Case Explained:This article breaks down the legal background, charges, and implications of Case Explained: Wisconsin disability advocates grapple with loss of VOCA funding – Legal Perspective
Disability advocate helps Wisconsin crime victims get justice
Federal funding losses are cutting into the legal advocacy services that Disability Rights Wisconsin offers to victims of abuse.
For the past five years, Nick Battiola called his Disability Rights Wisconsin victim advocate, Pam Malin, any time he felt on the verge of a breakdown, whenever memories of the caregiver who became his abuser flashed through his mind.
Malin always took his calls.
Now, positions like hers are in jeopardy across Wisconsin.
As a result of shortfalls in a federal fund for crime victims, hundreds of nonprofits across the state are facing devastating financial cuts. The Victims of Crime Act fund, also known as VOCA, pays for sexual assault hotlines, domestic violence shelters, child advocacy centers and other services across Wisconsin.
Advocates warn the VOCA shortfall will make people with disabilities especially vulnerable, especially amid other Trump administration funding cuts for disability services.
Disability Rights Wisconsin is the state’s largest nonprofit that helps people with disabilities who are victims of abuse and other crimes. It lost more than $755,000 in VOCA funds this year, which leaders say could leave hundreds of disabled Wisconsinites without access to legal aid.
According to a 2021 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, individuals with disabilities are four times more likely to be victimized by serious violent crime compared to individuals without disabilities. Those with intellectual disabilities, like Battiola, are sexually assaulted at seven times the rate of people without disabilities.
People with disabilities vary widely in their ability to communicate, navigate social environments and identify potentially abusive behavior. That makes it more difficult for victims to be taken seriously when reporting a crime or testifying in court.
“We’re trying to work within a system that has its own constraints,” said Malin. “We’re trying fit a square peg in a round hole, and it doesn’t always work.”
Battiola and his family worked with Disability Rights Wisconsin for five years as he navigated his case, re-learned what healthy relationships looked like and began mental health treatment.
Without Malin, Battiola said he isn’t sure he would be alive to tell his story.
Steep funding drop took disability advocates by surprise
Three years ago, Nadya Rosen, the interim director of legal services for Disability Rights Wisconsin, joined a meeting with other nonprofit leaders across the state to address staggering drops in the VOCA fund.
VOCA is not paid for by taxpayers. Instead, it is made up of fines from federal criminal convictions, forfeited bail bonds and other sources.
As of December, the fund sits at over $5 billion, but experts say it has long struggled with instability.
The Office of Justice Programs, which oversees the VOCA fund, has traditionally been Disability Rights Wisconsin’s largest source of federal funding. Since 2017, the nonprofit has received more than $5 million in VOCA grants.
But in recent years, the VOCA fund has fallen sharply. Since 2019, Wisconsin’s annual share has dropped from $44 million to $13 million.
Although Gov. Tony Evers allocated $20 million to cushion the blow, that funding will not last forever. The stopgap measure represents less than half the amount that Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul requested.
Many crime victim service providers have been forced to cut services, eliminate staff and reduce caseloads.
“These are organizations that often work on shoestring budgets that are scraping by and face challenging circumstances,” Kaul said. “The requests that they make are ones that reflect a real need for investment.”
Rosen first got word in 2022 that Disability Rights Wisconsin would see its VOCA funding cut, though she did not know the specific amount. Then, she found out the group’s VOCA funding this year would be slashed by 86% to $116,000 — a fraction of what is needed to maintain its legal staff and caseload.
“I never anticipated that the drop would be so immense,” Rosen said.
Although VOCA funding represented just 9% of Disability Rights Wisconsin’s $8.1 million budget last year, the loss still forced the organization to drastically redefine its crime victims program, she said.
As a result, the group reluctantly decided to stop taking on cases involving children under the age of 11 and is shifting away from domestic violence and sexual assault work.
After taking on 254 abuse cases in 2024, Disability Rights Wisconsin handled just 60 this year.
A life saved by assistance
As an adult with intellectual and physical disabilities, Battiola is one of thousands of people in Wisconsin who rely on a paid caregiver to assist him with cleaning, taking medication, grocery shopping and making meals.
In 2020, a caregiver was hired to help him navigate his daily routine. Instead, she took advantage of him, he said.
Initially, the caregiver seemed well-suited for the job. But as the months went on, she began telling Battiola she loved him, allowing her hands to linger on his body and staying overnight at his apartment, he said.
In a victim impact letter he later wrote to the judge in his case, Battiola described how the caregiver started bringing alcohol to his apartment, then introduced him to marijuana. She eventually began having sex with him, he said.
According to Battiola, his caregiver told him to never tell anyone about their relationship.
“She told me that we were boyfriend and girlfriend when she was ‘off the clock’ and that when she was ‘on the clock’ she was my staff,” he said.
Battiola was 27. His caregiver was 41.
