By Genevieve Reilly, Staff Writer

FAIRFIELD — A woman calls the police. Her husband, she says, is beating her. The cops arrive on the scene to find the victim sporting bruises on her arms.

State law requires the husband be arrested, but the wife turns into a reluctant witness. A written report may describe the bruising, but bruises fade as cases make their way through the court system.

“Minimization is one of the biggest things that is used by the defense,” said Ken Edwards, an investigator with the state’s attorney’s office. “They’ll say, `oh, it wasn’t that bad,’ and the prosecutor doesn’t have an idea of how bad it was.”

Ctpost.com