RELEASE: Hochul press conference on November 25, 2024 in Poughkeepsie for bill signing of 'Melanie's Law' about orders of protection in domestic violence cases. Press release, transcript, Youtube video. NYSNYS News
For Immediate Release: 11/25/2024
GOVERNOR KATHY HOCHUL
Melanie's Law S.6288/A.6026 Allows Courts To Issue Orders of Protection to Immediate Family Members or Household Members of Named Victims, Regardless of Age
S.6288/A.6026 Closes Loophole That Limited Protections to Children Under 18
Governor Kathy Hochul today signed legislation expanding protections in domestic violence cases in criminal and family court. This legislation recognizes that domestic violence does not just impact a person who is or was in an intimate relationship with an abuser –– it impacts their family and household members as well. Under this legislation, all family and household members will be afforded the same process in court, including the ability to obtain an order of protection. Previous laws only allowed unrelated children under the age of 18 to be included on the adult family member’s order of protection. Additionally, this legislation will allow these family and household members to file family offense petitions in Family Court. Today’s action, on International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, expands on Governor Hochul and the Legislature’s commitments to keeping all New Yorkers safe and combating domestic violence.
“Melanie Chianese should be standing with us today, along with countless New Yorkers lost at the hands of senseless and preventable acts of domestic violence,” Governor Hochul said. “By signing Melanie’s law, we are committing New York State, our law enforcement and our legal system to the fundamental principle that every person deserves to be protected.”
Melanie’s Law is named after Melanie Chianese, who was tragically killed by her mother’s ex-boyfriend while he was awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to a domestic violence felony. Melanie’s mother, Cheryl Chianese-Cavalli, was able to get orders of protection for herself and Melanie’s four-year-old son, but Melanie was ineligible because she was 29. Governor Hochul was joined at the signing by Melanie’s mother. Melanie’s Law recognizes the importance of protecting those close to a victim, as in many cases, those who harm will use any method to establish power and control over their partner, including hurting those who matter most to them.
Mother of Melanie Chianese, Cheryl Chianese-Cavalli said, “Today is a big step forward for domestic violence. Melanie's Law will save lives and her legacy will live on forever in our hearts.”
State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said, “With Governor Hochul’s signing of Melanie’s Law today, New York takes a significant step forward in strengthening protections for survivors of domestic violence and their loved ones. I commend Senator Michelle Hinchey for her determination in championing this law and thank our partners in the Assembly for their collaboration in getting it done. Above all, I want to express my deepest gratitude to Melanie’s family and the advocates who have turned their pain into purpose, working tirelessly to make this law a reality. Their courage and determination will provide safety and peace of mind to countless families across our state.”
State Senator Michelle Hinchey said, “Today, thanks to one mother’s extraordinary courage and advocacy for change, Melanie’s Law, championed by her mom, Cheryl, is now law. Domestic violence leaves a trail of trauma that impacts entire families, and when people come forward for help, they deserve a legal system that offers protection and compassion. I’m proud to sponsor Melanie’s Law, which will help do that, allowing orders of protection to now extend to relatives of DV victims, providing a safeguard for those who often bear the ripple effects of abuse. My deepest thanks go to Governor Hochul for signing this vital legislation and Cheryl Chianese, whose advocacy has provided families with a stronger voice in their fight for safety through Melanie’s Law.”
Assemblymember Brian Cunningham said, “Government is about solving problems and protecting people. Today, we did both. The passage of Melanie’s Law will finally close a harmful and deadly loophole to legally protect friends, roommates, and family against violent and emotionally abusive abusers. Now, an abuser cannot escape the rule of law or redirect the threat of emotional or physical violence toward a survivor and the people they love.”
The signing comes one month after more than 250 professionals from across the state arrived in Albany to attend “Learning the Signs: Assessing the Risk of Lethality in Domestic Violence Cases” — the state’s first-ever summit of its kind — hosted by the state Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence (OPDV) and the State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS). The two-day training provided law enforcement agencies, attorneys, social services staff, gender-based violence services providers and other professionals with the necessary training and tools to assess danger in domestic violence cases and respond in a survivor-centered, trauma-informed and culturally responsive manner.
Earlier in October, Governor Hochul announced a record-level, $35 million state investment to improve the public safety response to intimate partner abuse and domestic violence and better address the needs of victims and survivors.
New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence Executive Director Kelli Owens said, “No one should feel helpless to protect their children, no matter how old they might be, from their abuser. Thank you, Governor Hochul, and our legislators, for taking this step to offer peace of mind and save lives. OPDV is dedicated to raising awareness, working with law enforcement and domestic violence professionals to better assess lethality risk factors, and ensuring the needs of victims and survivors are met in a survivor-centered, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive way.”
