by MCVRC Webmaster | Aug 7, 2023 | Press Releases
Encourages Peers to Join their Support, providing voices for victims
August 7, 2023. Annapolis, MD – Maryland Crime Victims’ Resource Center (MCVRC) is proud to announce the Exclusive Presenting Co-Sponsorship of their Victims’ Rights Gala: Survivor Voices by Grant & Eisenhofer, P.A. and Jenner Law.
Executive Director, Kurt Wolfgang said, “We are honored and humbled to have these two outstanding firms serve as our lead sponsors for this capstone occasion. What a suitable partnership for this year’s gala theme “survivor voices”. These two firms have defended victims’ rights and interests in civil and criminal proceedings, giving victims voices and securing justice.”
Grant & Eisenhofer, P.A. is a national law firm that recently significantly expanded its sexual abuse/survivor’s advocacy practice with the addition of renowned Maryland litigator and survivor, Steven J. Kelly. Mr. Kelly is no stranger to MCVRC. When Steve was 14-years old, his oldest sister was raped and murdered. In the intervening 30 years, Steve became allies with MCVRC as a volunteer and cheerleader, then employee and board member. Mr. Wolfgang said “Steve long has been a voice for victims. His advocacy, assistance and service to crime victims was recognized in 2008 when MCVRC awarded him with the Maryland Champion of Crime Victims’ Award. I am deeply grateful to consider him not only a friend, but an esteemed colleague.”
Jenner Law, headed by Robert Jenner, is a Baltimore-based law firm. Along with Grant & Eisenhofer, P.A., they collectively and creatively harness firm resources and know how to allow victim’s voices to be heard to hold abusers and enablers fully accountable. “Jenner Law is thrilled to share the role of presenting sponsor with Grant & Eisenhofer, P.A. in support of an absolutely indispensable, one-of-a-kind public interest law center, MCVRC, that serves with exceptional skill and deep compassion the citizens of our great state,” said Mr. Jenner. “We’ve been successfully working together on legislation and litigation focused on obtaining justice for victims and survivors,” he explained. “It is only fitting that on September 23rd we take the time to recognize MCVRC and all others focused on survivors.”
Mr. Kelly stated, “All of us at Grant & Eisenhofer, P.A. – literally from coast to coast – are so proud to be affiliated with Kurt, his fearless founder the remarkable Roberta Roper, and his entire team of talented attorneys and advocates who are among the unsung heroes fighting in the trenches for the rights of our state’s most vulnerable citizens. Last year was special as MCVRC marked its 40th anniversary, and this year – as it enters its fifth decade of public service – what could be more fitting than honoring those who overcame what at times seemed like insurmountable adversity to see the CVA finally become law, led by Delegate C.T. Wilson who compassionately and skillfully guided the bill through his committee? His Lifetime Achievement Award, to be presented at the event, is so well deserved.” He added, “We join Jenner Law in encouraging our peer law firms across the spectrum of practice throughout Maryland and our region, and businesses, organizations, and individuals throughout our communities, to join us in supporting the work of MCVRC. The extraordinary services they perform – on a budget that can best be described as ‘modest’ – on behalf of victims/survivors, benefit not just impacted individuals and families, but every aspect of our society.”
MCVRC’s 2023 Victims’ Rights Gala: Survivor Voices takes place Saturday, September 23rd at the Crowne Plaza Annapolis. The event is a fundraiser for MCVRC and will recognize the Lifetime Achievement of the Hon. C.T. Wilson, a survivor of child sexual abuse and fearless leader of the successful fight for passage of the new Child Victims Act (CVA) of 2023; the landmark ‘justice-for-survivors’ law that takes effect October 1st.
