Part of a series on domestic violence in Springfield and Greene County.
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Republican Gov. Mike Parson signed legislation in 2021 that changed Missouri law to allow for lifetime protection orders.
Previously in Missouri, orders of protection were renewed yearly. Judges had the option to do a two-year automatic renewal, but that rarely happened.
The new law allows for lifetime protection orders if a judge determines it’s appropriate. This generally means cases where the offender continues to stalk and/or pose a danger to the victim.
This was the case for Lisa Saylor, who suffered years of abuse, stalking and harassment from her now ex-husband.
She’s had to face him in court — both in civil and criminal court — nearly 80 times.
Saylor, along with fellow survivor and advocate Janice Thompson, traveled to Jefferson City several times to share their stories with Missouri legislators and lobby for the new law.
Saylor was among the first to be granted a lifetime protection order.
“It’s not bulletproof. I know it’s a piece of paper,” Saylor said, adding that it raises the stakes if he violates the order.
“It also tells the victim or the survivor she is believed. She’s credible, and that the court believes her,” she said. “We need more of that.”
State Rep. Lane Roberts, R-Joplin, introduced the legislation in January 2021 after he was approached by Thompson, who lives in Greene County. Saylor lives in Webster County.
Roberts is a retired police officer with more than 40 years of experience responding to domestic violence calls.
Saylor said she cried when her lifetime protection order was granted in March.
“All of those changes that I worked on, I worked on for others, for my daughter, for someone else’s sister, for someone else’s mother,” she said. “I benefited from something I was fixing for others, and that feels good. It’s also validating. It says what I’ve been fighting for all along was something I truly deserved and I truly needed.”
Why lifetime orders are a good thing
Even though the courthouse is staffed with law enforcement agents and bailiffs, Saylor said, having to face her abuser in court was always terrifying.
“Before you can even get to the courtroom, there’s a gauntlet of a parking lot,” she said. Her abuser knows that when she appears in court she is not allowed to carry a weapon.
“He knows where you’ll be, what time you’ll be there. He already knows what you drive, I mean come on. And so it’s a guaranteed free shot at you for him to come up or intimidate or harass.
“They (abusers) don’t necessarily follow the law so they may have a firearm,” Saylor continued.
“And then once you get through there, maybe their family is there and so they’ll gather around. I’ve had them block an exit before when we were leaving court. I had to say ‘excuse me’ and walk past them. Well, then come the snarls and mumbles and comments just for intimidation.”
Saylor and her abuser had been divorced and living apart for several years, and there were times it seemed maybe he was moving on and would leave her alone. However, seeing her in court again once a year would sometimes cause her ex to begin stalking and harassing her again, Saylor said.
In addition to protecting victims’ physical and emotional safety, not having to return to court every year or every other year lessens the burden on the courts.
“There are certain instances — not all — where lifetime protection orders are more than appropriate,” Saylor said. “Now, instead of for the next 50 years, traveling to court, bogging down a docket and facing him and stirring pots and waking sleeping dogs, now I don’t have to bog down (the court’s) docket.”
