A Colorado woman victimized by domestic violence wants a ruling from an international court that will hold police responsible for the murders of her three daughters by her estranged husband.
The case was brought by Jessica Lenahan to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which has agreed to review her complaint against police in Castle Rock.
Her petition had been denied by the U.S. Supreme Court, which concluded in a 7-2 decision in 2005 that Colorado state law on restraining orders simply demands that police make "reasonable efforts" to enforce them.
At issue are the shooting deaths of her three daughters at the hands of their father, Simon Gonzales, then 30, in 1999.
She has maintained that Castle Rock police could have prevented the deaths of her daughters if they had enforced the restraining order she had obtained against Gonzales, requiring him to stay away from her and the children.
Instead, police did not aggressively pursue him when she reported that he had picked up the girls in violation of the restraining order, and it later was revealed that he shot and killed the three – at some point during the evening while Lenahan was asking police for help – prior to dying in a shootout with Castle Rock police.
In a statement released after the announcement of the pending review, she said she tries not to dwell on her losses.
"Rebecca, Katheryn and Leslie. Rebecca would've been 18 this year and obviously doing all of the, you know, senior things that seniors do. Katheryn would've been 17 now on Oct. 12. And Leslie would've been 15," she said.
"I try really hard not to think about it as a loss … I'm watching a lot of my family, and my son being 21 with two children and my grandchildren, this is what keeps me going," she said.
She moved to California following the tragedy and remarried, but later divorced and returned to Colorado.
In her petition to the tribunal, she said, "I brought this petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights because I have been denied justice in the United States. It's too late for Rebecca, Katheryn, and Leslie but it's not too late to create good law and policies for others.
"Police have to be required to enforce restraining orders or else these orders are meaningless and give a false sense of security. We need to hold the U.S. government accountable.
"I can't lose three children and not do something about it," she said.
The commission has no authority to award Lenahan compensation, or overturn the Supreme Court decision, but her attorney told the Rocky Mountain News the organization's decisions carry authority in the international community.
"What there is, is a lot of moral authority," said attorney Caroline Bettinger-Lopez. She said the end decision will be whether the U.S. violated Lenahan's human rights.
The tragedy developed on the night of June 22, 1999, when Gonzales picked up the couple's daughters – without Lenahan's knowledge. She reported that she contacted police multiple times over the course of the evening, pleading for them to track her estranged husband down and retrieve her daughters, but repeatedly was told the police had limited authority to track down restraining order violators.
Early the morning of June 23, authorities reported, Gonzales parked at Castle Rock police headquarters and shot at an officer. He then refused to put down his weapon, and was shot and killed by police.
Investigators said the bodies of the three girls were in the truck, killed by Gonzales before he arrived at the police station.
"So why did the police ignore my calls for help? Was it because I was a woman? A victim of domestic violence? A Latina? Because the police were just plain lazy? I continue to seek answers to these questions," she told the tribunal.
"We rely on the courts and the policy for protection against violence. But I learned from my tragedy that the police have no accountability. The safety of my children was of such little consequence that the police took no action to protect my babies. If our government won't protect us, we should know that. We should know that we are on our own when our lives are at risk," she said in the petition to the tribunal.
"Had I known that the police would do nothing to locate Rebecca, Katheryn, and Leslie or enforce my restraining order, I would have taken the situation into my own hands by looking for my children with my family and friends. I might have even bought a gun to protect us from Simon's terror," she wrote. "Perhaps if I had taken these measures, I would have averted this tragedy. But then I might be imprisoned right now. That is the dilemma for abused women in the United States."
She thanked the court for hearing her request.
"I am grateful to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for allowing me this opportunity to tell my story. It is a courtesy I was not granted by the judicial system of my home country, the United States."
A decision is expected sometime in 6-12 months.
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