Sponsorship opportunities, as well as tickets, for the event can be purchased through the organization’s website.
by MCVRC Webmaster | Jun 2, 2023 | Press Releases
Maryland Crime Victims’ Resources Center honors CT Wilson for his dedication to victims
ANNAPOLIS, MD – Last year, in celebration of their 40th anniversary, Maryland Crime Victims’ Resource Center (MCVRC), formerly the Stephanie Roper Committee, created the Roberta Roper Lifetime Achievement Award. Since her daughter’s gruesome murder in 1982, Roberta has passionately fought for victims’ rights, paving the way for many advocates to follow; therefore, the creation of this award was fitting. In its inaugural year, the award was presented to the then Governor, Larry Hogan and Professor Byron Warnken.
This year MCVRC is proudly presenting the Roberta Roper Lifetime Achievement Award to Maryland Delegate, C.T. Wilson. First as a prosecutor, then over his 12 years in the Maryland Legislature, C.T. has been a steadfast advocate for crime victim-survivors. He has sponsored over twenty important bills improving the treatment of crime victims. One of his most important bills was enacted this year, House Bill 1, which abolished the statute of limitations on civil suits involving child sex abuse.
C.T. has courageously shared his story of being sexually abused as a child to push forward victims’ rights and bring survivor healing to the forefront. C.T.’s ability to show vulnerability while using his voice to speak for those who have been left voiceless epitomizes MCVRC’s mission and values. The impact that C.T. Wilson has made and is making for the victims in Maryland is immeasurable and MCVRC is proud to present this award to him at their annual Victims’ Rights Gala.
The theme for the Victims’ Rights Gala falls in line with the Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime National Crime Victims’ Rights Week theme: Survivor Voices. The Victims’ Rights Gala: Survivor Voices will be held on Saturday, September 23rd at the Crowne Plaza Annapolis. The evening will include the attendance of Roberta Roper, co-founder of MCVRC, a silent auction and moving presentations focusing on survivor voices. MCVRC is seeking additional supporters through sponsorship and looks forward to creating new partnerships with organizations wishing to make a difference for victims of crime.
by MCVRC Webmaster | Apr 5, 2023 | Press Releases
Today, crime victims have won a great victory and struck a blow for truth and justice. For years, victims of child sex assault and the ensuing cover-up by employees of the Archdiocese of Baltimore have courageously battled the church, the government, and their own demons to exact this investigation and its report.
In 2017, the victims of child sexual assault started pressuring the Maryland Attorney General to investigate the systemic sex abuse and cover-up by the Archdiocese. It took the Office of the Attorney General four years to investigate and produce a report documenting over 600 victims of abuse. There are over 180 sex abusers named in the report and evidence of a deliberate organized cover-up by others in the Archdiocese. The report is not an attack on Catholicism, far from it. It is an attack on the lowest form of criminals who would use their positions of authority in the church to satisfy their sexual perversions at the expense of innocent children. The report is also about their vile accomplices who aided and abetted them by concealing the abhorrent sexual abuse of innocent Catholic children. Those who feel as if this effort is an attack on Catholicism should remember that 100% of the 600 plus child victims revealed were good practicing Catholic children.
This report indicates that evidence was obtained implicating at least thirteen employees of the church still living, yet the investigators only report the indictment of one perpetrator. Why? This is a serious concern, and may represent a grave injustice. From the inception of the investigation, our victim-survivor clients made clear to the Attorney General that while the report would have great value, it was more important to indict those accused. Despite being assured that indictments were a top priority of the investigation, only one has been indicted. Why? The focus of this investigation should have been pursuing the guilty. Unfortunately, that appears not to have been the case.
We need answers as to why it appears that the system is yet again failing to punish the guilty and leaving justice unserved and wanting. We at Maryland Crime Victims’ Resource Center are so hopeful that new Attorney General Anthony Brown will intervene to change the culture of the attorney general’s office to ensure that these courageous victim-survivors begin to be treated with dignity and respect, instead of treating them as a necessary piece of evidence in the investigatory process. The indignity of their treatment reached a zenith when it was revealed that, while the victims were kept in the dark about the investigation report, the targets of the investigation, including the Archdiocese (which the Attorney General accuses of serious wrongdoing) were freely handed a copy of the report even before the AG office asked the Court for permission to disclose the information.
