County judge rules domestic violence law discriminates against men

Article here. Excerpt:

'A prosecutor is appealing a Gallatin County Justice Court judge’s ruling that says portions of a Montana law about domestic violence arrests are discriminatory toward men.

In a March 18 ruling, Judge Rick West dismissed a misdemeanor partner family member assault charge against a Big Sky man, saying that a section of Montana statute is unconstitutional and violates the man’s equal protection under state and federal law.

The law at the center of the case says that when law enforcement officers responded to a potential partner or family member assault case where there had been “mutual aggression,” the officer can evaluate the situation to determine the predominant aggressor.
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Defense attorney Al Avignone filed a motion seeking to dismiss the charge, arguing that the criteria officers use to determine who the predominant aggressor is in a domestic violence situation is unconstitutional.

The wife was the aggressor in this situation, Avignone said, saying that she could be heard hitting her husband on the recording. She also grabbed and twisted her husband’s testicles, causing him to react in self-defense, Avignone argued.

The choice to charge the man was “the very definition of discriminatory enforcement,” Avignone argued in court briefs.

“That statute is problematic because it is gender-based,” Avignone told the Chronicle on Thursday.

In his dismissal of the case, West wrote the criteria asking officers to consider the size and strength of people involved “predisposes the officer to arrest the male individual in almost all cases.”

And that factor might have nothing to do with who the predominant aggressor was, “yet it directs a law enforcement officer to arrest and charge the male individual.”'