His mother, Jan Battiola, said she grew suspicious when her son began lying about his daily whereabouts and avoiding family gatherings. After visiting his apartment one afternoon and finding sex toys and alcohol, she quickly pieced together what her son was facing, she wrote in a letter to the judge in his case.
Jan Battiola said her son’s cognitive age is closer to that of a 12-year-old, making the isolation and abuse he faced even more frightening.
Following the abuse, Nick Battiola said he sank into a deep depression and was admitted to a mental health crisis center.
“I just wanted to die because my brain was so screwed up and I didn’t know how to get over this,” he wrote in his letter to the court.
Disability organizations have few places to turn
For organizations like Disability Rights Wisconsin, there are few places to look for funding replacements.
VOCA is important to crime victim service providers because it is one of the most flexible federal grant programs available. Unlike other federal grants, which often come with very specific rules about how the money can be allocated, VOCA funds can be spent on crime victims of all ages and demographics.
One of the reasons why Disability Rights Wisconsin no longer takes cases involving young children is because youth are more likely to be covered by other local and federal grants, Rosen said. For that reason, the organization is also shifting away from domestic violence and sexual assault cases.
“We had such a limited pool of money, and we already had cases we had to keep,” Rosen said. “That was the way for us to more formally narrow what we could do, but that really leaves a ton of people out.”
The VOCA funding drops are hitting amid sweeping cuts and rule changes to other federal grant programs.
Nationally, the Trump administration has sought to cut federal funding for disability-focused legal advocacy organizations from $148 million to $69 million for the 2026 fiscal year.
This year, the abrupt reorganization of the Administration for Community Living, an agency serving older Americans and people with disabilities, caused several disability organizations to lose funding for victim advocates specifically focused on older adults.
Disability Rights Wisconsin does not know if the Administration for Community Living grants that supported its Medicare assistance program and other advocacy efforts will continue beyond this year.
As various pots of federal grants disappear, competition for funds from the state and local philanthropic organizations is intensifying.
Malin said there is pressure to prove that the needs of Disability Rights Wisconsin’s clients are greater than others, or that the services the organization provides are better. In reality, she and Rosen said nonprofit leaders regularly gather on phone calls to strategize ways for everyone to get funded.
“I feel like sometimes funders want us to compete with each other, and the truth is that we are all very needed,” Malin said. “There is no excess of advocates out there.”
An advocate enters the picture
Shortly after disclosing the abuse, Nick Battiola was connected with Malin.
During countless meetings and phone calls, Malin let him air out his frustration and confusion and offered guidance on how to navigate his mental challenges and relationships.
For more than 25 years, Malin has worked with abuse victims whose complaints were initially brushed off, or who felt unsafe sharing their story to authorities. Just 19% of sexual assaults against people with disabilities are reported to police — half the rate for those without disabilities.
Malin said people with disabilities are often spoken to or treated like children. Investigators sometimes assume they are incapable of communicating their story, and interviews are conducted quickly without using techniques that allow for clear details to emerge.
When caregivers are responsible for helping someone clean themselves or put on clothes, that can make cases harder to prove, she added. As estimated 40% of violent crimes against people with disabilities are committed by acquaintances or people they know well.
After Nick Battiola reported his abuse to law enforcement, Malin frequently nudged prosecutors to take it more seriously, his family said.
In March 2025, after five years of court hearings and counseling sessions, his caregiver pleaded no contest to second-degree sexual assault, a felony. She was sentenced to one year in prison and five years of extended supervision.
To celebrate the closing of his case, Nick Battiola got a tattoo on his right leg that reads, “Never give up.”
Since his case concluded, he has worked alongside Malin to develop a curriculum for people with disabilities to navigate healthy relationships. Their bond persists even though the client-advocate relationship has ended.
“I would go to her for anything in the world,” he said.
A hopeful, but unclear future
On Dec. 2, Rosen got an email.
Just a month prior, she and dozens of other nonprofit leaders had applied to the state’s supplemental crime victim funding program, hoping get a fraction of the $20 million available.
The email said that Disability Rights Wisconsin had been accepted.
The $573,700 state grant allows the organization to provide legal and advocacy services to victims of any type of crime, just like VOCA. It runs through September 2027.
All of the staff positions it can support will be temporary, but Rosen said it will make a tremendous difference. She is hopeful that two or three more employees could be added to the victim advocacy team in the new year.
“If you had told me in January that I would feel optimistic, I would have really been shocked,” she said.
The fix is not permanent. The organization will need to continue applying for grants to remain stable beyond 2027. With a new governor and legislative leaders stepping into office, Wisconsin’s next budget cycle brings more possibilities – and questions.
But, for now, Rosen says she’s grateful for the extra time.
Tamia Fowlkes is a Public Investigator reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She can be reached at tfowlkes@gannett.com.
This article was reported through a fellowship supported by the Lilly Endowment and administered by the Chronicle of Philanthropy to expand coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is solely responsible for all content.