HEIRESS KIN SUE COURTS, COPS

Copyright 1995 Daily News, L.P.
Daily News (New York)
By JOE NICHOLSON

The family of slain heiress Anne Scripps Douglas who begged police and Family Court judges to protect her from a battering husband yesterday sued the courts and police for $ 22 million.

The family accused the Westchester Family Court and police in Bronxville, where Douglas was beaten to death by her husband, of failing to do their jobs.

Douglas was killed Dec. 31, 1993, by her husband, Scott, a house painter who then killed himself. The suit said Judge Ingrid Braslow of Westchester Family Court "refused to order Scott Douglas removed from the home" on Dec. 6, 1993 weeks before the killing.

It said Anne Douglas first asked for an order of protection from the court in May 1991. That request "indicated that Scott Douglas had continually harassed" his wife, the suit charges.

Douglas had threatened to strangle his wife, assaulted her, threatened to push her from a moving vehicle and caused her multiple injuries, the suit charged.

Braslow was not available for comment, her husband, Dean, told the Daily News.

But Dean Braslow said that when his wife rejected the request to have Scott Douglas turned out of the house, she did did not have all the information available on the case including Scott Douglas' history of violence.

He said his wife handled the case properly based on what she knew.

"She did what she is supposed to do," said Dean Braslow, who added that the court record was "all that she could go by, the testimony before her."

Anne Scripps Douglas' brother James Scripps and her three daughters Alexandra, Anne and Victoria filed suit in the state Court of Claims against the Family Court of the State of New York.

They filed a similar suit, alleging negligence and wrongful death, against the Bronxville police in state Supreme Court. Each suit is for $ 11 million; neither named any individual judges or police officers.

David Cherubin, the family's lawyer, said the family was considering setting up a foundation to help battered spouses and might use any money it obtains from the suits to support the foundation.

Sgt. Robert Thorn of the Bronxville police declined to comment, as did Chief Judge Adrienne Scancarelli of Westchester Family Court.

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