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Clevelander Johanna Orozco headed to Columbus Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to save a bill that would allow juveniles in abusive dating relationships to get court-ordered protection. She came away with a commitment that the bill would at least get a hearing and, at best, a vote on the Senate floor. Orozco met with Sen. David Goodman, a Republican from Columbus, who heads a committee where the bill has been sitting idle for months.
The 20-year-old, who was shot by her ex-boyfriend last year, told the senator about other teens she has encountered with stories of dating abuse.

“We still don’t have our hopes up, up, up,” Orozco said after the meeting.

While Goodman may have said he will support the bill, it may be another senator who holds it up.

Sen. Bill Seitz, a Republican from Cincinnati and an influential member of the Senate who sits on the committee, says he is concerned about costs and possible abuses of the new law by teenagers.

Seitz cited an October e-mail from a Butler County magistrate who contended costs could mount if courts were compelled to appoint attorneys for juveniles who want protection orders. He said that would be unfair because counsel is not appointed for adults when they ask a judge for a protection order.

An earlier fiscal analysis of the bill concluded that costs would be minimal.

In spite of the issues he raised, the magistrate said the Butler County Court remained neutral about the bill.

Seitz also says that he believes that protection orders for adults have “run rampant” and that the same thing could happen in juvenile court because teens are often engaged in extremely “volatile relationships.”

He said the bill needs more consideration.

Rep. Edna Brown, a Democrat from Toledo who introduced the bill, said Seitz never told her about his concerns.

“This delay in placing the bill on the Senate committee’s agenda was so unnecessary,” Brown said in an e-mail. She said she is hopeful that “good consciences will prevail.”

Otherwise, Brown would be faced with asking Orozco and the parents of other children — some of whom were killed by ex-boyfriends — to return to Columbus to testify again next year.

Corie Judge, legislative liaison for the Ohio Judicial Conference, said in March that judges’ concerns with the bill had been dealt with. Judges supported the bill that passed the House.

Orozco’s visit with Goodman was the second trip she has made to the Statehouse on behalf of the bill, which could have given her the protection she was denied because her assailant was under 18.

“I told them that this might not be serious to them, but this is serious to me,” she said. “It’s not just high school stuff; it’s about saving lives.”