Crime Victims

A nonprofit organization and Anne Arundel County prosecutors are staging their second annual foot race Nov. 7 to benefit a fund to provide crime victims with emergency financial help.The Victims' Fund has provided about $3,000 to four crime victims since January. It has bought tires for a woman who could not afford to replace her vandalized ones and needed a car to get to work. It also paid part of a medical insurance premium for an assault victim, said Maureen Gilmer, victims-witness coordinator for the Anne Arundel County state's attorney's office.

With $8,200, a fund to give immediate financial help to crime victims in Anne Arundel County is open for business.The second local victim assistance fund in the state, it is the only one operated jointly by a prosecutor's office and a nonprofit community group."

E. Virginia Mahoney, a longtime advocate for victims of violent crime who suffered her own terrible loss when her stepdaughter was fatally shot in 1997, died Tuesday of colon cancer at her Baltimore County home. She was 57 and lived in Phoenix.Mrs. Mahoney, known as Ginny, began what became her life's work in 1977, after she accepted a position as a paralegal and victims' services coordinator, the first such position in the state, in the Baltimore County state's attorney's office."I was looking for a person who had the ability to relate to other people and could bring solace to those during such troubled times," said Sandra A. O'Connor, Baltimore County state's attorney and a lifelong friend who grew up with Mrs. Mahoney in Catonsville.

Parole meeting should show signs of remorseNathaniel Johnson Jr., an award-wining writer serving a sentence for armed robbery and attempted murder, did not demonstrate an attitude in June 3 Opinion Commentary article that would convince me to vote for his parole.Mr. Johnson, be advised that "cheap politicians" were not the ones who came up with the idea of allowing crime victims to be present at parole hearings. Crime victims and their advocates lobbied legislators for the right to participate and then fought for enforcement of these rights.

WASHINGTON -- America's crime victims, who have long felt rudely shoved aside when the government prosecuted their offenders, are suddenly gaining visibility and influence in the process.They insist they do not want veto power over how prosecutors deal with criminals, but they do want a voice -- and they want a guaranteed chance to observe throughout. More and more, that's exactly what they are getting.When Timothy J. McVeigh goes on trial in Denver later this month in the bombing of Oklahoma City's federal building, for example, victims' families back home in Oklahoma will be able to watch on closed-circuit television.

When justice in one of Baltimore's most sensational murder cases gets meted out tomorrow, who will have decided the killer's fate? The prosecutor, the judge or the family of the victim?Those questions are at the heart of a pending plea arrangement in the killing of a Johns Hopkins University student.They are also at the center of a nationwide debate over just how much influence families of crime victims -- who are steadily gaining power in the judicial process -- should have in crafting the sentences of criminals.

Crime victims in Carroll County who fear retaliation will learn in as little as two hours whether their assailants have been released from custody, authorities say.A six-month pilot program, Victim Information and Notification Everyday (VINE), is expected to be up and running in Carroll and Montgomery counties within 90 days."It's an automatic notification project made possible through grants from the state's Crime Control and Prevention Office," said Shirley Haas, director of Carroll's Victim Witness Assistance Unit in the state's attorney's office.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton endorsed amending the Constitution to protect the rights of crime victims, saying they should have as many rights as accused criminals in the courts."

Donna Dillon knows what it's like to be a victim.In the early 1970s, Ms. Dillon said, she endured marital abuse -- then she was rocked by a devastating blow in 1990 when convicted rapist John Thanos shot and killed her 14-year-old daughter and two others in a Labor Day weekend crime spree.After the burst of media and public attention following the murders, and the trial and eventual execution of Thanos in 1994 -- Maryland's first in more than three decades -- Ms. Dillon found herself abandoned to deal with feelings of loneliness, grief and depression.

In a continuing effort to expand their legal rights, crime victims are pushing a bill in the legislature that would allow them to speak at their assailants' parole hearings.Supporters say the measure would permit victims to explain how crimes have affected them and express fears about a criminal's release."I'm not asking for any more rights for victims than criminals have -- only equal rights," crime victim Sue Mathis told the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee this week.Ms. Mathis' former husband is serving 30 years for nearly stabbing her to death with a hunting knife in 1986.

