For us, we know from having done this work with lowercase lows that when we have the opportunity to speak to generally the woman but the victim in the case and build that relationship through an advocate, an investigator or an attorney we see much higher interest in prosecution, and a much High Conviction rate as a result of that. Commissioner shorter. It in clarify for those watching from home who jean is . Not everyone knows. So you can be on tv too. Good evening my name is jean roland,managing attorney for stalking, Domestic Violence and physical elderly abuse. I do have a question for you both. Just to clarify, while you are working under staffed in terms of your ability to provide all services, as we would like to victims, just to clarify, it seems the weight in which victims become engaged with the advocacy organizations of those programs providing Services Including shelter and beyond, that first link really comes through the District Attorneys Office. Unless the victims themsel
In Domestic Violence by its nature is committed by a person that they deeply loved. We are asked to navigate to personal relationships. One of the huge challenges we face are delays in bringing cases to trial. We have three attorneys. We have to finish one trial before we can begin the next. We have extended exposure to their batterer and maybe change your mind about wanting to proceed. With changes in the law it is extremely difficult for us to continue with the prosecution without evicting that is interested in proceeding. In the past with call Police Officer and the relay what information they took at the scene that is no longer acceptable as evidence. Without the vacant you often dont have the ability to put together the evidence to persuade a jury. It is critical for us to keep the victim engaged in the process, one, for his or her safety but ultimately to secure an outcome that will protect them in the longterm. To do that our office, and jean should be commended for this, requir
Very difficult to maintain that. As we know it is not just the perpetrators who continue to have power and control over the victims but there are families and relatives out there for the defendants who also apply a lot of pressure on the victims. I think that one of the most crucial points in prosecuting dv cases is when the victim begins to turn away from us, the prosecution. I honestly believe t we need more resources because at that point in time it is not a matter of us letting these cases go. I think we have defined other means to be able to pursue these cases even when victims dont always cooperate or even when they dont come in to testify i have to believe that it is not always because they are not telling the truth. I think a lot of it has to do with recanting, minimizing, and quite honestly they are very dependent on their abusers. There are a lot of different situations. It is incumbent upon us to find out what those reasons are before we let these cases go. So we need more r
From linda young. Pieces of evidence floating or a longtime. I imagine everyone is trying to get the bad guy. There are pieces floating around, not everything came together. Thankfully to the dogged persistence of especially when linda young, being able to pull the pieces together we are pretty much there. There will be more tweaks coming along. Good evening commissioners. Thank you for inviting the city Administrators Office. My name is linda young, deputy city administrator. I will discuss quickly the justis project. The transfer of function to the city of ministers Administrators Office which occurred in march, 2011. Our mission is to support the criminal Justice Department and need to share information in compliance. The justis project is to provide sharing data get abilities, provide individual Case Management system to address departmental Business Needs for the Police Department, the Sheriff Department, District Attorneys Office, public defender, adult probation and to connect t
Requires that we contact every single victim personally and we do that the attorney. Jean goes to the file, gets a round of calls, she assigns them to the attorney, they give around calls, and we try to maintain the level of communication with the victim and bring them in to the victim advocates who will be to the victim either at the hall of justice or other places, often in peoples homes or in another safe place that they feel is appropriate. We really try to be accessible and available to the victims in a way that is most comfortable to them. However in the process, as we have particularly seen in the last less than six months the change in the public defenders assignment of the cases, our caseload makes it almost impossible to keep that level of touch with the victims and we are seeing a dramatic increase in the number of victims that are uninterested in proceeding when we arrive at the point of trial. For us, we know from having done this work with lowercase lows that when we have