Woman Domestic Violence Victim Sues Warren County Prosecutor For Publicly Naming Her

A New Jersey woman, who is a victim of domestic violence and murdered her ex-fiance, is taking the legal route against a prosecutor who publicly identified her.

An appeals court ruled on Tuesday that she can go forward with the lawsuit that claims her rights as a domestic violence victim were violated when her identity was made public by the prosecutor, according to NBC New York. According to the lawsuit, the woman’s civil rights were violated about five years ago when Richard Burke, a former Warren County Prosecutor, named her after a grand jury didn't indict her.

The lawsuit was dismissed by a lower court saying that Burke, who is currently working in the attorney general's office's Office of Public Integrity and Accountability, was telling the public about the completion of a criminal probe.

Court documents revealed that the woman's former fiance, who was armed with knives, a gun, duct tape and zip ties, drove from Florida to New Jersey to confront her. He sexually assaulted her, tied her up and threatened to take her life. He allegedly told her to shoot him with his own gun or else he would kill her. Even though she only shot him in the shoulder, he died right there at the scene.

As per the lawsuit, after the grand jury did not indict her, Burke disclosed her identity and the results of the investigation “for the purpose of political and/or personal gain," according to US News.

Former state attorneys general Christopher Porrino and Gurbir Grewal, and Burke, the prosecutor's office, were named in the lawsuit.

While the lower court had dismissed the lawsuit, the appeals court reversed it on Tuesday, and said that the woman's civil rights claim against the prosecutor can go ahead, along with invasion of privacy and negligence claims against all defendants.

The judges panel said that it didn't have sufficient facts to assess the validity of the claims, but it wrote that at the heart of state laws on crime victims' rights is “the right by the victim of a sexual assault with domestic violence not to be identified by name to the press. It bores further into the core of this right when the details of the assault are disclosed, and the disclosure allegedly was for personal or political purposes.”

The woman's attorney said that the ruling "serves to both extend and reinforce the important protections afforded to crime victims by the New Jersey Constitution and the statutes adopted by our legislature.”