When a judge finally granted a restraining order against Teri Jendusa-Nicolai's ex-husband David Larsen in 1999, she felt a sense of security.

Court officials no doubt felt that perhaps the Racine County woman could go on with the rebuilding of her life without the threat of violence hovering over her.

However, Larson had other ideas: showing up at her home, the baby sitter's house and at Jendusa-Nicolai's place of employment.

"I learned early that criminals don't follow orders. They don't care what the laws are, otherwise they wouldn't break them," Jendusa-Nicolai said. "In the end, my restraining order became just another piece of paper."

Even under the threat of arrest, Jendusa-Nicolai's husband continued to ignore the court order and eventually kidnapped her in 2004 and beat her with a baseball bat to within an inch of her life. He left her for dead in a garbage can. Larsen is serving a life sentence in the Waupun Correctional Institution.

Law enforcement tool

To obtain a restraining order, a specific act of violence or abuse warranting protection must be documented and then set forth in a petition to be granted in a temporary restraining order.

In order to get an injunction, the petitioner would then appear before the court commissioner or judge to provide evidence for the order of protection.

Often many women are afraid to take the first step in filing a restraining order against an abusive partner.

"There's a fear of the unknown, especially if that person is the breadwinner of the family or if they fear retaliation," said Waupun Police Investigator Brian O'Donovan. "There's also this mentality that what goes on behind closed doors, stays behind closed doors."

O'Donovan said a restraining order is also an effective law enforcement tool, which helps to criminalize conduct spelled out in the document.

"It also lends credibility to the situation beyond the 'he said, she said' argument," O'Donovan said.

More accountability

Jendusa-Nicolai believes that stiffer penalties for those violating a restraining order might result in better compliance. The maximum penalty for violating a temporary restraining order or domestic abuse injunction is nine months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

"If my ex would have been arrested and sat in jail the first time he broke the restraining order, it might have made him think twice," Jendusa-Nicolai said.

Dodge County District Attorney Bill Bedker doesn't believe that increasing penalties would deter violators.

"The majority of them don't think about the consequences of their actions, whether it's a 30-year prison sentence or a nine-month jail sentence," Bedker said. "Getting these cases processed more quickly to some resolution in court or imposing a mandatory cash bail for those violators might be more effective, though it might pose some serious constitutional challenges."

Enforcing restrictions

At the time Larsen was arrested in 2004, he was in possession of a gun, even though the active injunction against him first issued in 1999 had ordered the surrender of all firearms.

"I knew he had (the guns) and hadn't turned them into the Sheriff's Department. I was told by the Racine County Sheriff's Department that they were powerless to take the guns away without a search warrant," Jendusa-Nicolai said. "We went around and around about those firearms. In the end, he had the gun at the time of the kidnapping and had threatened to use it on me."

Last week state lawmakers introduced a bill that would improve the enforcement of current firearms restrictions that apply to domestic abusers. Under the proposed Domestic Violence Homicide Prevention Procedure Act, guidelines will be put in place to ensure that abusers surrender their weapons when there is an active restraining order against them.

"The surrender requirement is an existing provision of Wisconsin law. However, a recent study found that very few counties actively enforce the current surrender requirement," said Patti Seger, executive director of the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence. "Guns are involved in over half of domestic homicides. And in many of these cases, the murderer was legally prohibited from owning the gun."

Creating monsters

Had the system held her ex-husband accountable, Jendusa-Nicolai may not have been beaten over the head with a baseball bat and left for dead in a garbage can locked storage facility somewhere in Illinois. She only hopes that state lawmakers push for tougher laws and police officers enforce those laws.

"Like my husband, those who are never held accountable become more arrogant, thinking they can get away with anything," Jendusa-Nicolai said. "A system that doesn't punish or hold violators accountable helps to create these monsters. When nothing happens but a slap on the hand, they get bolder and continue to break more orders. Pretty soon they feel like they're untouchable."