CLEVELAND, Ohio — When it comes to domestic violence cases in court, each case is evaluated differently.
Judge Michelle Earley is the administrative and presiding judge for Cleveland municipal court, who also presides over the high-risk domestic violence docket. She says the first step when a DV case is reported — an officer does a risk assessment.
“So, they're asking a string of questions to determine whether or not they're at high risk for mortality or whether or not that's something that is going to escalate,” Earley said.
From there, in some cases, suspects are arrested, but in others, officers investigate and work with the prosecutor to decide next steps.
“They'd have to make a determination whether or not they're going to file charges and issue arrest warrant, or file charges and issue a summons for that person to come into court,” said Earley.
In Preston Anderson's case, where Danalynn Folkwein was burned, beaten and held captive, Folkwein reported the abuse to authorities in March, but records show Anderson was not arrested and did not receive his indictment and court summons until the end of July — around the same time of the second attack that almost killed Folkwein.
We don’t just report the initial story—we follow through to its conclusion. Read and watch our previous reporting on this story below and see more stories that we've followed through on here.
“There's this opportunity of violence potentially escalating because the case is pending. So those are also something that could potentially trigger an offender to escalate the violence,” said Earley.
Though Cuyahoga County prosecutors were unable to discuss Anderson’s case because it is still open, they spoke to us about the process for these types of cases.
Supervising assistant prosecuting attorney Lorraine Debose explained to News 5 over the phone what can slow the process.
“There's just delays in time; we have to work with our domestic violence victims. Sometimes they'll tell us about more incidents in detail than they told the police officers at first on scene; we might learn about other crimes,” said Debose.
Debose says a case can start in municipal court as a misdemeanor, then escalate to a felony, which will send it to county court. Every case is charged differently, which can affect when the suspect is taken into custody.
“So it really depends how the case comes to us, which would help all the parties make a decision, right — the police officers on scene, the prosecutor who is charged in the case, the judge who's setting the bond,” said Debose.
The prosecutors add what's also a challenge is the lack of resources on the ground.
“Our law enforcement community is understaffed at this time. And I think that kind of is the focal point of the investigation. And so when, when they're short-staffed, it just makes it harder to gather all the information,” said Debose.
Preston is still in custody with a $350,000 bail as he awaits his pretrial next Monday. The prosecutor's office tells us the case is still under review for additional criminal charges.
