MARCH 15, 2016 PROGRAM:
Domestic Violence and the Workplace
Domestic violence is epidemic throughout all social, economic, and racial groups. It occurs primarily in private, but its effects echo across all of society. Victims of domestic violence experience special difficulties in attending work. Perpetrators of domestic violence frequently interfere with a victim's ability to work. Thus, no workplace is immune from the scourge of domestic violence. This presentation shows the added problems that workers who are also victims of domestic violence face. It also discusses ways that employers and fellow employees can help victims to escape violence and remain productive employees.
Janice Barker, Assistant Ramsey County Attorney, has served the public in the Twin Cities for more than 30 years as a prosecuting attorney, the past 28 years in the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office in St. Paul, Minnesota. As a prosecuting trial attorney, she has handled every type of criminal case and has extensive experience as a trial litigator. She is passionate about breaking the cycle of violence in domestic cases and thereby reducing violence in the community. During the past eight years, she has used her experience litigating murders, rapes, robberies, narcotics, thefts and assaults as foundation for litigating felony domestic violence cases involving felony assaults, strangulation, kidnapping, stalking and felony violations of protection orders.
Al Zdrazil, Past President of the Rotary Club of St. Paul, is a retired prosecutor with 38 years of experience. He specialized in prosecuting homicide, domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse cases with the Ramsey County Attorney’s office and the Minnesota Attorney General’s office. He was honored as the Minnesota Prosecutor of the Year by the Minnesota State Bar Association, Public Law Section in 2003