KCTV 5KCTV5 Special Report: Protect or Provoke?

Domestic violence claimed the lives of 11 Kansas City area women during the past year.

And several of those women had protective orders intended to shield them from the very men now accused of taking their lives.

More than 2,800 orders were granted by judges in Johnson and Jackson counties in 2011.

Sometimes they work. However, they can provoke an abuser and cause the violence to escalate.

Barry Beaver, 58, apparently considered the stalking protective order his estranged wife sought nothing but a piece of paper. Barry and Debra Beaver were in the process of getting a divorce, and violence had been alleged. Debra Beaver was sitting in a car in her driveway when police say Barry Beaver fatally shot her.

As police pursued Beaver, he turned the weapon on himself. He died in his truck.

Beaver had a long history of violence. Court records reveal two prior protection orders filed against him by two other women, in addition to Debra Beaver.

"That's the whole nature of this type of cycle of violence is that it progresses rather than gets better," said Jackson County Prosecutor, Jean Peters Baker.

Baker describes protective orders as one of the tools women can use to fight back against the violence. She says they put abusers on notice. She said they let violent individuals know that someone with more power is now watching them and is ready to step in if they break the rules. The prosecutor encourages victims to collect evidence they can use against their abusers in court, such as text messages and voicemails sent after an order is granted.

"We take those violations very seriously, and we file them regularly in court," Baker said.

The rules for dealing with protective order violations vary from state to state. In Missouri, the first violation can lead to a six-month jail sentence. In Kansas, it depends on the judge.

"The police really work diligently to try and go after these batterers who are found in violation of an order, but sometimes when they get to the scene it may be too late," said Rose Brooks Center chief executive officer Susan Miller.

Family members say it was too late for Stephanie Brown. Two weeks before Thanksgiving, she was shot twice in the head. The man accused of killing Brown and the couple she was visiting at the time was no stranger.

Brown's mother, Claudia Davis said, "Everywhere she (Stephanie) went, he would find out where she would go, and everywhere she looked he was there."

Davis says Brown had tried to help Derek Hubbard turn his life around by giving him a temporary place to stay and assisting in a job search. But when her daughter refused Hubbard's romantic advances, Mrs. Davis says their relationship turned violent.

"She wound up going to the hospital. She had six stitches taken under here," Davis said as she gestured to the an area underneath her chin.

It was after that alleged beating that Brown got a protective order against Hubbard through Jackson County courts. Her family says it didn't make a difference.

"He called her 13 times that same night," Davis said.

"That lets you know he was a ticking time bomb," added Brown's daughter, Shanta Davis. "At anytime he can just snap, and he did. He killed three people – three people for no reason."

Rose Brooks' Miller says for a certain segment of the population that protective orders are the answer. She says they can stop someone who is concerned about hurting his public reputation or losing a job. But for others, going to court can have the opposite effect - make an already dangerous situation even worse.

"If he's determined to hurt her or kill her," Miller said, "he's going to go ahead and do it."

If you are being battered, Miller says you need to call the Rose Brooks Center Hotline at (816) 861-6100 to make a safety plan. Based on your situation, that could mean filing for a protective order, changing the locks at home, telling friends and family or going to a shelter.

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