Jackson Free Press

Heather Wagner credits her mother, Jane Philo, with inspiring her career in victims' rights law. Now retired, Philo spent 23 years working with victims of domestic violence in Biloxi, and Wagner saw the results of abuse first hand. "When she came and picked me up from school, that's where I went, to the shelter," she says.

Wagner, a 1989 Millsaps grad and 1992 graduate of the Ole Miss School of Law, met her husband Jeff, also an attorney, while in Oxford. The two of them came to Jackson the summer of 1992, Wagner to work in the Attorney General's office and her husband to work with the firm Baker, Donelson. The couple resides in Belhaven with three dogs and a cat.

Now, the 39-year-old special assistant to the AG is in charge of the state's domestic violence division, which she helped form. Primarily, the purpose of the division is to educate prosecutors, law enforcement and judges about domestic violence. "One of the hardest things to understand is why people keep going back to that (abusive) relationship," Wagner says. "We do educational programs on why victims go back, whether it's financial pressures, religious pressures to stay in a marriage, fear. When they've been threatened that they'll be killed if they leave, it's better to get beaten up a little bit than to get killed," she says, explaining victims' rationale. Police and prosecutors can become frustrated when they've put together a case only to see the victim return to the abuser and the same bad situation.

Another purpose is to establish a central registry for protection orders. Currently, if police arrest an offender in one county who has a domestic violence record in another county, there is no fast or easy way to reference the previous offense. If a victim does not have an order of protection in hand, police have no way to confirm whether an order is in place, though they are enforceable everywhere in the country. A centralized database will resolve some of these problems. Wagner's goal is to have the registry up and running next year.

Today, the system can be "onerous" for victims, Wagner admits. They may not understand how to navigate the courts, or they may not have funds to hire an attorney. "Under the Constitution, nobody should be denied access to the courts because they don't have a lawyer. In reality, if you go to file a petition and you don't know how to get court dates, you don't know how to serve a summons … you have a lot of victims who don't get anywhere," Wagner says.

Wagner will accept the Hero of the Year Award at 8 p.m., Thursday, at the JFP Chick Ball at Hal & Mal's.

Previous Comments

ID

82573

Comment

I am giving a personal SALUTE to Ms. Wagner today. Domestic violence is a real problem, not only in MS but, around the country. It takes a very special person to work with this population because it is not the work with one individual in a family: It is permeates the total person and all that they come in contact with. i.e., children, employment, relatives.

Author

justjess

Date

2007-05-21T10:42:04-06:00