Regarding the victim-survivor clients of MCVRC, MCVRC will continue to push for the names of perpetrators, especially those 13 who the Attorney General identified as still living, whose names are currently being protected. MCVRC will seek indictments of any child sex abusers living, and indictments of any who concealed or enabled criminal predatory acts on Maryland’s youth. Many of these victim-survivors have been robbed of their childhood, some died by suicide, and most face lives forever corrupted by the damage done to them at the hands of sexual predators. MCVRC is not in a position to guarantee delivery of a fair and just resolution for the crimes committed against them, but we intend to try. We hope to have the cooperation and leadership of Maryland’s prosecutors in that endeavor.
We know that the release of this information will bring a flood of emotions to those who were victims. As we have done for the past forty-one years, we want to help. Maryland Crime Victims’ Resource Center is the largest survivor organization of its kind in the entire country. We stand ready to help all crime victims in their time of need. We are acutely aware of the needs of those who were victims of sexual assault as children. We know that the release of this report will be a trigger to many, and also an inspiration to many to come forward. If you need assistance, we would be honored to help. Reach out to us, and we will reach out for you. All our assistance is free of charge to victims.
We are proud to have been the trusted voice for Maryland’s crime victims and survivors for forty-one years.
The Full AG Report can be found here
by MCVRC Webmaster | Mar 28, 2023 | Press Releases
MEDIA RELEASE Contact: Sandra Sanna-Buckles
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Public Relations Specialist
March 28, 2023 240-335-4037
ssannabuckles@mdcrimevictims.org
VICTIMS’ LAWSUIT AGAINST MARYLAND PAROLE COMISSION ENSURES VICTIMS VOICES ARE HEARD
LA PLATA, MD – Victims of crime and their survivors established as part of Maryland’s “law of the land” to have their voices heard and to be treated with respect and dignity decades ago, but a new regulation enacted by the Maryland Parole Commission threatened to silence those voices and take away those rights.
In 2021, the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services and the Parole Commission adopted a regulation that would quiet the voices of victims. The regulation in question states that after an initial parole hearing, the circumstances of the crime have a “diminished significance” on the parole commissioners’ decisions for parole. In other words, the seriousness and even brutality of the crime would be considered less, and the record of the offender in prison and rehabilitation would count more. For example, the offender could have tortured their victim, and there may have been multiple victims, but those facts would be of lesser importance. MCVRC worked swiftly to file an official complaint in April 2022.
Although state agencies have authority that allows them to declare their own rules and regulations, the regulations created must remain consistent and not conflict with any existing statutes. The existing statute under § 7-305 states the commission must consider eleven (11) factors to make decisions of each individual case for parole. Three of these factors pertain to victim impact including: 1. an updated victim impact statement or recommendation, 2. any information that is presented to a commissioner at a meeting with the victim, and 3. any testimony presented to the Commission by the victim or victims’ designated representative. These, along with the other 8 factors are weighed against each other to provide a holistic approach to the parole decision. MCVRC argued that the Parole Commission was not free to “de-emphasize” any of the eleven factors. Such a change was the sole responsibility of the legislature, and Judge Monise Brown agreed.
Since the regulation in question contradicts the existing statute, the Judge Brown deemed it was “outside of the scope of the Parole Commission’s delegated legislative power and therefore is not a valid exercise of the Parole Commission’s rulemaking authority”. The findings of this case were released in the attached Opinion and Order of the Court. Kurt Wolfgang, Executive Director of MCVRC states “This decision invalidates the Parole Commission regulation that de-emphasized the circumstances of the original crime in determining parole release after the first parole hearing. We do not know yet whether the Attorney General’s office will appeal this to the Appellate Court, but for the present, Judge Brown’s decision is law. We are very pleased to have struck another blow in favor of crime victims. This is our forty-first year of doing so, and this case ranks among our many great accomplishments for the rights of crime victims.”
by MCVRC Webmaster | Apr 29, 2020 | Press Releases
On April 1, 2019, Maryland’s highest court, the Maryland Court of Appeals, issued a decision (In re: G.R., No. 32, 2018 Term), reversing an earlier decision by the Maryland intermediate appellate court. The decision by the Maryland Court of Appeals better defines restitution for victims.
