Tag: Cecelie Williams

House votes to Criminalize Clandestine Tracking of Vehicles

      Legislation that is key in the fight to protect victims of domestic violence was one of the proposals the House sent to the Senate before legislators went home for their spring break.

Representatives Bill Irwin, Cecelie Williams, and Kemp Strickler (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      The House voted unanimously to send to the Senate a bill that would criminalize the placing of tracking devices on a vehicle without the knowledge or consent of all recorded owners of that vehicle.  Missouri has no prohibition on such tracking, which is often used by domestic abusers to follow the movements of their victims.

      The bipartisan legislation was sponsored by three legislators.  One of those is Ditmer Republican Cecelie Williams, who filed House Bill 971.  She has shared several times this session her own experience as a survivor of domestic violence, in explaining why she is carrying such bills.

      Williams said Missouri should be addressing vehicle tracking in law.

      “This is really something that’s installed on your vehicle [or] within your vehicle, that you are unaware of that is being used to track you for any reason at all, whether there is malice or malicious intent behind it, none of that should matter.  It’s that if you are going to put a tracking device on your vehicle, that all owners of the vehicle are aware that it’s there,” Williams told colleagues.

      “What this bill does is it provides a criminal offense, a Class A misdemeanor for the first offense, and a Class B felony for a second offense, by violating this law and putting GPS tracking devices on a vehicle [without notifying] all owners that this was being placed.”

      Two bills similar to Williams’ were filed, and then combined with hers.  One of those, House Bill 978, was sponsored by Lee’s Summit Republican Bill Irwin, a retired Navy Seal and Lees Summit Police officer.  When he was presented this legislation he thought, “This is very much common sense.  Who could be against it?”

      Irwin said he saw firsthand the “evils of tracking,” when deployed to Pakistan as a liaison officer for the Special Operations Command Central to the U.S. Embassy. 

A diplomat he worked with there was a woman known for her diplomatic and physical prowess.  One of Irwin’s colleagues became interested in her but she turned the man down.  What happened next was frightening.

Representatives Bill Irwin, Cecelie Williams, and Kemp Strickler (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      “My military coworker found out that she was returning to the states and [he] took emergency leave to go back prior to her departure.  Fortunately, law enforcement had been appraised of the situation and figured out he was tracking her.  They detained him at the airport and they found in his car a body bag, duct tape, flex cuffs, sharp surgical knives, and a bone saw,” Irwin told the House Transportation Committee.  “Using the tracker evidence and the stuff on him they were able to send him to jail, where I believe he’s still spending time.”

      The sponsor of another version, House Bill 293, is Lee’s Summit Democrat Kemp Strickler.  He said his first introduction to the issue came from a constituent. 

      “Their partner had been tracked without her knowledge by an ex-boyfriend for quite some time, and they only found out about it because they took it into an auto repair or something like that, and they found it and that’s when they learned that she was being tracked.  That was of obvious concern to them and something that he said to me, that’s something we should work with.”

      He also referenced a high-profile double murder-suicide that happened in Lenexa, Kansas, in which a woman from Belton, 22 year old Sara Beck, was murdered.  Investigators believe she was tracked with a GPS device by her ex-boyfriend.

“The ex-boyfriend also set up a geo-fence that would automatically notify him when she showed up at work, when she showed up at a friend’s house, and when she showed up at home,” Strickler told colleagues. 

“Her father said the police have to get a warrant in order to do that to somebody.  Now we’ve got the general public just doing that.”

“This isn’t going to stop it but this will allow us to do something about it when it’s found,” said Strickler. 

“This is a bipartisan bill, this is a public safety bill.  This is going to help protect domestic abuse survivors and hopefully it will, frankly, discourage people from placing them on the vehicles of government officials and legislators, too.”

      The House voted 151-0 to send the legislation to the Senate.

VIDEO: House Votes to Tell Judges Not to Delay Finalizing Divorces due to Pregnancy

      The state House has voted unanimously to tell judges they cannot delay finalization of a divorce based on one party in the marriage being pregnant. The vote came after one bill sponsor shared her own experience with domestic violence, and how she found herself pregnant but unable to divorce her abuser.

Representatives Cecelie Williams (left) and Raychel Proudie (right) speak in a side gallery in the House Chamber after the House voted unanimously to advance their proposal meant to clear the way for pregnant women to secure a divorce. (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      Missouri Law allows filing for divorce during a pregnancy, but judges typically wait to finalize a divorce until after that party gives birth. 

      The passage came after one of the proposal’s sponsors shared her own story of having been in an abusive marriage, and learning that she could not divorce her husband while pregnant.

“I stand before you hoping to change that for women like me, who were, and may be, trapped in dangerous situations.  This bill is more than just a legal change.  It’s a lifeline for women who are forced to stay in marriages because they are pregnant,” Representative Cecelie Williams (R-Dittmer) told her fellow House members.  “No woman should be forced to remain in an abusive marriage, especially while pregnant.”

Watch Williams speak about her own experience on the House Floor, in the video below.

      Williams and Ferguson Democrat Raychel Proudie sponsored the legislation this year, and Proudie echoed Williams’ sentiment.

“There [is] a myriad of reasons why we should pass this bill, but in the first place the reason we should pass this bill … is that every citizen should have access and a right to every judicial process and proceeding, their medical condition notwithstanding.”