New York State Office of Victim Services Director Bea Hanson said, “Melanie’s Law recognizes the far-reaching impact of domestic violence and the danger that an abuser may pose to other individuals, not just their intimate partner. I thank Governor Hochul and the Legislature for closing this loophole and for their steadfast support of victims’ rights.”
New York State Office of Children and Family Services Commissioner Dr. DaMia Harris-Madden said, “Domestic violence is an insidious malady that not only has a devastating effect on the target of abuse but has a traumatic impact on the children and all other family members in the home. I applaud Governor Hochul and the advocates for signing this potentially life-saving legislation that closes a dangerous gap in the law and will enable Family Court to issue orders of protection to anyone in a family or household who could be in danger from a domestic abuser.”
The New York State Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence is the country’s only cabinet-level executive state agency dedicated to the issue of gender-based violence. Follow OPDV on Facebook, Instagram and X.
The Division of Criminal Justice Services provides critical support to all facets of the State’s criminal justice system, including, but not limited to: training law enforcement and other criminal justice professionals; analyzing statewide crime and program data; providing research support; and managing criminal justice grant funding. Follow DCJS on Facebook, Instagram and X.
New York's Domestic and Sexual Violence Hotline is available 24/7: 800-942-6906 (call), 844-997-2121 (text) or @opdv.ny.gov (chat). OVS Resource Connect also allows individuals to find state-funded victim assistance programs in their community by their specific need or concern.
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For Immediate Release: 11/25/2024
GOVERNOR KATHY HOCHUL
Governor Hochul: “We are here because of a family… a family that was swept up with this vicious cycle of fear and intimidation and ultimately domestic violence. We’re here on behalf of Melanie, a young woman, smart, smart woman who was educated in this community. She’s from here, she’s one of us and her life was cut so tragically short.”
Hochul: “There’s nothing more powerful than a mother’s love. It is deep, it’s so intense and I know you can’t bring your daughter back, but you’ve kept her alive. You’ve kept her alive. And the second I sign this and hand that pen to you, I want you to cherish that pen and know you made this happen so some other mother is not sitting here someday.”
Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation expanding protections in domestic violence cases in criminal and family court. This legislation recognizes that domestic violence does not just impact a person who is or was in an intimate relationship with an abuser –– it impacts their family and household members as well. Under this legislation, all family and household members will be afforded the same process in court, including the ability to obtain an order of protection. Previous laws only allowed unrelated children under the age of 18 to be included on the adult family member’s order of protection. Additionally, this legislation will allow these family and household members to file family offense petitions in Family Court. Today’s action, on International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, expands on Governor Hochul and the Legislature’s commitments to keeping all New Yorkers safe and combating domestic violence.
VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).
AUDIO: The Governor’s remarks are available in audio form here.
PHOTOS: The Governor’s Flickr page will post photos of the event here.
A rush transcript of the Governor’s remarks is available below:
Thank you, Leah, for welcoming us here and for all the work you’re doing on behalf of people who sometimes see the darker side of life. Love and relationships are supposed to be uplifting and empowering and to guide us to better lives. And when they turn to a place of darkness, it’s so great to have places and professionals like yourselves and others who really are committed to helping others get out of the situations they're in. So, I want to — I’ll be speaking more about why this is a family journey for me, but I also am so grateful to all of the people who are here today.
We have a great team. We have individuals who are working so hard in Albany to make sure that we do what’s right for our citizens. And I want to give a special shoutout to Senator Michelle Hinchey, a great ally of ours. We’ve spent a lot of time here in her district. She’s a tremendous champion, I want to thank her. Brian Cunningham, our Assemblymember, who understood the need to get this law over the finish line through the Assembly. Thank you. Sue Serino, who’s our County Executive, but when she was a Senator, this was her initiative and I want to make sure we hear from her today and thank her for her work. And I want to thank Rob Rolison, our Senator, a local Senator, appreciate you joining us here today. Anil Beephan, thank you for joining and Jonathan Jacobson, Didi Barrett, friends of mine from a long time. Great to have such representation from the Hudson Valley. And always good to have our D.A. with us. We provide a lot of support services for our District Attorneys and making sure that people like the D.A. Parisi has the resources they need to fight battles like this.
Let me say this — we are here because of a family. A family’s story, which could have been any family in this whole state, and one never knows why anyone is singled out, what happens, but there is a family that was swept up with this vicious cycle of fear and intimidation and ultimately domestic violence.
We’re here on behalf of Melanie, a young woman, smart, smart woman who was educated in this community. She’s from here, she’s one of us, and her life was cut so tragically short. And if it wasn’t for the relentless advocacy of her mother, her story would have been buried a year-and-a-half ago when we lost her. But her mother, Cheryl, said, “No, my daughter deserved more. The system failed my little girl,” a little girl who would have been 32 years old yesterday — a birthday celebration that should have been joined by mom and grandma who’s here and her son Myles.
