Q: I have a high risk pregnancy and am living with severe domestic violence. I need to know my rights.
It seems like the cops will not help me. I say that because everytime i call them nothing comes out of it, and they continue to state that it is a civil dispute. I have little to no evidence and am wondering how i can prove that i am being abused.. Do i need to record our conversations? I have a health condition which causes me to bruise easily. Would this counteract if i were to use this in court? Can i use bruises as physical evidence? If i have a miscarriage or still birth from the abuse/harassment/stress can they be prosecuted?
A:
Domestic violence is exclusively a criminal offense. If the police will not act, you can contact the DA's Office directly.
I you intend to file for divorce or you anticipate a custody dispute a DV charge will likely have little effect on either matter. Specifically, property divisions associated with a divorce do not change because of DVs or other criminal matters because Colorado does not recognize fault in divorces. Similarly, DV charges typically do not impact custody matters unless the child is the subject of the violence. That is, the "best interest of the child" test does not normally consider DV against the parent as a factor for the child's best interest.
A DV charge grants protection orders and a few other procedural protections (e.g. allowing a litigant to not use their home address in a court filing and terminating a lease without penalties), but it does not change most (if any) substantive considerations for family law matters. Put another way, DVs are intended to provide procedural protections to allow the victim to leave the abuser, but a DVs do not normally modify other domestic matters. This is why DVs are usually said to be "shield and not a sword".
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