Published: November 08, 2008 05:52 pm      

local man found guilty of assault despite victim dropping charges

By Kelly Young

kyoung@jacksonvilleprogress.com

In what amounts to a fairly uncommon legal occurrence, the Cherokee County Attorney’s office prosecuted a Rusk man for misdemeanor assault/family violence last week despite the victim’s desire to drop the charges.

Gary D. Helm, 62, was convicted Oct. 27 of assault by a six-person jury in the court of County Court at Law Judge Craig Fletcher. Helm now awaits the punishment phase of his trial, which will take place in a few weeks. Helm faces up to one year in jail and/or a fine of up to $4,000.

Assistant County Attorney Kelley Peacock said misdemeanor assault cases virtually never go to trial without the willing participation of the victim, but she said the circumstances of this case convinced the state to pick up charges. Helm was arrested Aug. 25, 2007, after reportedly punching the female victim multiple times in the face.

“Mr. Helm was also arrested back in 2000 for the same type of offense against the same victim, but that case was dismissed because the victim filed an affidavit of non-prosecution. Although no other formal charges have been filed since then until now, law enforcement has responded numerous times to incidents between the two,” Peacock said. “A witness testified that this type of abuse had been going on for a long time, and that certainly played a role in our decision to pick up this case. We felt like this was a serious enough case that the state had an obligation to prosecute this defendant.”

Peacock said it is distressing to her how frequently victims of abuse will file charges, decide to return to their batterer and then drop the charges.

“I don’t want to say that it is extremely common, but it is very common — unfortunately it happens a lot. Craig Caldwell, the county attorney, and I are trying to send a message that assault/family violence is a serious offense and will be taken seriously by the county,” Peacock said. “If you engage in that type of behavior there are going to be consequences.”

According to Peacock, victims choose to protect their attackers by refusing to pursue charges for any number of reasons — sometimes for financial reasons; sometimes out of fear of retaliation; sometimes out of fear of abandonment; and sometimes because they have convinced themselves that they are to blame.

She said cases in which the victim makes a claim of abuse and then recants it are a waste of taxpayers’ money because such claims result in law enforcement and state prosecutors wasting time, money and effort investigating a crime that is eventually dropped and never makes it to trial.

“There were members of the jury panel who said they wouldn’t convict a person, even if I proved beyond a reasonable doubt that they committed assault, if the victim didn’t want the defendant to be prosecuted. I feel like this is a problem in our community,” she said.

Fletcher will decide Helm’s sentence Nov. 18.

“He doesn’t have a criminal history, so it is likely that he will get probation, but I am obviously going to request that he take an intense batterers intervention program,” Peacock said. “I think the message needs to be sent that the decision on whether a case will be tried is not just based on the wishes of the victim. As far as the state is concerned, if the evidence is there, we are going to prosecute the case.”