Victims in the Criminal Justice System

22 November

• Remedies for crime victims:
  1. Amy Siever: DOJ victim/witness support, informal victim rights grievances
  2. Jennifer Rhodes: DOJ victim/witness support, informal victim rights grievances
  3. Bruce (?): AAJ at DOJ; formal victim rights grievance process
  4. Mike Fox: the Ken Kratz case
• Most counties have a victim-witness office in the DA's office. Trempeleau has one elsewhere, Sawyer does not have one at all yet.
• Different counties take victims' rights with varying degrees of seriousness. More populous counties tend to be more responsive-- probably because of better training, more exposure, more funding (county victim/witness folks are often wearing several hats). Also, some DAs (especially in smaller counties) have been there since pre-1989 when § 950 was adopted.
• Some prosecutors may kind of fear victims, and therefore keep them at arm's length.
• Victim impact statements can be submitted into the court file after the fact, if for some reason they weren't allowed to take place in court.
• LEOs can't threaten witnesses in sexual assault cases with a lie-detector test.
• About 5,000 calls per year, less than 10 go on to the formal victim rights board, which is about 30-50% of those who have been told they could go to the crime victim rights board.
• Rights board hearings have 5 officials. They listen to the victims, and are not afraid to ask pointed questions of officials. Someone appointed by DA's association; someone from crime-victim council; citizen appointed by governor; AG appoints a victim-witness person and a LEO person.
• The process:
  1. Get whatever documents were gathered during the informal process
  2. Send the complaint to the respondent and get their side of the story
  3. Make a probable cause determination (err on the side of moving cases forward) and send it out
  4. Often there's not much factual dispute, and the parties will just stipulate with them and accept whatever remedy the board sends out Otherwise there will be a hearing about any contested facts (they've had 39 cases since 1998, and 12 of those have gone to hearings). Hearings are under WI administrative code (evidentiary hearings). Victims may be represented, but no representative is appointed for them. Often there's an advocate (not necessarily a lawyer, just someone who is there for support). DAs are entitled to representation at no cost, and the governor appoints special counsel for them; local law enforcement might get county corporation counsel, or nothing. Decisions are appealable to the circuit court.
  5. Remedies include private and public reprimands, actions to seek forfeiture of $1K, refer judges to judicial commission. Decisions are just by majority, although there has only been one non-unanimous result (1 person wanted a more severe remedy).
• The board can insert itself to seek equitable relief if it appears a victim's rights are about to be violated. The process pretty much keeps this from happening, even though the board is pretty excited about the possibility. The board doesn't make OLR ethics complaints, but in the informal process, victims are informed that they can do so.
• AB 232: potential grant of victim standing.
• The board issues reports and recommendations for the edification of all, and usually these grow out of a case they've addressed.
• Obstacle to civil remedies: because most crimes are intentional, an insurer won't cover, and an employer won't be liable. So you've got to show negligence in hiring or something.
• You can sue the state for state-created dangers in federal court. Of course you've got to get past qualified immunity, so you need to show that they were on notice that their act would result in harm to constitutional rights.
• In 4,000 pounds of law, there's not one ounce of love.