Last year, Baltimore police decided to pursue a potentially wince-inducing task: asking victims of crime if they thought the department was doing a good job. The results may surprise some: A majority of crime victims - 63 percent - were satisfied with the police response to their emergency calls. But most were frustrated with the follow-up, and nearly half said they plan to move out of their neighborhood in the near future, according to results of a survey conducted by the Baltimore Police Department.

A convicted armed robber and drug dealer who received $42,000 in help from a state fund that assists crime victims failed to appear at a court hearing yesterday in Baltimore, prompting a warrant for his arrest. Deandra M. Gaskins, 31, of South Baltimore was scheduled to appear in Baltimore District Court on a charge of marijuana possession stemming from an arrest in February. The warrant, issued by Judge Charles A. Chiapparelli, was the third issued for Gaskins this month. Warrants also were issued after he failed to show up at a hearing on an alleged probation violation and at a trial on drug charges, court records show.

Tears rolled down Thelma Watts' face as she watched the flame of a lavender votive candle flicker inside the glass holder she held in her hands. The flame represented just a small way to commemorate the life of her son, Anthony Owens-Smith, who was killed in Columbia nearly two years ago. About 40 people gathered last week at the county government complex in Ellicott City for a memorial ceremony for Howard County crime victims. The event, which was attended by officials from the Howard County state's attorney's office and Police Department, commemorated National Victims' Rights Week.

For Phyllis Bricker, a rare tour yesterday through the Supermax prison - where her parents' killer is housed on death row - was the latest step in a painful odyssey as she awaits an execution that has been on hold for years. "My parents are gone, and he's still here," Bricker said while standing inside the fortified building north of downtown, at the state prison complex on East Madison Street. For Lisa Spicknall, whose husband killed their two children in 1999 and was later slain by another inmate in prison in Jessup, there was some relief.

The General Assembly adjourned at midnight Monday after a 90-day session in which lawmakers passed hundreds of bills and rejected hundreds of others. Among the highlights: Elections The Assembly cleared the way for a special election to fill the remainder of Rep. Albert R. Wynn's term without first holding party primaries. Wynn is leaving Congress to join a lobbying firm. Legislation approved late Monday would let the state central committees choose nominees, sparing taxpayers the cost of a primary election.

To commemorate National Victims' Rights Week (April 13-19), a public memorial ceremony in remembrance of Howard County crime victims will be held at 7 p.m. on April 16 at the county government's office complex in Ellicott City. The ceremony will be held in the Banneker Room at the George Howard Building, 3430 Courthouse Drive, followed by a candlelight vigil at the Omar J. Jones, Jr. Plaza adjoining the Carroll Building and the George Howard buildings. Light refreshments will be served.

A state senator from Baltimore County said he will move this week to ban anyone convicted of a felony from receiving money from a state fund that assists crime victims. Sen. James Brochin, a Democrat who sits on the committee that oversees legislation dealing with the fund, said felons do not deserve awards from the Maryland Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, which was created 40 years ago to reimburse crime victims and their families for medical bills, lost wages and funeral expenses.

U.S. cuts funding for crime victims Congress trims funding for crime victims, leaving nonprofits, state and local agencies with the prospect of cutting services. Social Services chief resigns The head of the city's Department of Social Services resigns after repeated criticism of the agency for failing to prevent the deaths of children from abuse and neglect. Illegal-immigrant measure defeated Taneytown's council defeats an anti-sanctuary resolution, but members make clear they support full enforcement of existing immigration laws.

Crime victims in Maryland might have reduced access to services such as counseling and shelter because of cutbacks in federal aid. For the second straight year, money distributed to the states from the Justice Department's Crime Victims Fund will decline. As part of the recently passed omnibus spending bill, Congress capped disbursements from the fund at $590 million - $35 million less than was spent the year before. Maryland is expected to receive slightly more than $6 million for victim-assistance programs in the 12-month period that began in October, a drop of 17 percent from a peak of nearly $7.4 million two years prior.

After 14 canceled court dates and nearly 900 days since a former neighbor was charged with capital murder in her mother's 1988 slaying, Jennifer Shereika Scott wrote the latest trial date in pencil. Out of frustration, she and her brother, Dan Shereika, made a request unprecedented in Maryland: They asked a judge for an expedited trial date for the man accused of the crime, Alexander Wayne Watson Jr., and - short of a dire emergency - to stick to it. Their right to attend a trial was being compromised, they argued.