Suit Spotlights Gay Domestic Violence & Police Indifference 
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

(Houston, Texas)  A Texas lawsuit is set to shine the spotlight on domestic violence among same-sex couples and alleged police indifference to the problem.

Gloria Swidriski is suing the city of Houston for the way police handled pleas from her son that his partner was violent and his that his life was in danger.  Swidriski's son Marc Daniel Kajs was later shot to death in full view of patrons at the restaurant where he worked by his partner, Ilhan Yilmaz. Yilmaz then turned the gun on himself, and also died.

According to Swidriski's attorney, Robert Rosenberg, Kajs sought police help at least six times, but officers failed to follow policy and offer him assistance that could have prevented the slaying because he was gay.

Rosenberg also says that a police investigation into the March 28, 1998 murder-suicide was a "whitewash" to protect the department. Rosenberg said that an expert hired to look into the killing and the subsequent investigation concluded that the police internal probe was a "sham".

In court papers filed by Rosenberg, the expert, George L. Kirkham, a criminal justice professor at Florida State University, called the police internal investigation "a self-serving document created to cover up the failures of HPD officers."

Kirkham's report, which details his review of police reports, department policies and other documents, found that no one on the committee knew who wrote the final police report or how it concluded that officers who dealt with Kajs followed police policy.

The committee of review left no written records of its meetings, and some of its members did not know that a report had been issued until they received a copy five years later in preparation for depositions to be given in the lawsuit, Rosenberg said.

The case is scheduled to go to trial in February.

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