The earlier appellate court ruling had disallowed restitution for the victim’s cost of rekeying the locks on the victim’s family homes after the victim was robbed of his house keys. That court ruled that the robbery of the victim’s house keys “caused no immediate damage to any of the locks” at the the house.
Maryland Crime Victims’ Resource Center, Inc., prepared and filed a “friend of the court” amicus brief that argued that restitution is proper even when there is no physical damage from a crime and the damage occurs at a place far removed from the scene of the crime, if the crime diminishes the value of a victim’s property, in this case its value providing security.
The Maryland high court set precedent by allowing restitution, not just for new keys to replace the keys stolen from the victim, but also for rekeying his house locks. As stated in the conclusion of the Court of Appeals’ decision, the restitution was allowed because “… the decision to rekey the locks was not an intervening act. Instead, it was a necessary action taken to restore and maintain the sanctity and security of the homes to which the keys belonged.” Consequently, this ruling allows victims to ask for restitution for damages from a crime, even if the defendant is never at the location where the damage occurs, as long as the damage is a “direct result” of the crime.
Russell P. Butler, MCVRC Executive Director, and Victor Stone, staff attorney, filed the MCVRC Amicus brief supporting the crime victims’ right to restitution for the expense of rekeying their house locks.
MCVRC is a statewide Maryland non-profit organization whose mission is to ensure that the rights of victims of crime are fully implemented and that crime victims are treated with dignity and compassion.
by MCVRC Webmaster | Apr 19, 2020 | Press Releases
On Wednesday, April 8, 2020, the Maryland Crime Victims’ Resource Center, Inc. (MCVRC), on behalf of all Maryland crime victims of detained juvenile offenders, filed an Amicus brief in Maryland highest court, the Court of Appeals, in a case called In re J.B. (and other unnamed but detained juvenile offenders), No. 19, 2019 Term. The petitioning juveniles had asked the Court of Appeals, on account of the Covid-19 virus, to order emergency remedies, including outright release for many, without requiring individual hearings in each case and without honoring the rights of the affected crime victims in those cases. MCVRC timely filed its opposition to this emergency request for blanket actions and releases, even though MCVRC was not been served with this court petition when it was filed four days earlier, despite the petitioner’s counsel knowing that MCVRC represents several victims of this class of juvenile offenders.
Treating this petition on an emergency basis, the Court ruled on April 10, 2020, consistent with the position that MCVRC urged. The Court found that there was no jurisdictional basis for it to order broad Covid-19 remedies and releases with no specific record below of the release request in any of the cases, and therefore no opportunity for any crime victims to be heard. Subsequently, on April 13, 2020, the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, exercising her administrative authority, ordered the lower courts to carefully review the custody conditions of any detained juvenile every two weeks, but specifically to honor the crime victims rights when doing so. On April 14, 2020, an article in the New York Times newspaper quoted the MCVRC Amicus brief by name as a factor in the court’s ruling.
MCVRC attorneys representing crime victims have attended and been heard at two recent release review hearings for juveniles denied release, one involving the victim’s death, and those matters will be reheard shortly pursuant to the new administrative guidelines
MCVRC is a statewide non-profit organization whose mission is to ensure that the rights of victims of crime are fully implemented and that crime victims are treated with dignity and compassion. MCVRC (www.mdcrimevictims.org/help) remains open for business, much of it being handled remotely, including free legal representation, grief counseling, and other assistance. MCVRC can be reached, toll free, at 1-877-VICTIM-1.
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