Absent officials from rally irritate abuse advocates

After a plea went out for elected officials to attend an abuse rally and nobody showed up, Stacia Schnoor and other domestic abuse advocates were left feeling dejected and irate.

“They just don’t care,” said Deb Stoeckel, who started a private Facebook group, Fight for Domestic Abuse Victims in Minnesota, after Sabrina Schnoor was murdered in Owatonna earlier this summer. “They need to get off their asses and do something.”

Led by Stacia Schnoor, a group of women and some men gathered Sunday afternoon in Central Park in Owatonna for a domestic abuse awareness rally. Stacia had personally invited many local, state and federal elected officials, including Gov. Tim Walz, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office is handling her daughter’s murder case. She also sent emails to the Steele County Attorney’s Office, who is assisting in the case. And she put out a call for any elected officials, including local representatives and senators, to show up.

Looking at the Steele County Courthouse from the park, several advocates almost said in unison, “Where are the judges, the prosecutors and other court officials?”

The answer was simple. They weren’t at the rally.

And that, the advocates say, is problematic for a system that they believe is broken.

“They could at least show up and show their faces,” Stoeckel said. “It’s really disheartening that they didn’t even respond to our phone calls or emails.”

The advocates have one question for the absent elected officials and other court officials: “How many more people have to die before you will care?”

As of early July, at least 13 people, including Sabrina Schnoor, have been killed during incidents of intimate partner violence so far this year in Minnesota.

For the record, Schnoor’s group says Sen. Heather Gustafson, DFL-Vadnais Heights, is the only elected official that has communicated with them. While Schnoor and others were upset the Steele County Attorney’s Office doesn't take a more active role in hearing them, Schnoor understands County Attorney Julia Forbes has a potential conflict of interest because she is assisting in her daughter’s case.

“But where is the rest of the office?” they asked about the county attorney’s office.

The message they want heard is that laws need to be improved and sentencing guidelines changed.

Stoeckel, who retired after working in the Faribault prison for 30 years, thinks Minnesota needs to shift its focus on who they lock up. “If they would let the pot heads out, they would have an empty prison,” she said, adding they need to let out the non-violent offenders and lock up the serious offenders.

They point to criminal cases where there seems to be a constant revolving door with suspects accused of crimes.

“They are dropping all the big charges and convicting people of the small counts,” Stoeckel said, adding it often leads to less jail or prison time, if any at all.

Schnoor agrees.

“If he had been locked up for all the crimes in the past, he wouldn’t have been able to kill my daughter,” she said.

She is referring to Jason Lee Hoerner, who has been charged with second-degree murder in her daughter’s death. Hoerner, who has an extensive criminal history, is awaiting trial on the murder charge.

“I don’t know if they don’t care or they’re too lazy to do their jobs.,” she said. “Are you not going to care until it’s someone close to you?”

Stoeckel said, “It would be handled way different if it was an elected official’s daughter.”

More murders, Stoeckel said, could be prevented if people like elected and court officials cared more about what they’re doing.

Stoeckel’s daughter, Amy, has been assaulted by an intimate partner for the past eight years. He is currently serving an 18-month sentence in prison and will be out by April. Stoeckel said they were fortunate in the six months it took before sentencing that he wasn’t bailed out of jail. “It’s so mentally exhausting because you have to check every day if they get out,” she said.

Even while Amy Stoeckel’s perpetrator is locked up, he has reached out to her at least eight times while in custody, violating a restraining order. Yet, she claims, nothing is ever done about him violating the order. She also pointed out that her attacker beat multiple women before her.

She is to the point of worrying about her safety and him coming after her once he’s released from prison. She is afraid she may have to kill him to defend herself and end up going to prison herself.

“The system has proven a restraining order doesn’t do anything,” Amy Stoeckel said. “You have to look at another direction to protect yourself.”

Added Amy’s mother: “It goes through my head every day that I have to protect her once her abuser gets out. It just breaks my heart and tears me up to see what she has gone through.”

Despite Sunday’s dismal showing, the group isn’t giving up. They are planning a rally at the State Capitol during the next legislative session.