Law Humor

Woman Dead, Police Negligent? Judge Cox Yawns

By Pseudoanonymous

This is an outrage:

FORT SMITH ? A Sebastian County circuit judge has dismissed a lawsuit accusing Fort Smith police of negligence after a woman was fatally stabbed in a busy intersection.

Circuit Judge James O. Cox dismissed the suit filed by relatives of Christina Springs, who was stabbed to death by her estranged husband, Thomas Springs, after he rammed his car into hers in 2005.

Christina Springs did everything right. She got a restraining order against her husband. She went to a women’s shelter. She called the police when her husband violated the order and, in front of witnesses, threatened to kill her.

Now she’s dead.

Restraining order? Thomas Springs went to the school his children attended, violating the restraining order against him. He threatened to kill his wife. When the police arrived, did they arrest Mr. Springs? Why, no:

[Officer Brad] Lokey said that only one of three protective orders against Thomas Springs ordered him to stay away from the school. Because of the inconsistencies in the orders, Lokey said he ordered him to leave the school.

Women’s shelter? The Crisis Center for Women did their part of the job:

Kim Horton, a caseworker for the Crisis Center, testified that on Jan. 7 [, 2005] Christina Springs was transported to a women’s shelter in Tulsa for safety reasons, because her husband had been driving around the safe house in Fort Smith where she had been staying since leaving him [the month before].

Christina Springs returned to Fort Smith on Jan. 17 so she could appear in court the following day for a hearing on an order of protection she had requested, Horton said.

Three orders of protection and seeking a fourth, transported out of town after being stalked, and still, the police couldn’t protect her. The Fort Smith police couldn’t arrest a stalker who violated a court order.

But the police were called and promised to protect her. Ought to be helpful, wouldn’t you think? No:

Lokey, who left the police department in 2006, told Christina Springs and her sister that he would follow them as they drove to a women’s shelter where Christina Springs was staying, according to the lawsuit.

Lokey followed the women for a short distance, but the collision and stabbing happened after he stopped following them, the suit said.

In a reply by city attorney Rick Wade, Lokey claims he told the women only that he would follow them a short distance to make sure Thomas Springs did not follow them as they left the school.

And he did follow them, for a little while. Then perhaps other duty called. Or maybe it was break time. Maybe police officers don’t value women’s lives very highly. Who knows? This is what happened next:

Thomas Springs’ vehicle, a station wagon, then turned from a westbound lane on Rogers Avenue onto Greenwood Avenue, crashing head-on into [Christina Springs’ sister Kelly] Repking’s Honda, Repking said.

Thomas Springs approached the passenger side of Repking’s vehicle and yelled to his wife, “Roll the window down, bitch!” Repking testified. He then broke out the window with his fists, began punching Christina Springs and smashed her head into the dashboard, Repking said.

Thomas Springs left briefly and returned with a knife, which he used to stab his wife repeatedly in the chest, Repking said…

Let’s pause for a moment and skip the worst of the story, as sad and pathetic and predictable as you can imagine, and go to a comment on the story by one “MarkTheNarc”:

To the Springs family I offer my condolences in the murder of Christina; to Judge Cox I offer my praise for your sage decision. Even if Officer Lokey had been directly following Ms. Springs when her car was rammed, there is NO guarantee that he (Lokey) could have exited his unit and in time to stop her murder. In my opinion, this is another frivolous lawsuit that was a burden on the entire court system. [emphasis added]

Look at what happened and how long it must have taken:

• Thomas Springs rammed the car transporting his wife and his two-year-old daughter.
• He broke out a car window.
• He punched his wife.
• He smashed her head into the dashboard.
• He left and returned with a hunting knife.
• He stabbed her twenty-four times.

No guarantee? Guarantee is another word for promise:

• If, as he’d promised, Officer Lokey had followed Repking’s car to the shelter, perhaps Springs would’ve been scared away and not rammed the car. Springs didn’t ram the other car till the police stopped following. He might’ve run away.
• If, when Springs rammed the car, Officer Lokey had hit his lights and siren, Springs might’ve hesitated. He might’ve run away.
• If, while Springs was busy breaking the car window–not easy–and beating his wife, Officer Lokey had approched him, he might’ve hesitated. He might’ve run away.
• If, even if all Lokey did was call the incident in and then gone about his day, perhaps another officer might’ve gotten there more quickly. Perhaps an ambulance might’ve gotten there in time for the EMTs to keep Christina Springs, who took twenty minutes to bleed to death, alive till she got to a trauma center.

