My bill LB1009, to create a domestic abuse death review team for Nebraska, was amended into LB741, which passed and went into effect recently.

Flatwater Free Press mentioned the review team in an article on the Christiansen’s family:

In 2021, Brooke Koch was shot and killed by her ex-boyfriend, who then turned the gun on himself. The family was working on legislation with Sen. Tom Brandt of Plymouth.

This year, the Kochs and Christiansens helped pass the creation of the Domestic Violence Death Review Team. Nebraska was one of only nine states that didn’t have one.

The hope: Looking at trends from past deaths in Nebraska will lead the team to make recommendations that become law – and prevent future deaths, MacTaggart said. 

Other states are already devising potential solutions that show promise. In other states, police conduct a specific risk assessment when a domestic violence offender is arrested. It can influence whether to set bail, and how high bail should be. The newly formed Nebraska review team may start to look at these ideas, and others.

“I have high hopes that this team will give the Legislature some useful information that can be acted on, and not sit on a shelf and collect dust,” Brandt said. 

Read the full article here.