But instead, they just remember her in the past tense and think about what could have been, what should have been. It’s hard to fathom the trauma that Cheryl herself had to endure in an abusive relationship, but to have that manifest itself in losing her child, I can’t think of a greater pain.
As I told Cheryl, when something that horrific happens to individuals, the human instinct says you recoil, you pull back, you say, “I’ve suffered so much, I can't go on.” But sometimes, there’s special people like Cheryl, who go so deep within herself to find the strength to use her voice on behalf of her daughter to make sure that no other family has to endure what her family did because the system was failing them.
We know what happened. Cheryl filed the order of protection against an abusive boyfriend. That’s what you do. You go to the court, you go to the system to protect you and your family. One was granted for Cheryl, one was granted for Myles, her grandson, but under the law that stood at the time, she couldn’t protect her own daughter, Melanie. The courts were not equipped to protect her because the law did not allow it. So, when the abuser couldn’t get to her, he took it out on the most beloved person in her life — go after Melanie, and that's exactly what he did.
You know Melanie, you’ll tell us more about her, and I’m sorry you look sad, Mom. She was a health coach. She was passionate about life. She wanted to help younger moms. Younger moms go through a lot, and we’ll talk a lot about that, how we’re going to give relief to families, in our next State of the State. This is my focus, family centered.
And, Cheryl, turning your grief into activism, going on television, coming up to the State Capitol, telling your story to journalists and elected leaders — and every time you have to tell that story, I’m telling you right now, I know what it does, it rips a hole in your heart a little bit wider. But you don’t let that be a deterrent. You say, “I’m hurting, I’m in pain to tell this again, but I need others to know the story of my child.” You showed this strength, this toughness, which is so admirable, and all of us should draw inspiration from you and your story and how we are here today.
I know a little bit about this because my own mother channeled the pain of what she saw in her own family. And, back in the 1970s, no one talked about domestic violence. It was viewed as some weakness on the part of the woman if the relationship wasn't strong, and the woman got blamed. These were called “wife beaters.” They didn't even treat it in cleaned-up language, “domestic abusers” — they were “wife beaters,” but no one spoke about them.
My mother became a social worker and a champion for these individuals, and they hit all socioeconomic incomes, all levels. It wasn't just people in poverty and tough circumstances, these were the wives of prominent doctors and lawyers who lived in the silence and the shame of being abused in the sanctity of their own home, and my mother said “enough,” because her own family had been disrupted like that. She saw what her own mother had to endure before her father abandoned her at a young age.
So, through my mother's strengths that I see in you, Cheryl, I see the same strengths that what you endure personally, you say, “I cannot allow that to happen to other families,” and you don't. My mom went to Albany herself, got laws changed, insisted on assembly hearings in Buffalo, where they finally realized that when someone calls 911, and the police officer goes to the door, and the man answers and says, “Everything's fine here,” and they used to leave, that they could no longer leave.
The laws were changed to protect people in that circumstance, and my mom was the driving force behind that — and opening a home for victims of domestic violence, something my family did when my mom was 70 years old, because she wanted to help other families.
We all became part of this, so this is part of who I am as well — understanding pain into activism, into change, and now, we have Melanie's Law. I wish my mom could have met you, she would have found a lot in common, she really would have. She would have seen your strength in your eyes. I can feel it, Cheryl. And I'm going to continue being this fighter. Not just because of what I saw and the stories I had to hear, but for all those I feel responsible to protect, because my number one job as Governor of the State of New York is to protect our citizens. We do it in countless ways, but this one is so deeply personal when the sanctity of your own home and your personal lives are so disrupted.
So, what do we do at the state level with the support of our Legislature? $35 million we just announced, to go out to our District Attorneys. They are the ones on the front line to fight domestic violence. The largest investment of its kind in history, giving prosecutors what they need, providing more services and crafting programs that are tailored to address problems in specific communities. And, any way we can strengthen our laws, like red flag laws, to keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, we are saving lives.
I'll close with this. There’s nothing more powerful than a mother’s love. It is deep, it’s so intense and I know you can't bring your daughter back, but you’ve kept her alive. You’ve kept her alive. And the second I sign this and hand that pen to you, I want you to cherish that pen and know you made this happen so some other mother is not sitting here someday. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being such a great champion. Thank you.
It's hard, isn't it? It's hard. I told her it's going to be hard when you get up here, but just speak to a room full of friends — people who love you, people who admire you for what you've done.
So, we'll be hearing from Cheryl in a couple moments, but right now I want to bring up another great champion, someone who loves her district with every fiber of her being. I've seen her exude this passion — it's intense. This is what you want to see in an elected official. This is the kind of intensity you want, someone who is unrelenting, and I just honor her so much for what she has done for our state and people like Melanie and her family. Let me introduce our Senator, Michelle Hinchey.