People on the scene tried:

Amanda Conrad of Fort Smith, who was in her pickup behind the Honda, testified she drove the pickup up to the passenger door to try to push Springs away from the window where Christina Springs was being stabbed. She said he jumped over the pickup?s hood and continued to stab Christina Springs as she tried to crawl out the car?s driver?s side.

She considered backing up to try to block Thomas Springs from the driver?s side but saw others were intervening.

And tried:

Robert Baker testified that he tried unsuccessfully to pull Thomas Springs away.

Mark Efurd testified that he took a crowbar from his vehicle and hit Springs once on the arm.

Brian Thomas testified that he and other passers-by forced Springs to the ground and held him until police arrived.

Can you imagine what this must be like?

[Christina Springs’ caseworker Kim] Horton testified that she happened to be stopped at the intersection and witnessed the attack, although at first she did not realize it was her client who was being attacked.

That’s even worse than being an EMT arriving at a wreck turned fatal by lack of seat belts. Working at women’s shelters is not well-paid work, in money, but liberating women from domestic violence must be rewarding. Watching one you’d done your best to help stabbed to death, right in front of you, bleeding out for twenty minutes because the police couldn’t be bothered to arrest the killer–I can’t imagine that.

No guarantee? I’ll give you a guarantee: When the police and the courts don’t take violence against women seriously, women die. That’s a guarantee, and that’s a promise, and that’s a crying shame.

Christina Springs? relatives claim Lokey promised to follow the women all the way to the shelter and his failure to do so was negligent and a violation of their constitutional rights. They also argued Lokey had information to justify an arrest at the school, which could have prevented the murder.

?He (Lokey) had no control over Thomas Springs, and the eventual murder of Christina Springs in a busy intersection could not have been foreseen,? Cox wrote.

Is the aptly-named Judge Cox an accessory after the fact to Christina Springs murder? No. He’s just responsible for the next one, if the police don’t learn to take violence against women seriously.

Are the Fort Smith police guilty of negligence and depraved indifference? Judge Cox says no. I say they didn’t make as much effort or take as many risks as the bystanders who tried to help Christina Springs.

Did Thomas Springs kill his wife, Christina Springs, in front of her sister and his two-year-old daughter? Did he make their children orphans? Yes.

Yes, Thomas Springs killed his wife, with a big batch of help from a legal system that didn’t give a damn about Christina Springs’ life, her childrens’ lives, even Thomas Springs’ life. None of them had to suffer like this, none of them had to die–and Thomas Springs is scheduled to die and leave their children orphans, one more needless cost of a series of bad decisions and official thumb-twiddling.

If you look around–I saw them, but won’t point to them–you’ll find the gun strokers who say she should’ve had a weapon (dying must’ve been her own fault, payback for thinking she had the right to live free from fear of violence in a free country), and the hang-’em-highers who salivate over the eye they’re getting for the eye that wasn’t theirs to give (but hey! it all evens out in the end, right?).

What I didn’t see, anywhere, was any sign of what the Fort Smith police are doing to keep the next woman alive and the next man from killing her.

How it should’ve ended was with Christina Springs alive and free from violence and fear. How it should’ve ended was with two parents alive for those children. How it should’ve ended was with Thomas Springs held to account for battery and stalking and violating court orders, and with a chance to learn to make his life a better life, through whatever means a hard-headed, compassionate judge might impose.

How did it end? It hasn’t. Those children are suffering, and will continue to suffer. Thomas Springs’s life is over, though it hasn’t ended. Christina Springs’ relatives are suffering. The witnesses will never forget what they saw. The same good hearts that powered those who tried to help will leave them hurting over their failed attempt. That poor caseworker, the shelter workers, the first responders, all of them, all suffering.

[Then-police chief] Reed is now Fort Smith city administrator. Lokey left the department in January 2006.

How nice that it’s worked out for them.

By the way, Christina Springs is still dead. That’s all the ending there is.

Full post as published by Arkansawyer on June 10, 2009 (boomark / email).