Ok, here's what I wrote the first time that didn't post:
9 years ago my husband and I witnessed domestic abuse at a small JW gathering. My best friend's brother got drunk (found out later he was an alcoholic, I think he was 21 at the time). His fairly newlywed wife said something jokingly to him that he didn't like, he yelled at her which got everyone's attention so we all saw him push her into the tall china cabinet which almost fell on her -- glasses and china fell all over the floor. The closest people to her were able to catch the hutch. He then drove off drunk extremely fast. The real kicker? his wife had had open heart surgery the week before and he pushed her in the chest!
This abuse went on for two years, so up until 7 years ago. We didn't live in the same town, but we heard from my parents and his brother (my friend) of other instances of him hurting her in private and in public. Also 2 or 3 DUI's, I think he lost his license for quite a while. Finally he got so bad that his wife ran to a JW neighbor's house where he tried to break down their door and then tried to break a window, wouldn't leave when they told him to, and stood screaming at her on their porch while the neighbors watched. They called the police and he spent a night in jail and that is what finally got him df'd (since it was a ministerial servant's house he was trying to break into to get at his wife).
So yeah, they did something about it after two YEARS of having other JW's witness his crazy abusive behavior and report it to them. The first instance at least three of us separately went to the elders. He was reinstated within a year...