"Trina's Law" Introduced To Help Crime Victims Across Ohio

The plight of University of Cincinnati law student and shooting victim Trina Hatchett has inspired a group of her UC law classmates to take up her cause and lead a legislative effort in her name. The result could mean relief for crime victims all across the state of Ohio.

Being introduced into the Ohio legislature today by State Senator Mark Mallory of Cincinnati is "Trina's Law," a bill emanating from the research of students working at the Center for Law and Justice at the UC College of Law.

The law would allow a felony conviction of a perpetrator to be accepted as conclusive evidence that the criminal acts indeed occurred in any subsequent civil case. While that may sound like a straight-forward progression, it is not currently accepted under Ohio law. The legal principle that would allow such a finding, known as collateral estoppel, is however already accepted in 41 other states and in federal court cases.

The real-world ramifications of such a provision are made starkly clear by the circumstances of Trina Hatchett's case. Two years ago this month, she was shot and nearly killed while dining at J. Alexander's restaurant in Hyde Park. The shooter was a jealous ex-boyfriend, Danny Williams, who subsequently pled guilty to two counts of attempted murder in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Hatchett has since filed a civil suit against Williams, which includes counts of assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and punitive damages. Included in the calculation of Hatchett's damages is payment to recover full title to the house that she and Williams jointly own.

Currently, even though he is in prison for shooting Hatchett, Williams benefits financially from Hatchett as she continues to make payments on the house. And in Hatchett's civil suit, Williams is claiming that he shot Hatchett in self-defense, despite his guilty plea in the criminal case.

"This is a clear example of how thorough review of the law, as part of the educational mission of this college, can also benefit society as a whole. What Trina has had to go through is tragic, and shouldn't be made unnecessarily more difficult by the legal system if that can be avoided. We also know that there are many other crime victims in Ohio who could be similarly helped by such a law," says Mark Godsey, the faculty director of UC's Center for Law and Justice. Godsey helped oversee work down for a legislative report on Hatchett's case that was authored by UC law students Megan Maag and Adam Tomakovich.

Trina Hatchett's case is far from the only one where collateral estoppel could be used to the great benefit of crime victims. The research into Ohio law by the UC students found several prominent cases in the past where crime victims suffered from the additional legal expense of having to reprove issues that were well established in criminal decisions.

The students' research suggests that the Ohio State Supreme Court has already opened the door to a change towards acceptance of collateral estoppel in Ohio through its rulings in cases of similar circumstance. A prior criminal conviction is already admissible in a civil suit in Ohio - "Trina's Law" would merely take the next logical step by establishing that the facts of such a conviction should be viewed consistently in the setting of a related civil case. This provision would benefit the justice system by saving time and judicial resources, and benefit crime victims by saving them the time and money necessary to re-establish as fact details that were already decided by a higher court.

To view on the Web a copy of the full legislative report prepared by the students, go to: http://www.law.uc.edu/clj/trina.pdf