In the News

Barnstable Superior Court awaits batterer
By Stephanie Vosk
Cape Cod Times
November 22, 2009

TRURO — When these ladies do lunch, they compare photos of bruises and stories of beatings. It's a sisterhood of sorts — but not the kind the women ever envisioned or wanted.

In the past year and a half, all three say they were abused by the same man.

Francis Davis pleaded guilty in two of their cases last year and was sentenced to 2½ years in the county jail, with only six months to serve.

On Friday, the grand jury found probable cause to indict Davis, 27, of Provincetown in Barnstable Superior Court on charges that he kidnapped, assaulted and threatened to murder a Cape woman who he dated on and off for eight years.

It's the first real victory for these women who say they have watched Davis escape charges, ignore restraining orders and court new victims.

"I think it's a wonderful thing," the victim in the indicted case said after hearing the news. "He's getting what he deserves."
Davis' attorney, Craig Nickerson, declined to comment.

18 arraignments, 1 year in jail
Assault and battery. Violating restraining orders. Threatening to commit crimes. Drug possession. Most of Davis' charges have either been dismissed or continued without a finding.

In total, Davis has been arraigned as an adult at least 18 times in Orleans District Court.

His juvenile record includes drug and assault charges. At least nine different women have applied for restraining orders against him.

Even with a handful of guilty pleas, Davis has only spent about a year behind bars at the county jail.

He has no prior record in superior court. He has never been to state prison.

Earlier this year the state Legislature enacted a law that allows prosecutors to seek sentences of up to five years in state prison for "serial batterers."

But it's still in the "tweaking stage," Cape & Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe said Friday.

Generally, it is up to the district attorney's office when to bring cases to the grand jury and when to keep them in district court, decisions that are based on the seriousness of the offense and the defendant's prior record, O'Keefe said.

And it's up to judges to dole out sentences.

Up until this point, the women that Davis abused have questioned the prosecutory and sentencing decisions.

"Look at this case — they know the facts, they know the history," one of the women said Thursday, before Davis was indicted. "Why isn't he being prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law? He warrants that."

Now, because of Friday's indictment, he faces up to 10 years.

Earlier this week, the women said they still worry that Davis will come after them and that his next girlfriend won't be as lucky.

"He's gonna kill somebody," one of the women said. "He's gonna kill his next victim."

'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'
Their stories are eerily similar.

Davis would get jealous — and then he would get mean.

"It was like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type of thing," said one of the women. "He'd be calm one second and he'd be this raging animal the next."

About two years ago, another of the women, 46, met Davis at a restaurant in Provincetown. They quickly began dating, and Davis just as quickly became possessive.

They were at the same restaurant on the night of April 2, 2008, when Davis accused her of looking at other men, the woman said.
She tried to leave on her own, but Davis convinced her he would drive her home.

"He told me I was going to die that night and he was going to take me to North Truro and do it there," she said, reading from the statement that she went on to give police.

During the drive, he punched her repeatedly in the face. She ultimately convinced him to take her to a friend's house in Truro and from there, she made her escape.

Davis was arrested after she reported the assault. But he quickly made bail and, just as quickly, found his next victim.

This 41-year-old woman knew about his arrest, but she didn't want to believe it. He played into her vulnerabilities. He knew all the right things to say.

But soon he was back to his old ways, deleting men's numbers from her phone if he didn't approve of them, slamming her up against walls.
One night, she said, he put a pillow over her face and told her, "I could kill you right now and nobody would ever know."

"I always said I'll never be in this situation. I always said how can women allow themselves to get like that," she said. "It was like a bad movie."

On the night of May 24, 2008, he lost it again. By that time, the woman had set up a code with her sister — if the blanket comes off the window, call the police.

Davis threw an ashtray at her head. She pulled the blanket. Her sister called for help.

"I feel I was one of the luckier ones because I got out of it with minor cuts and bruises. I didn't get broken (bones)," she said.

