NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee House Majority Leader William Lamberth has proposed a law that would create life-long orders of protection.
The idea is to prevent victims from being revictimized, like Nikki Goeser.
Goeser had been married for just over 16 months when her husband Ben Goeser was murdered in Brentwood in 2009.
The killer was Hank Wise. Attorneys said he was obsessed with Nikki Goeser.
“Ben was shot seven times in the middle of a busy restaurant in front of 50 witnesses and security cameras,” Nikki Goeser said in 2020.
Wise was convicted and sent to prison, but he continued to write love letters to her from behind bars.
“It just makes me want to throw up. It’s hard to explain the shock. It was trauma on top of trauma,” she said in 2020.
Nikki Goeser didn’t have an order of protection because Wise is serving a 23-year sentence and orders of protection don’t last that long, or at least they didn’t.
Wise currently faces federal charges for stalking by mail.
Lamberth is proposing life-long orders of protection for victims of violent crimes.
“And at least that indicates to the defendant, ‘Stay away from this person forever. Don’t ever contact them. Don’t sent them a letter, don’t text them, don’t reach out to them on Facebook, don’t call them, don’t drive by their house. Just stay away from them for life,’” said Lamberth.
The idea for Lamberth’s bill is to protect victims like Nikki Goeser.
“Hopefully that will give them peace of mind to the victims to know that the system has their back, that the legislature has their back, that the law is going to do everything we can to keep them safe,” said Lamberth. “There are, unfortunately, thousands of circumstances like this across Tennessee."
“I know there are other people out there who are dealing with this and are scared, and they need help. They need to know that there is a law out there to back them up and support them,” said Nikki Goeser.
Violating these life-long orders of protection would mean up to one additional year in prison for each violation, and the bill is retroactive so, if it passes, people like Nikki Goeser, who have already been victimized, would be able to get one.