports.