NEW CITY – A program to curb domestic violence in Stony Point and Haverstraw, funded with a $75,000 grant for State Senator William Larkin last year, has been considered to be a success. Larkin called for all state lawmakers to band together to fund similar programs across New York.
Larkin, second from left, met with (L-R) Haverstraw Supervisor Howard Phillips Jr., Center for Safety & Change Executive Director
Elizabeth Santiago, Rockland County Executive Ed Day, District Attorney Thomas Zugibe.
The program launched in May 2014 allowed the district attorney’s
office Special Victims Unit to hire veteran Town of Haverstraw Detective
Eleuterio Collazo to work on domestic violence cases through victim outreach
and evidence-based prosecution, which includes case review and the training
of local law enforcement in best practices of evidence-based, or victimless,
prosecution.
Since the start of the program, Collazo has managed 221 cases and performed 104 home visits, 27 of which were made to Spanish-speaking homes. Sixty-two percent of the individuals visited had orders of protection in their favor.
The pilot program also includes the participation of Dr. Richard King, a medical doctor and sworn detective at the district attorney’s office. His presence at many of the home visits provides Collazo and prosecutors insight into a victim’s physical and emotional state.
“It is our responsibility to make sure victims know that they are not alone in their struggle,” Larkin said on Monday.
“It’s a moral obligation of our government to do whatever it can to protect and support victims, be it a child, a spouse or senior,” said County Executive Edwin Day.
