DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

New domestic violence law makes it difficult to gain custody or have visitation rights for children

Hope Hooton discusses Thursday how she believes that changes in domestic violence laws will prevent what allowed her ex-husband to kill their two children before turning the weapon on himself.

(Capitol Media Services/Howard Fischer)

PHOENIX — A new state law is designed to make it difficult, if not impossible, for those who commit domestic violence to get custody of their children — or even have unsupervised visits.

It even expands what is considered domestic violence to include someone exercising “coercive control” over the other.

And the sea-change in state law can all be traced to the efforts of Hope Hooton, a Surprise woman whose ex-husband killed their two children during one of those visits and then killed himself.

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