REPORT: MANY RESTRAINING ORDERS GO UNSERVED.

Byline: Josh Kleinbaum Staff Writer

California's legal system frequently fails to issue and serve restraining orders in domestic-violence cases and even allows some abusers to own firearms, a critical report issued Tuesday said.

The report by the state Attorney General's Office also found there is no uniform protocol for serving or enforcing restraining orders; that mandatory education programs for offenders are not carried out; and that counties are failing to adequately update a weapons database with the names of domestic-violence abusers prohibited from possessing firearms.

``The laws on the books ... need to be implemented and enforced,'' Attorney General Bill Lockyer, who commissioned the report, said during a news conference in San Francisco. ``System fatigue is not a valid excuse.''

The report, the result of two years of work by a task force assembled by Lockyer, laid out a history of institutional neglect toward domestic-violence victims, including the process of obtaining and enforcing restraining orders.

It noted that law enforcement agencies statewide received 186,439 domestic-violence calls in 2004 and made 46,353 arrests for spousal abuse, reflecting the scope of the problem.

The study's findings include:

--34 percent of the restraining orders issued by the court in Los Angeles County and 18 percent in Ventura County were not served on the defendant, rendering them moot.

--Nearly 5 percent of the restraining orders in Los Angeles and 4 percent in Ventura County lacked a required provision prohibiting abusers from owning firearms.

--Ventura County judges failed to implement required restraining orders in nearly half of their domestic-violence criminal cases in 2003. That number improved after they were prodded by the task force that published the report.

While the onus to serve a restraining order lies with the victim, the sheriff's departments in both Los Angeles and Ventura counties will serve restraining orders for domestic-violence victims for free. Still, women's advocates complain that service from the sheriff's departments is slow and unreliable.

``When we get restraining orders, we arrange for (private) service, because we want to make sure it gets served,'' said Betty Fisher, executive director of Haven Hills Domestic Violence Shelter. ``We went to our own resources for that because it was taking so long (with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department) and we never really knew what happened to the restraining order.''

Catherine Duggan, director of crime victim assistance for the Ventura County District Attorney's Office, said the Ventura County Sheriff's Department is backlogged and the service takes time.

``And if you need a restraining order, it's usually urgent,'' she said.

The task force outlined a statewide problem, but community leaders said the same problems exist locally.

``I hear from victims of domestic violence regularly that these (restraining) orders are not taken seriously,'' Duggan said. ``When they call the police department and say the batterer is there, or the batterer is annoying or harassing them, they do not respond. Enforcement is an issue.''

Both Los Angeles County and Ventura County provide assistance in obtaining restraining orders - the Ventura County District Attorney's Office opened a family violence prevention center a year and a half ago - but victims' advocates say communication with law enforcement must improve.

The Los Angeles Police Department treats domestic-violence calls as a priority and responds quickly, Detective Wayne Lightfoot said.

``Absent a shooting in progress, this is a high-priority call and should be handled as such,'' Lightfoot said. ``Our response is in minutes.

``Sometimes, there may be problems with a person not being served, and (the victim) may be upset. But if the person has been lawfully served and they're in violation, they get arrested. That's our policy. I've never heard of any deviation, and we don't have the authority to do that.''

The task force called for a host of changes, including enforcing existing laws, improving communications among law enforcement agencies and community-based victim advocates, and implementing new legislation.

``We've got a lot more to do, but we're on the right path here, and maybe even a little ahead of the curve,'' Duggan said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Josh Kleinbaum, [phone]

josh.kleinbaum(at)dailynews.com

HOW TO GET HELP

If you are being abused, contact the police. Law enforcement can remove the abuser from the home, issue a five-day emergency protective order and enforce existing protective orders.

Other services are available through domestic-violence agencies and shelters, including:

--Haven Hills, Canoga Park: 24-hour hotline, [phone].

--Women Advancing the Valley through Education, Economics and Empowerment, Mission Hills: [phone].

--Interface Children and Family Services, Ventura County: [phone].

--The Coalition to End Family Violence: 24-hour hotline, [phone].

--Spanish-language hotline, [phone].

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