Domestic violence is a quiet scourge. While few outside a home know what goes  on inside, the fact is that violence committed against spouses, partners and children is common, leaving emotional and physical scars — or worse. Some victims of domestic violence do not live to tell their story. Many who do live in fear of their aggressor.

In recent times, Napa County has seen some extreme cases of domestic violence explode into the news, two of which are still in the criminal justice system.

Napa elementary schoolteacher Roxanne McWilliams is behind bars today, awaiting trial on a charge of attempted murder. Police say McWilliams admitted she shot her live-in boyfriend, James Talley, five times while he slept on Sept. 8. McWilliams’ attorney claims Talley, who survived and has been released from the hospital, physically and emotionally tormented McWilliams, threatening harm to her and her family.

But the shadow of domestic violence stretches longer than that for both McWilliams and Talley. He has faced an allegation of family violence involving a different partner in Texas, and years ago McWilliams sought a protective order from her then-husband in Napa.

On Sept. 15, a week after the early morning incident that resulted in McWilliams’ arrest, Willis Creech fired a shotgun into a home on Dry Creek Road in what police say was an act of retribution against his wife.

The Modesto resident and his wife had been arguing for days, police say. She packed up the kids and went to stay with family in Napa.  Police say Creech followed her trail, arrived at the home, and a day later returned to fire the shotgun into the house, shattering a bedroom window and barely missing his 4-year-old daughter. Five people were inside the house, including his wife and two small children.

Creech is being held without bail and is charged with attempted murder.

Earlier this year, Onesimo Garcia was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for shooting his girlfriend, Sandra Hernandez. Just a year before Hernandez’s death, Garcia was convicted of domestic violence and ordered to stay away from his victim — Hernandez.

And last year, Michael Posey was convicted of shooting his wife in a north Napa incident 10 years earlier. While it took a decade to bring the case to conclusion, it was clear from the time of the incident that Michael and Elizabeth Posey were in the midst of a nasty domestic clash, and she was seeking a divorce at the time of her death.

8 percent solution

From January 2006 to the end of last September, the Napa County District Attorney’s Office filed about 13,500 criminal cases, from DUIs to burglaries, fraud cases to murder charges.

Of those, more than 1,000 — about 8 percent — were domestic violence cases. According to Napa County District Attorney Gary Lieberstein’s office, prosecutors filed 239 felony domestic violence cases and 837 misdemeanor cases in the last 21 months. Lieberstein was not able to provide the number of convictions for those cases.

“Domestic violence has been a grave problem for many, many years, and it’s not going away,” said Lieberstein. “That is why we have to continue to do outreach for those who are victims or potential victims of domestic violence ... to let them know there are safe places they can go and people and programs out there to help them.”

Domestic disagreements are bound to happen.

“Anytime you have two people who live together there are going to be problems. The big problem comes when communication escalates to violence — be it verbal or physical,” Lieberstein said. “It often is a cycle of violence. Until the pattern is broken, the violence will continue.”

Lieberstein said the law enforcement reaction to domestic violence has changed over the years.

“Responding to domestic violence calls use to be telling the man to take a walk around the block and calm down. It was often considered a private issue,” he said. “Over the years we realized it is very much a law enforcement issue. Our job now is to determine who is the aggressor and make an arrest.”

Inside the cycle

Ron Abernethy, deputy public defender for Napa County, sees domestic violence cases from the other side of the courtroom. In his view, there is a critical element of such cases that the criminal justice system fails to address.

“In almost all of the domestic violence cases, there is a substance abuse component to it,” he said. “There are very few cases where you don’t see problems with drug and alcohol abuse.”

Abernethy pointed out that while those convicted of domestic violence are required by law to take classes in anger management, routing people toward drug or alcohol treatment only happens on a case-by-case basis, and he said it doesn’t happen enough.

“The system really seems to be missing the boat because (those convicted of domestic violence) don’t go into substance abuse treatment.”

Abernethy also pointed out that the dynamics of a troubled relationship mean that the victim of one incident could be the assailant in another, but that law enforcement officials are focused on dealing only with the matter at hand.

“The criminal justice system is not set up very well to deal with the partner counseling issues to get at what’s really underlying the difficulty in a relationship,” he said.

On the frontlines

Napa Police Sgt. Tim Cantillon has been responding to domestic violence calls for many years. Decades ago, officers just tried to calm the waters. That is no longer the case.

“Before legislation was passed in January 1986, our hands were pretty well tied. It was not our task to make an arrest. After January 1986, it became our responsibility if we believed a crime was committed, even if no one said they actually saw it happen, we made an arrest,” Cantillon said.

Napa police officers respond to domestic violence in pairs.

“The first thing we do is separate the folks, and each officer has his private dialogue with the person. We’re not looking for winners or losers. We want to know who threw the first blow and who continued to fight. We listen to how it started, and determine at what point it could have stopped if one of the parties took the more reasonable course of action rather than retaliate with further violence,” Cantillon said.

As hard as it can be to get to the bottom of a fight that may have deep roots, Cantillon said, “The kids of these battling parents are sometimes the toughest part for us. We do the best we can to limit the amount of drama they see when we get on scene. If we handcuff a parent, we try to do it where the children can’t see. We explain to the kids that mom or dad did something they shouldn’t have and because of that they need to talk to someone. We never tell them we are taking their parent to jail.”

While the overwhelming majority of those arrested for domestic violence are men, over the years more women have been charged with domestic violence

“We are seeing more of that,” Lieberstein said. “It goes back to law enforcement on the scene making the determination who is the aggressor. Also men are feeling more secure to report they have been abused. They are realizing they don’t have to put up with that behavior.”

In recent years, courts have allowed victims to testify about what was called Battered Women’s Syndrome, but which is now known as intimate partner battering.

Said Abernethy, “That usually comes up in a homicide case in which you are saying the fact that I was a battered partner, that I was in one of these domestic violence relationships, affects my perception of my need to defend myself. ... I needed to defend myself and this is something a jury needs to know.”

Jurors then assess whether and how well the history explains a violent clash.

Lieberstein said prosecuting domestic violence offenders can be a challenge.

“The majority of victims don’t want to be in court,” he said, noting that people don’t want to relive the bad times, fear retribution from a spouse or lover or are worried that if the charges stick, the breadwinner of the family will be gone.

But, he said, “Victims cannot have their abusers released because they have changed their minds. If we believe a crime has been committed, we will pursue charges whether the victim wants it or not.”

“We need to educate victims that there are options out there and they don’t need to live in an abusive relationship. Many of these relationships have been going on for years, and the victim just hopes to work things out,” Lieberstein said. “Napa has a women’s shelter where victims and their children can go. There are other programs to enable victims to end the cycle of domestic violence. These victims are not alone. There is help.”