Titan grad helps raise profile of Domestic Violence Awareness Month
“At IUSB, I started gravitating towards the practice of law because of some of the opportunities I had there, particularly in a classroom setting with adjunct professors from the field,” Osterday says.
Taking classes taught by St. Joseph County judge Michael Skopelitis and federal judge Allen Sharp helped point Osterday towards law school. She chose the Valparaiso School of Law, for both practical and personal reasons.
“My grandmother had always hoped one of her grandkids would go to Valparaiso University, so it was also a tribute to grandma,” Osterday says.
Upon earning her Juris Doctor (JD) degree in 2004, Osterday spent the next eight years as a deputy prosecutor with the Elkhart County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, then four years in private practice. Her judicial career began in 2016, with her appointment as a magistrate for the Elkhart County Superior Court. In 2018, after the death of Hon. Evan Roberts, Gov. Eric Holcomb selected Osterday to finish his term as judge. In 2020, she won her re-election bid.
Osterday has been a member of the Domestic Violence Advisory Committee since 2018, and October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The committee’s primary purpose is to provide the Family Violence Resource Attorney with recommendations and advice regarding domestic violence issues, but the work is more nuanced than just that.
“Sometimes, the first reported incident of an act of domestic violence is a fatal incident,” she says. “There are resources within the community that can assist a person who needs to leave a situation before it becomes violent. It’s important to be mindful of the fact that if there are abuse and control dynamics at play, you need to be cautious and create a safety plan, so that the perpetrator does not escalate those behaviors. The most dangerous time for a survivor of intimate partner violence is when they are leaving.”
Currently, Osterday presides over all domestic battery cases in Elkhart County. She says that each case is different, and that great care is required to evaluate each set of circumstances.
Part of raising awareness is empowering employers to take a proactive role.
“Employers can recognize some of the dynamics,” she says. “For instance, a victim of domestic violence can end up missing work frequently, whether the person is recovering from injuries or someone is not allowing them to leave.”
To find out more about resources available to at-risk people, consult the CDC’s guide to Intimate Partner Violence Prevention (www.cdc.gov/intimate-partner-violence/about/index.html), the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence (www.icadvinc.org), or the YWCA (www.ywcancin.org).
