BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Beleaguered lawyer Doris Houser Allen is correct in her claim that Cincinnati sometimes prosecutes women who refuse to testify after filing domestic violence charges.
Caught between the law and an angry man, some women lie, city Prosecutor Terrence R. Cosgrove said. "It's all too common." Some women insist, "I never said that" when confronted by signed affidavits.
"That's what the officer told me to write down" is another excuse.
Others claim "we didn't understand" their complaint was a domestic violence charge.
It's frustrating, Mr. Cosgrove said.
"They were not really lying then; they're lying now. . . . They'd rather go to jail for lying than have their husbands or boyfriends go to jail for domestic violence."
Ms. Allen says her former client, Sylvia Huff, was under that pressure when she blamed Ms. Allen for allegedly false statements on a domestic violence affidavit.
Ms. Huff's estranged boyfriend, Dwayne E. Harris, spent a night in jail, had to post bond, and went to trial as a result of that affidavit. Melanie Reising, an assistant city prosecutor, said women frequently call and say there really was no violence and they won't testify. However, Ms. Huff was the first to say her lawyer made up the charges.
"I was shocked," Ms. Reising said. "I've never had that happen."
Rather than drop the charges or prosecute Ms. Huff for falsification -- filing a false affidavit -- Ms. Reising pursued the case.
