Domestic violence groups and state authorities have criticized Cook County Judge Thomas E. Nowinski amid mounting concerns over a recent domestic violence incident in Portage Park. When Constantin Beldie, who had been freed by Judge Nowinski despite being charged with attacking his estranged wife, reportedly committed murder and suicide, the issue became more heated. The Chicago Sun-Times stated that Beldie was found dead blocks away after allegedly fatally stabbing his estranged wife, Lacramioara Beldie, in the 5600 block of West Leland Avenue on Tuesday.
Following the incident, Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza said she would not “trust him with a traffic ticket at this point” due to her extreme lack of faith in Nowinski. Advocates brought cited a prior instance in which Judge Nowinski denied a protective order to a victim who, together with her son, died months after the murder-suicide.
The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence has called on Chief Judge Timothy Evans to transfer Judge Nowinski and bar him from overseeing cases of this nature in order to take prompt action. “Judge Nowinski’s failure to protect the community has now resulted in two tragic, preventable murders,” The Network’s president and CEO, Amanda Pyron, told the Chicago Sun-Times. Similar sentiments are expressed in a second CBS News Chicago investigation that retrieved Domestic Violence Court documents demonstrating Lacramioara Beldie’s repeated attempts to defend herself from the assault she endured at the hands of her divorced spouse.
According to Lacramioara’s motions for protective orders, there was a history of violence and harassment before to the fatal stabbing, including a threat from Constantin that read, “You know how easy it is to kill someone?” Regretfully, the judge did not take sufficient protective measures in response to the seriousness and significance of these petitions. According to the court documents, Constantin was considered “Medium-Low Risk” for future domestic violence, without drawing attention to Lacramioara’s history of protection orders. According to Pyron, this error in judgment by the system and those who work within it, such as Judge Nowinski, is indicative of a systemic breakdown. Pyron told CBS News Chicago, “As advocates, we’re obviously frustrated with a system that consistently lets survivors down.”
As a result of these instances, advocacy groups are pushing for new laws in Illinois that would protect victims of domestic abuse. In some protection order situations, “Karina’s Bill,” which was named after another domestic abuse case, would require the removal of guns. Despite Pyron’s emphasis on urgency and Illinois State Senator Celina Villanueva’s support for it, the bill is beset by issues over how to allocate resources for its execution.
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