Steven Watkins bill defeated in state Senate-Visitation Abuse Law

Posted on November 11, 2011 by mgoldberg

bill named after an Ashland man who was slain while trying to visit his daughter, which toughens penalties for divorced parents who violate visitation orders, failed in the Illinois Senate on Wednesday.

House Bill 1604, sponsored by state Sen. John Sullivan, D-Rushville, would allow judges to levy higher fines on parents and revoke their professional and drivers’ licenses in case of such violations.

The bill received 27 votes in the 59-member Senate, short of the 36 it needed to become law immediately.

The legislation’s stemmed from the 2008 murder of Steven Watkins, who was killed when he went to pick up his daughter, Sidney, for a court-ordered visit in Ashland. Shirley Skinner, the grandmother of Watkins’ ex-wife, Jennifer Watkins, was convicted of the slaying.

State Sen. Kwame Raoul, D-Chicago, said laws are on the books dealing with visitation issues.

“As the state of the law exists right now, there’s discretion given to a judge to find somebody in contempt and there’s a misdemeanor charge – interference of visitation,” he said.

“A custodial parent may be intimidated into making a choice as to am I going to risk losing my professional license or my drivers’ license or am I going to put my child at risk by allowing them to spend time with a non-custodial parent that … may be intoxicated or may somehow put the child at risk.”

Sullivan said the bill would give the courts “some teeth” to enforce the law. Thirty 30 states have similar provisions, he said.

“If you have faith in the courts and the judges to make the decisions in the best interests of that child, which they are doing right now, then all we are simply doing is giving them some additional tools in their tool chest to allow the enforcement of visitation,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan used a parliamentary maneuver to hold out the possibility of another vote later.