Third in a five-part series

"M1/2 told complainant if she called police he would kill her." — Salt Lake City Police Department report, May 25, 2006

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Rodney J. Gehlen entered the courtroom wearing a tan jumpsuit, orange canvas sneakers and a smirk.

Seated at a table with his cuffed hands resting in his lap, he turned toward Donna Walters, the live-in girlfriend who accused him of beating her. He stared at her as 3rd District Court Commissioner Thomas N. Arnett Jr. reviewed police reports detailing Gehlen's alleged physical abuse.

According to the May 25, 2006, report, Gehlen, 41, threw a cell phone at Walters during an argument. When she picked up the phone and walked into a bedroom, he tackled her from behind. They wrestled on the bed until she was able to break free and run to a neighbor's house.

Gehlen chased her to the neighbor's porch, calling her names and making threats. "I will (expletive) kill you b----," a witness told police he heard Gehlen shout. "If you call the police, it will be your death sentence."

Walters' 12-year-old son and three neighbor boys told police they heard the threats.

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Treating perpetrators is the primary key to the domestic violence conundrum, says new Salt Lake County Attorney Lohra Miller.

"The reality is that the majority of women go back to their perpetrator," she said. So a good chunk of the solution lies with them.

And eight hours of anger management isn't going to cut it, nor is a 36-hour domestic violence course.

In a few months on the job, Miller has been molding her strategies for addressing a domestic violence problem that threatens to overwhelm the system.

It will cost money, Miller said. But because children exposed to domestic violence so often turn to criminal behavior, Miller says her efforts will pay off in the long run.

"We will be devoting significant resources to holding the offender accountable and following through on the terms of their probation," said Miller, a prosecutor for 15 years in Taylorsville, Holladay and West Valley City justice courts.

She was at it long enough to see a second generation of abuse victims and perpetrators make their way into the system in those communities. "It brings home how much impact violence has on the children."

So she wants to re-order the treatment protocol. Drugs and alcohol are involved in a large number of cases, she said, so you've got to get abusers sober first.