Many District Attorney’s Offices throughout the State of Oregon—if not all of them—have a special program designed for the accused for the first time of Domestic Violence. The program is often known as “Deferred Sentencing” or the “Batterer’s Intervention Program”. Both are virtually the same.

In a program like this, most of the time the DA’s office will require a guilty plea to one or more of the charges. After the plea, the court will schedule sentencing on the charge for a later date. (In Oregon, you are not convicted of a crime until the court issues a sentence. Just a guilty plea—without a sentence to follow—does not result in a conviction.

After entering the plea, the person then is allowed to enter into a Domestic Violence program (usually called Batterer’s Intervention Program). Upon completion of the program, the criminal charge is dismissed.

If, however, you somehow violate the program rules—or the Deferred Sentencing Agreement—then the District Attorney will go back to the court to seek an order of the court finding that person in violation. They may ask for the judge to kick them out of the program and sentence them on the criminal charge.

Many times people will want to enter a plea which does not admit guilt. For them, there is the plea of No Contest. This can be beneficial for people facing more than one litigation for the domestic violence conduct, such as a divorce, a job loss, or a Restraining Order. However, this can prove to be quite difficult if the person does so because he/she is attempting to maintain innocence. The Batterer’s Intervention Program almost universally requires a participant to admit their participation in the domestic violence. In some cases, refusing to admit—or maintaining innocence—can lead to dismissal from the class and a sentencing on the guilty plea. Life can be very, very difficult for a person who tries to participate in the program, but does not admit or take responsibility for their actions—despite the reality of their innocence of the charges.