      The legislation was first offered during the 2023 legislative session by Representative Ashley Aune (D-Kansas City), who praised Williams for her bravery in sharing her personal story and getting this legislation so far, so early in session.

“It never ceases to amaze me, the amount of courage folks in this body muster up in order to make our colleagues aware of some of the challenges we face.  The bravery, the selflessness with which you carry this piece of legislation is so admirable, so thank you so much, lady.”

Legislators, visitors, and staff listened in silence as Rep. Cecelie Williams spoke about her own story of surviving domestic violence, in asking them to approve her bill to allow pregnant women to secure a divorce. (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      Aune said the proposal had been brought to her by domestic violence advocates, and she viewed it with such issues in mind.  Once she filed it, however, she was truck by how many men contacted her to thank her.

“Men who, for example, where serving overseas while their family was back home and infidelity occurred.  They returned from serving their country only to learn they couldn’t legally separate from their spouse due to her condition, and that was a side of this piece of legislation that hadn’t occurred to me … this is a bill that helps women, but the more you think of it the more you really understand this  is a bill about freedom, not just for women but for men, anyone who’s in a bad situation.  Having access to the courts is so important.”

      After House voted to send the bill to the Senate, Williams reflected on how hard it has been to speak publicly about what she went through, an experience that included years of physical and verbal abuse, often in front of her young children, before her abuser took his own life just days before their divorce would have become final.

      “Ultimately, my abuser couldn’t abuse anyone anymore, he chose to take his life, and I was able to start healing.  So I thought, until this bill was filed.  The more that I talk about it, it’s a very raw feeling, walking around and people knowing your story, that you’re a domestic abuse survivor,” Williams said. 

“After filing this bill and speaking about it, it became very apparent that I have a lot of unhealed wounds, and I need to deal with those, and I’m very thankful for that as well because, what better way to do it than with the support that I have, of our House members.  We received bipartisan support.  It’s really been incredible and I’m extremely grateful.”

      The vote to send House Bills 243 (Williams) and 280 (Proudie) to the Senate was 155-0.  It now goes to the Senate, in which two versions of the same language have been filed. 

House panel votes to tell judges they cannot delay finalization of a divorce until after a pregnancy

      A bipartisan effort to tell judges they cannot delay finalizing a divorce because one party in the marriage is pregnant has been advanced by a House Committee.  One sponsor says her own experience with domestic violence helps illustrate why this change is necessary to save lives.

Representatives Raychel Proudie and Cecelie Williams (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      Missouri law does not prevent filing for divorce because one party is pregnant, but judges can, and in practice often do, wait to finalize a divorce until after that party gives birth. 

“There’s no other situation that keeps people in a situation that they no longer want to be in except for not allowing a divorce to be finalized while you’re pregnant, in the State of Missouri,” said Representative Cecelie Williams (R-Dittmer), the sponsor of House Bill 243.

Often when a judge delays finalization of a divorce until birth, it is said to be to allow for considerations regarding custody and child support arrangements and other end-of-marriage considerations.  Williams said that is not valid reasoning.

“I don’t think there’s at any point that being pregnant and/or wanting a divorce negates any of the support that a child should receive from a parent, whether they’re in utero or it’s a live birth.  For that to be anyone’s argument is just not relevant in that situation.”

      Identical bills filed by Williams and Representative Raychel Proudie (D-Ferguson) were approved by the House Committee on Children and Families. 

“It is my belief that we should be able to avail ourselves of all legal processes and that the government should not be so heavy-handed in making people stay in dangerous and unsafe situations,” Proudie told the panel.  “With all respect to individuals who believe that marriage should be long-lasting, sometimes it’s just not the best option for either party or any children that are involved.”

      Both representatives said they have experienced and survived domestic violence, with Williams speaking publicly for the first time about her own experience and how it was relevant to this legislative.

“It’s something that I’ve lived and breathed for many years and have ultimately freed myself from because I gave birth, and knowing that you can’t have a divorce finalized while you’re pregnant is one of the situations that I feel that we, as the state, need to protect our women.”

Watch her testify for the first time publicly about her personal experience in a video below.

      Both representatives say the change is needed for all parties in a marriage.  Williams told the committee, “Their spouse could become pregnant by another man and they’re also in this relationship that they cannot get out of until that child is born, and it’s doing a disservice.”

      Proudie said since she began dealing with this legislation, she has been approached with examples of how men can be affected. 

“I have a 21 year old boy.  If he went overseas and had to fight in somewhere war torn, heaven forbid, he’s been over there for eight months … his best friend calls him to tell him his wife was pregnant for five … without question that’s not his child.  Lord forbid something happens to him and that individual is then responsible for whether or not to pull the plug on my child,” Proudie said.

      Since the proposal was first filed in past years, some news reports and commentators mischaracterized Missouri law as not allowing pregnant women to get divorced. It also came to light that lawyers often advise pregnant women, incorrectly, that they cannot file for divorce.

  Domestic violence advocates say the detrimental results have been that women in abusive marriages have been discouraged from filing for divorce. 

      The committee voted 14-0 to send the bill forward.  Williams said it is no surprise that it is receiving bipartisan support.

      “It’s a humanitarian issue and I think that both sides of the aisle can agree that this is something that needs to be changed in the State of Missouri.”

      House Bills 243 and 280 must be considered by one more committee before reaching the full House for consideration.