His bail was revoked after his arrest and, on June 24, 2008, he pleaded guilty to charges in both cases that included assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery. He was out of jail by November.

The new case
Almost immediately after his release, Davis went back to his long-time girlfriend. In retrospect, she said, he was always verbally and emotionally abusive, but it was never physical.

"I believed his stories because for so long I never saw the physical abuse," the 26-year-old said.

Then one day in July, she said, Davis accused her of sleeping with a co-worker.

He lured her back to his house, asking her to pick up a rented video game that needed to be returned. He convinced her to come in and talk to him, then continued to yell. She grabbed the game and walked outside, jumping in the car. He jumped in the passenger seat and told her to drive or he'd kill her, she said.

According to her account, he then hit her in the mouth, warning her not to pull off the road unless she wanted two black eyes like the women he assaulted the previous April.

They pulled off the road. He then allegedly punched her in the eye. He told her he'd chop her up and bury her pieces in a stone wall, she said.
Back at the house, she said, he held a gun to her head and then grabbed a bullet and started carving her initials in it.

Then he calmed down, gave her a hug, said he loved her and that he wouldn't hurt her if she would be honest with him. She left. Early the next morning, she drove to a relative's house off-Cape, went to the hospital and then the police.

Davis was arrested and has been in jail ever since.

This case led to his indictment Friday.

Protecting those at high risk
Most convicted batterers — even first-time offenders — already have a history of domestic abuse, said David Adams, director of EMERGE, a batterer's treatment program in Cambridge.

"You kind of have to work at it to get arrested for domestic violence," Adams said. "Just because somebody's arrested for the first time doesn't mean they're a first-time offender. Usually there's been a whole trail of destruction there that hasn't necessarily come to the attention of the criminal justice system."

In conducting interviews with batterers, Adams said he finds that the violence tends to escalate over time.

In Massachusetts, there were 28 domestic homicides last year and 21 this year as of Oct. 1, according to Jane Doe Inc.

There are efforts underway on the Cape to target these high-risk cases in the hopes of preventing domestic homicides.

Across the state, communities such as Newburyport and New Bedford have set up teams to compare notes on cases and hopefully offer the proper services to protect the most at-risk victims, Adams said.

Independence House, a Hyannis-based organization that helps domestic violence victims, is setting up a similar committee here.

"It's a wide-ranging effort to try to pull in everyone that may have information and obviously be able to contribute to this sort of monitoring of batterers," said Lysetta Hurge-Putnam, executive director of Independence House. "We hope that (the victim) would be aware that she is at risk and that there are "resources in place and support for her in the community so that she doesn't end up being killed."

Stiffer sentences for serial batterers
It is up to the district attorney to decide if cases should be brought to superior court. But sometimes it's advantageous to keep them at the district level, said Cape & Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe. While charges like assault and battery would be among the least serious superior court cases, they'd be at the top of the heap in district court, he said.

"Sometimes you might stand a much better chance of convincing a district court judge that the guy deserves the maximum sentence at the district court level ... versus bringing him up and having the (superior court) judge sort of roll his eyes and say, 'Well, what is this case doing here?' O'Keefe said. "There's a number of factors that go into making that decision."

But in district court, the assault and battery charges are only punishable by up to 21/2 years in county jail.

A new law, championed by Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett and enacted by the state Legislature earlier this year, does allow for serial batterers in certain cases to face up to five years in state prison.

The law applies to anyone convicted of a second or subsequent offense of assault or assault and battery on a family or household member. It also provides for cases where the perpetrator and victim have been in a "substantive dating or engagement relationship within the five years preceding the date of the alleged offense."

But it goes further to allow the court to assess the length of the relationship, the type of relationship and the frequency of interaction between the parties to determine if the law applies.

O'Keefe said his office does not intend to use the law until kinks in the language are ironed out through an amendment that has been submitted to the Legislature.

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