Ellie’s Place: New county center will tackle abuse and guns

Named after the county’s late courthouse dog, Ellie’s Place will be on the fourth floor of the King County Courthouse.

Ellie’s Place has taken form over the past two years. The center will serve as a nexus for a handful of difficult issues — victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse; and managing recently-passed firearm regulations. These regulations aim to keep guns out of the hands of potentially dangerous, and at-risk loved ones.

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Extreme Risk Protection orders  were approved by voters through I-1491 in 2016. Civil Domestic Violence Protection Orders were passed by the Legislature in 2014, allowing courts to take guns from those accused of domestic violence when a victim petitions the court. A handful of units dedicated to those regulations will be housed at Ellie’s Place.

The Children’s Justice Center helps kids who are reporting sexual abuse. Project safety provides legal aid for families dealing with domestic violence and sex abuse. King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg says it will also be home to the county’s brand new Regional Domestic Violence Firearms Enforcement Unit.

“The people of the state voted on an extreme risk protection order in the fall of 2016,” Satterberg said. “Judges can now act on that on behalf families who are concerned about a loved one who is showing some behavioral health crisis and is talking about firearms; is talking about murder or suicide. We can now intervene and remove those guns and begin to get to the root of the problem, but at a time when we’ve de-escalated, we’ve taken the gun away from that person.”

Ellie’s Place and new gun laws

Washington is one of just five states with extreme risk protection orders or so-called “red flag laws.” Connecticut, California, Oregon, and Indiana also have them. Some states just allow law enforcement to petition the court for the orders for a person exhibiting dangerous behavior. But most, including Washington, allow family members to also ask for them.

“So often we get these mass shootings where people come back and go, ‘We knew that he was having problems, he was angry, he was fixated on murder.’ And there was nothing that we could do,” said King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said. “Well, today there is something you can do. We’ve preached the code — if you see something say something. But if you’re going to say something, somebody has to be there to listen and to act.”

“Those judicial orders are not self-executing,” he said. “You need a team to actually go out and do the hard work of contacting and safely taking control of the weapon. This isn’t something you can ask the police department to do in their spare time because they don’t have any spare time and this is a very complicated thing. We really need to develop a level specialization and expertise to do the very difficult work of removing guns from somebody who is having a behavioral health crisis.”

“Our new firearms enforcement unit will be available to help victims apply to the court for an extreme risk protection order and then go give effect to that order,” he added. “Actually go and remove those weapons and store them, temporarily, while we try to figure out what’s going on in that person’s life.”

Satterberg says the major part of the unit’s responsibility is helping domestic violence victims and their cases, including following up on no contact orders that require the person to give up their guns.

The firearms unit team will be made up of 12 members, including Seattle police officers, King County sheriff’s deputies, a city attorney, deputy prosecutors, paralegals, and victim advocates. The city and county have invested close to a million dollars total for the program.

King County Children’s Justice Center

The other big part of Ellie’s Place is the King County’s Children’s Justice Center, which deals with children reporting sexual abuse. Until now, the people involved with helping those victims and handling the cases have been spread all over town. Now, the head of the county’s Special Assault Unit, and Child Forensic Interviewer will all be at Ellie’s Place, along with representatives from the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, victim specialists from Harborview, among others.

Child Forensic Interviewer Shauna McDowall says the re-designed interview rooms and waiting areas are much more welcoming and child-friendly with a waiting room filled with colorful chairs, games and lots soothing images — including several of Ellie, the courthouse therapy dog that the center is named after. The atmosphere makes all the difference when you have to get kids to talk about being abused.

“It’s super important,” McDonald said. “I have a very limited time to talk to them, so I need for them to come into the space (and) become comfortable enough to talk with a stranger about something that’s potentially really hard to talk about. So every second counts.”

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