| Should Victims of Domestic Violence be protected from this law? |
| Yes |
|
100% |
[ 2 ] |
| No |
|
0% |
[ 0 ] |
| Unsure |
|
0% |
[ 0 ] |
| Other (Please Explain) |
|
0% |
[ 0 ] |
|
| Total Votes : 2 |
|
| Author |
Message |
Jeff Miller
Fleet Admiral
Joined: 22 Nov 2001
Posts: 23947
Location: Mental Ward for the Mentaly Unstable 6th floor, Saint John's 1615 Delaware Longview Washington 98632
|
 Fri Mar 25, 2005 11:50 am Victim of violence, now injustice |
|
This is kind of a local story but its what it is about that I feel should be posted I hope no one minds.
| Quote: | Victim of violence, now injustice
By Barbara LaBoe
Mar 25, 2005 - 07:15:22 am PST
Alison Parvati looks through her files Wednesday while talking about the retirement law she wants changed to protect domestic violence victims.
RYDERWOOD -- Alison Parvati's husband tried to kill her two years ago, but a federal retirement law won't let her completely escape him.
Donald C. Guest was convicted of domestic violence assault after the 2002 attack. Parvati divorced him and removed him from her health insurance plan. But when she tried to remove him from her Boeing retirement program, Parvati ran into a federal roadblock.
If she dies first, Guest will receive $310 a month from her retirement annuity --- and there's nothing Parvati or U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., can do to change that, she's been told.
That has the 70-year-old Ryderwood woman angry. And frustrated. And fearing for her life.
If Guest, now 64, tried to kill her when they were married, Parvati asks, what's to keep him from doing it now that they're divorced and he stands to get her retirement money?
"Every time my cat drops off a counter I wake up," she said. "Every bump in the garage, I have to check it. I don't sleep well because I'm busy getting up all night."
The law standing in her way -- the Retirement Equity Act of 1984 -- was well-intentioned, Parvati agrees. It was designed to keep a husband from leaving a wife after decades of marriage and taking the retirement they both counted on with him. But Parvati is a woman and domestic violence victim and doesn't feel protected at all.
The act, signed into law by President Ronald Reagan, "clarifies that each person in a marriage has a right to benefit from the other's pension," Reagan said after signing the law. "No longer will one member of a married couple be able to sign away survivor benefits for the other."
Parvati wants an exception to that rule, but she hasn't had much luck.
"When I talk to people they say 'Congress couldn't do that. There has to be a way you can change it,' but there isn't," Parvati said.
Parvati retired in 2002, moved to Ryderwood and settled into what she thought would be a comfortable retirement with her husband of 19 years. His temper had flared before, and Parvati says he hit her a few times, but what happened on Dec. 16 of that year took her totally by surprise.
During an argument Guest slapped her and then started choking her, according Parvati and police and court documents. He let go, but Parvati (she changed her name in the divorce proceedings) was so upset she took an overdose of her heart medication. If she was going to die, she says, she wanted it to be painless.
Guest called police and said he was "feeling murderous," according to police reports. He was arrested and convicted of second-degree assault. Guest never went to prison. He lives in Montana and has to check in with a probation officer every month as part of a community custody sentence set to expire in the next few months.
Guest hasn't threatened Parvati since his arrest, but she still fears him and the incentive she says the retirement money gives him to attack her again.
"I'm frightened because I can not make myself not valuable to him," she said.
The $310 a month Guest would receive doesn't sound like enough to kill someone for, but Parvati said it would be a 22 percent increase to Guest's current $1,350 monthly income from Social Security and his own retirement.
Guest, contacted by telephone at his Missoula, Mont., home, said he knows he would receive money from Parvati's retirement upon her death, just as she'd receive his if he died first. (Parvati says she'd be happy to be removed from his plan if he's removed from hers).
Guest said he has "absolutely" no plans to see Parvati ever again, let alone harm her.
"I have no ill feelings toward her any longer," he said. "We had a rough divorce, but I have no hard feelings."
"I'm sorry she has to carry those feelings," he said.
Parvati isn't buying it, saying she's heard it all before.
She's embraced retirement, working in her yard, fussing over her three cats (Guest never let her have them while they were married, she said) and taking numerous art and martial arts classes. But she said she'll never truly relax until she knows Guest won't profit from her death.
Parvati's goal, she said, is to raise enough awareness to get lawmakers' attention. She also wants people approaching retirement to know how final the decisions they make now are -- no matter what happens after retirement.
Once a retiree starts receiving their pension, the terms of the annuity payments can not be changed. If Guest and Parvati had divorced before she started receiving payments, it would be different. But once the payments start, the rules are set in stone.
"Unfortunately, once you make a decision on spousal survivor benefits you can't change that," said Alex Glass, spokeswoman for Patty Murray. Glass said it is "unlikely" that the law, which does protect women in many cases, will be changed.
Parvati's not buying it, saying Congress can certainly amend one of its own laws.
And she was particularly incensed this weekend as she watched Congress convene a special session solely for the Terri Schiavo right to die case.
"I am furious," she said. "They can come back from vacations on a Sunday all for one person and Patty Murray tells me Congress can't do anything (about the retirement law). And it's more than just me. This effects everyone who retires."
So Parvati plans to continue her crusade.
She's written Boeing. She's written Murray and President George Bush. And Parvati is now readying packets for every member of the House and Senate who sit on the committee dealing with retirement issues.
She's also adding House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) to her list after listening to his speeches in the Schiavo case.
"He talked about the value and sanctity of life, so maybe he'll be concerned about the value of my life too." |
I feel that if a person is suffering from dommestic even to the level that their other wants to kill them they should be protected from this law.
|
|
|
Seven of Nine
Sammie's Mammy
Joined: 16 Jun 2001
Posts: 7871
Location: North East England
|
| Fri Mar 25, 2005 11:53 am |
|
Most things have exceptions and I think in this case there should be an exception for those who are victims of domestic abuse, whether they're male or female. It's stupid that a woman has to fear for her life because of a pension plan.
|
|
|
lionhead
Rear Admiral
Joined: 26 May 2004
Posts: 4020
Location: The Delta Quadrant (or not...)
|
| Fri Mar 25, 2005 12:37 pm |
|
The problem is that Judges don't feel that the Law shouls make any Exceptions, which is the obvious Bump here.
I don't know about this kind of stuff though,i'm not going too vote yet.
-------signature-------
Never explain comedy or satire or the ironic comment. Those who get it, get it. Those who don't, never will. -Michael Moore
|
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
Star Trek �, in all its various forms, are trademarks & copyrights of Paramount Pictures
This site has no official connection with Star Trek or Paramount Pictures
Site content/Site design elements owned by Morphy and is meant to only be an archive/Tribute to STV.com
|
Search
FAQ
Log in
