Transcript: Speaking With Domestic Violence Survivors

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul met in her Albany office with domestic violence survivors to discuss New York's discovery laws.

B-ROLL of the Governor during the event can be found on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page has photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Governor Hochul: Hello, everyone. I just had a really powerful, impactful conversation with our sisters in purple. These are women who've risen above their circumstances. Women who've been traumatized by domestic violence. But they're not victims, they're survivors. And because they were willing to come up here and tell their stories of how so many cases, brought by women who have the courage to step out of their home and go to a police precinct or a DA's office and tell their stories and to bear their hearts and relive the trauma over and over — they're willing to do that to stop the abusers from hurting them or their children. And then too many times, those cases end in dismissal because the rigid discovery laws that we have in place right now denied them justice.

They're here to use their voices to lift up, not just themselves, but to thousands of women and some men across the state whose voices have been silent until now. I told them, I will be their voice. I will be their champion, I will be their advocate, but also their stories themselves are just extraordinary.

And I want to ask Angelina just to share what you described to me as some of the barriers that you have when it comes to cases like the one you endured. So Angelina?

Angelina Rosado, Domestic Violence Survivor: Yes, absolutely. Thank you, Governor. I think our message that we want to get across is that we're not against the other side, right?

The facts are we are all on the same team. But we want to make sure that the demographics of victims are not left out of the conversation. For too often, survivors have not been invited to the table to have our voices be heard. Survivors are no longer staying silent. We will not cowardly walk away from this.

And we appreciate the Governor putting her foot down and saying, “We have to make a stance right now, because too often, survivors of domestic violence, victims, are now turning into homicide victims.” And all because an order of protection may or may not get dropped due to the fact that a piece of evidence that may not even be relevant to what's happening, wasn't present at the time.

And we all know that getting a survivor to even admit out of their mouths that they are survivors of domestic violence. I know for myself personally, it took me over six months to say I was a victim of domestic violence. It felt like lava coming out of my mouth because I couldn't believe that I was a victim of anything. And this is something that we experience every single day.

Survivors of domestic violence have to go to police precincts. We have to go to the courthouse, get an order of protection, and what does that look like? In court, we don't argue feelings. We argue language. So I'm here to put that feeling to you in person, right?

Because the feeling of going into a precinct and not being believed is something that runs in our heads because mental and emotional abuse is serious, right? And when you are in a home with someone who has convinced you that no one cares about you, and they are the Alpha and the Omega, that becomes a problem when we're now seeking for justice. Because survivors, not only do they have to take all these steps and there's so many different systems that get involved the minute they decide to take this step. And then could you imagine being told, “Well, we didn't have your Uber receipt, so your case was dismissed and now your order of protection is dropped.”

Could you imagine the feeling? We are here to show we are the faces of things in that nature that can happen to you. And we want the other side to understand we're all on the same team. We want to figure out, how do we balance this out? How do we make sure that while we are still protecting the people who are wrongfully convicted, we also protect the people who are trying to get protection from that same system? Thank you.

Governor Hochul: Thank you. I know that's hard. Well, you heard from one individual and she represents so many thousands. And listening to their stories a little while ago here in my office, I was also reminded of my mother's story. My mother became a champion for victims of domestic violence because of what she saw and endured in her own home as a child.

And instead of living the life of a victim, she led it as a proud survivor. The survivor of what she saw happened to her own mother, and she channeled that into advocacy. And back in the 1970s when no one talked about spousal abuse — wife beaters, but people took their sides more often than not.

My mother, inexperienced in the whole world of advocacy, just like these women were at one time, came to this capitol and raised up her voice when I was just a college student. And she told what happened to her mother, and she became a voice for so many and helped open a transitional home for survivors of domestic violence. So their stories really touch a nerve with me. And I'm told I have the empathy of my mother.

Angelina Rosado, Domestic Violence Survivor: Yes.

Governor Hochul: When you said that, you said, “I see the empathy that you must have gotten from your mother, because I understand them.” And I know how hard it is today to even come up here, travel up on a train, disrupt their lives and have to walk the halls in search of someone who understands what we're fighting for. And I'm really proud to be fighting on their behalf, and people all over this state who are denied the justice because of some technicality in the discovery laws that are written out. And they put their heart and soul into trying to get justice and it's thrown out because something minor, irrelevant, is missing — I'm going to keep fighting until we fix this. I'm going to keep fighting to put this in the Budget.

This is my path to getting this done and I'll always remember the faces and the voices of these brave women, and thank them for what they've done. We are going to continue this fight. We're going to continue fighting, not just for public safety, but also affordability, to make sure that we can put more money back in people's pockets at this time when people are just — their heads are spinning. They don't know if these tariffs are going to make the next time they go to the store — the kids' sneakers made in China are going to be 10 times more than they expected.

So families are struggling, and shame on us if we can't put this budget to bed and focus on the needs of the people of the state who put us in these jobs.

So thank you so much. Thank you again for being here.