## Facts

- Bernice Linner and Vickie Birch were in an intimate relationship and cohabited for about 13 months in a spouse-like household.
- They lived together with and helped raise three children from prior relationships in the shared home.
- On December 24, 1995, an argument between the partners escalated into a physical altercation.
- Birch sustained visible injuries, including a black eye, bruises, cuts, scratches, bruising on both arms, and a bitten lip, as shown by admitted photographs.
- Linner, who had a significant size advantage, claimed she acted in self-defense.

## Issues

1. Whether a same-sex cohabiting partner can qualify as a “person living as a spouse,” making the alleged victim a “family or household member” under Ohio Rev. Code § 2919.25.
2. Whether the evidence supported a domestic-violence conviction under § 2919.25 when the defendant asserted self-defense.

## Decision

- The court denied Linner’s motions for acquittal challenging the applicability of Ohio Rev. Code § 2919.25 to same-sex partners.
- The court interpreted “person living as a spouse” and “family or household member” in § 2919.25 to include same-sex cohabitants in a spouse-like relationship.
- The court found Birch met the statutory definition based on the parties’ long-term cohabitation and spouse-like household functioning.
- The court found the state proved domestic violence beyond a reasonable doubt and found Linner guilty.

## Legal Principles

- Statutory interpretation begins with the text; where a domestic-violence statute uses gender-neutral terms (e.g., “person,” “offender”) and contains no express exclusion, courts should not infer a limitation to opposite-sex couples.
- For Ohio Rev. Code § 2919.25, “person living as a spouse” is a functional concept tied to cohabitation and spouse-like household operation, not formal legal marriage.
- Cohabitation may be shown by factors such as shared residence, shared household responsibilities, emotional and financial interdependence, and joint caregiving or parenting within the household.
- Construing domestic-violence protections to include same-sex cohabitants is consistent with the statute’s protective purpose of addressing violence in intimate, intra-household relationships.

## Conclusion

The court held that Ohio Rev. Code § 2919.25 protects victims in same-sex, spouse-like cohabiting relationships and, applying that interpretation to the evidence of injuries and household cohabitation, denied acquittal and convicted Linner of domestic violence.


State v. Linner, 665 N.E.2d 1180 (Ohio Mun. Ct. 1996)