Andy Thibault

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Cool Justice
Bittersweet Victory In Spouse Abuse Case
By ANDY THIBAULT, Columnist
Law Tribune Newspapers
February 27, 2006

` There's nothing like the weight of the system piling on a weak person.'

The Danbury State's Attorney's office should not be getting any awards for protecting battered women.

In a gross abuse of prosecutorial discretion, they brought a murder case against a battered woman who had been beaten virtually on a daily basis for months or even longer.

Girlene Soares, a housecleaner, would often show up at work with bruises on her legs , scratches and black marks on her body and black eyes. Often she would sleep on the street to escape beatings. Her husband, Jose Luis DaSilva, had been convicted twice for assaulting his wife and there was a protective order telling him to stay away from his wife.

On July 5, 2004, Soares testified, her husband was pushing her during an argument. She ran into the kitchen and grabbed a knife as he continued to pursue her. As he came toward her the knife went into him. Still fearful, Soares ran out of the house barefoot at 2 a.m. calling neighbors for help. She stayed with a friend and then turned herself into police.

Danbury prosecutors charged her with murder, intentional manslaughter, reckless indifference manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. There's nothing like the weight of the system piling on a weak person, who waited 19 months in jail for trial.

Expert witnesses testified Soares suffered from battered women's syndrome and post traumatic stress disorder. The jury quickly acquitted her of all charges.

"She made no attempt to flee the area or deny that she had stabbed him," said Vicki Hutchinson, Soares defense attorney. "She was a very credible witness, despite having a limited education, second grade."

Philip Russell, the noted Greenwich defense attorney, had high praise for Hutchinson's victory in a tough climate.

"In a quiet way Vicki Hutchinson grinds the cases out," Russell said. "She gets the job done in a difficult environment . The juries are conservative and tend to believe the police."

The prosecution tried the gambit  that Soares killed her husband so she could run off with a boyfriend and that the battered woman's defense was made up later.

"Obviously, Hutchinson said, "the jury did not agree with the state. I believe the jury was swayed by the expert witnesses who testified as well as her actions immediately after the stabbing."

Soares, an undocumented worker from Brazil, is now incarcerated at the Niantic jail and faces deportation. Hutchinson said she has been referred to an immigration counsel.

This seems to be a case that never should have been brought. The Chief State's Attorney's Office or some other entity with power should review such cases to bring accountability where there is none.

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