Center more than advocate for crime victims

Kim Smith

Thursday, May 11, 2000 | 11:10 a.m.

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Marlo Cole thought she knew how American justice worked. She'd been a juror. She'd watched TV. Then her mother was murdered.

"I was lost," Cole, 32, said. "Going through the system was a traumatic experience. It was frustrating. It was like being victimized all over again."

Thank God, Cole said, for Barbara Schell and the rest of the people who work in the Victim Witness Assistance Center in the Clark County district attorney's office.

They explained the judicial process, calmed her fears, listened to her gripes and held her hand when the man who beat her mother to death was sentenced to 10 years in prison as part of a plea bargain.

"Sometimes the prosecutor was too busy to return our calls and we always got an answer from our advocates," Cole said. "It may not have been the answer we wanted to hear, but they always got back with us."

Schell, program administrator, said the assistance center was started in 1979 with the help of a Department of Justice grant. At the time, it was one of nine prosecutor-based programs in the country. There are now close to 5,000.

Prosecutors had been getting increasingly frustrated at their inability to try certain cases because victims were daunted by the criminal justice system, didn't have child care and couldn't get to court.

Clark County's advocates now help with those issues in addition to making referrals to social service agencies, helping victims get compensated for such things as medical and funeral expenses and lost wages and seeing that seized evidence is returned to them.

"In a lot of ways we act as a social service agency in a legal setting," Schell said.

Last year Schell and her eight advocates provided 250,000 services, ranging from making telephone calls to providing appropriate courtroom attire to holding someone's hand during a hearing.

"We help them through the journey, and some of the journeys are real short and others are real long," Schell said.

Sometimes the journey doesn't end when the defendant is sentenced, either, Schell said.

"A lot of times there is tremendous depression after a guilty verdict," Schell said. "Even if it's the outcome they want, the depression can be overwhelming. In murder cases, their loved one still isn't there and they no longer have the trial to live for."

On the flip side, advocates also have to handle victims who are angry when a defendant is acquitted or doesn't get a sentence they feel is adequate, Schell said. Often, those emotions can even be directed at people within the system -- police officers, prosecutors and judges -- making the situation that much thornier.

"We just let them know it's OK to be angry, and we try to direct their anger away," Schell said.

Every state's victim witness program is different, but Schell said she is proud of Nevada's because it is about so much more than sending out letters updating people on upcoming hearings.

"We don't just generate paper," Schell said. "We provide services. We're here. We are a human voice."

Providing emotional support isn't just about lending someone your ear or talking to someone in a soothing voice, though, Schell said.

"The most important thing we do is provide information," Schell said. 'Once we give them information, we empower them. When you're victimized, you lose a sense of control, and when we can give them information, we put them back into the driver's seat, so to speak. We give them back that sense of control."

District Attorney Stewart Bell said he is constantly being thanked by people who say the advocates made their tragedies tolerable.

"I think the trial procedure could function without the advocates, but many of our victims could not," Bell said. "We work very hard to see that a person who has been victimized once isn't victimized again during the court process."

Schell received high praise from Bell, who joked that her picture is next to the definition of victims advocate in the dictionary.

When it became apparent that 30 percent of the homicides in Las Vegas were the result of domestic violence, Bell said Schell was the one who made sure her advocates received specialized training on the phenomenon.

Schell's staff knows exactly the right thing to say, whether it's a child who has been abused or a woman who was sexually assaulted, Bell said.

"As we've had to specialize so has the victim witness program," Bell said.

Bell said everyone in Schell's office has a special gift.

"They deal with the most difficult of issues and the most traumatized of people, and they do a great job," Bell said. "I think my office owes them thanks, and so does the community."

Chief Deputy District Attorneys Doug Herndon and Gary Booker described the advocates as "phenomenal." The prosecutors, who head up the special victims unit and the vehicular crimes unit, respectively, said the advocates are unsung heroes.

Herndon recalled a case in which two sisters -- the grandmother and great-aunt of a murdered baby -- didn't agree about who was responsible for the little girl's death, the baby's mother or her boyfriend.

The victims advocates were able to provide emotional support to both sides and maintain a calm courtroom, which was no small feat, Herndon said.

If not for the victims advocates, Booker said he wouldn't be able to go about his daily routine -- running from courtroom to courtroom, researching the law, writing and filing motions and disposing of cases.

Bell and his prosecutors appreciate just as much the work Schell's office does with those witnesses who live 100 miles or more from Las Vegas.

Unlike any other program she's aware of, Schell said she and her co-workers book flights, make hotel accommodations, ensure witnesses get their witness fee and see to any other needs.

"If we didn't bring in out-of-state witnesses or victims, we wouldn't be able to go forward on the counts charged," Schell said, noting that prosecutors try to carefully weigh the importance of a witness's testimony with the costs involved.

Clark County is the size of New Jersey, and that combined with Las Vegas' tourist industry and transient nature means many out-of-town witnesses, Schell said.

According to the district attorney's office, this year's budget for out-of-town witnesses exceeded $1.5 million.

Last month alone 600 subpoenas were sent out, although not all of the cases went to trial and not all of the witnesses ended up testifying, Schell said.

Cole said even though the assistance center is always busy, she knows her advocates are still there for her. She's counting on them being there when her mother's killer comes up for parole.

"It helped to know that people don't have to be in that situation to care, that there are people who understand the victim's point of view and the justice system," Cole said.

Kim Smith covers courts for the Sun. She can be reached at (702) 259-2321 or by e-mail at kimberly@lasvegassun.com

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