Repeat offenders see family violence charges dropped in exchange for taking classes

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- Imagine getting a domestic violence charge dropped in exchange for taking an anger management class. How about for making a charitable donation? It's happening in Harris County.

In May, Eyewitness News watched as Atamvir Singh was led away in handcuffs after a lengthy standoff with Harris County sheriff's deputies.

They were there to serve a warrant for continuous family violence.

As it turns out, Singh's record is peppered with domestic violence cases, but each time he's arrested, the charges end up being dismissed in exchange for taking classes.

"Is a class an appropriate punishment for someone who beats a spouse?" Eyewitness News asked District Attorney Sean Teare.

"It, quite frankly, all depends," he replied. "Each case is different."

An analysis by Eyewitness News found that in 2025, 6% of all resolved domestic violence cases ended in alternative resolution agreements.

Essentially, prosecutors dismiss the charges in exchange for the defendant taking a class.

Cyera Hardeman got her family violence charge dismissed after agreeing to take two classes: one for anger management; the other for decision-making.

Shane Garrett got his charge dismissed for donating to the Houston Food Bank.

Last year, 69% of all resolved domestic violence cases were dismissed.

In 26% of those cases, prosecutors said they couldn't prove guilt. Another 14 percent were dropped at the request of the complaining witness.

That year, 713 domestic violence charges were dropped because of alternative resolution agreements, many of which required the defendant to take anger management classes.

"It's the wrong class to take," Amy Smith with the Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council said.

Instead, Smith says a more appropriate class would be the batterer's intervention program, which prosecutors did require in some of the cases we looked at.

"Anger management is for your road rages; it's for your bar fights," Smith said. "It's how to manage your anger. But battering intervention is how to manage the violence against your intimate partner, which is a huge difference from how to manage your anger."

Records show Singh was arrested for injury to a child in 2012. The charge was dismissed in exchange for Singh taking a parenting class.

He went on to rack up a family assault charge in 2017 and a continuous violence against family charge in 2025.

Both of those were dismissed when Singh agreed to take anger management classes.

But just months after the last class, he was charged with continuous family violence again. That charge was dismissed when he passed away this summer.

Singh wasn't the only repeat offender we found being offered alternative resolution agreements.

Garrett was charged with assault on a family member just months after getting his previous charge dismissed in exchange for the food bank donation.

"How effective are the classes though if we're seeing repeat offenses after the class was taken?" Eyewitness News asked Teare.

"It depends," he said. "Tragically, there are no crystal balls when it comes to prosecution at all, but especially in these complex cases like domestic violence and intimate partner violence."

In fact, Teare says they're the most difficult cases his office prosecutes.

Even before he took office - from 2021 to 2023 - two-thirds of all resolved domestic violence cases were dismissed. 14 percent of those dismissals were at the victim's request.

"We simply cannot make the prosecution, you know, if the complainant doesn't want to participate, if there's not a 911 call that could be admissible, if there aren't photographs of the injuries," Teare said.

Longtime criminal defense attorney Jed Silverman said many of the cases being dismissed would likely have been dropped either way.

"It's better to get something, to get a person to take a class even if they're taking it over and over again, versus nothing at all," Silverman said.

ABC13 tried unsuccessfully to get copies of the courses the DA's office says it gets through a company called National Online Training.

Both declined to provide them.

Eyewitness News did, however, obtain course materials for an anger management class designed for substance abusers.

Course takers are told to monitor their anger with an anger meter and to form an anger control plan that includes taking a timeout and talking to a friend.

The course also included a muscle relaxation exercise in which students were urged to "take a deep breath" and "release and exhale slowly."

"Anger management's not the answer for domestic violence because it's not about anger," Smith said.

"You skate through class like you did when you were in school, and if you're not learning anything, you're not learning anything," she added.

And for the repeat class takers, it's a fair question: Are they learning?

If you need help getting out of a domestic violence situation, call the Houston Area Women's Center 24/7 hotline at 713-528-2121 or call AVDA at 713-224-9911. You can also click here to chat with an advocate online. If you are deaf or hard of hearing and need help, call 713-528-3625.