Victims rights week marked

By Rob Scott
The Daily Item

April 18, 2008 08:28 am

— SUNBURY — Most victims of crime are never fully compensated for their suffering.
Despite significant strides in improving victims’ rights over the last few decades, “most victims never receive the full value of their loss,” Northumberland County District Attorney Tony Rosini said during a speech in Cameron Park on Thursday afternoon to recognize National Crime Victims Rights Week.
The Pennsylvania Victims Compensation Assistance Program was established in the 1970s to help victims ease their financial burdens in the wake of a crime. Rosini said money from the program — which is funded by fines and penalties collected from defendants — can be used toward counseling costs, funeral expenses and child care.
“But paying the cost of a funeral will not heal the emotional wounds the family of a victim suffers,” the DA said.
Rosini recognized the Susquehanna Valley Chapter of Bikers Against Child Abuse for efforts to fill “that void of emotional healing” and awarded the group a citation for its work with children.
BACA was established by former president Steve Rohrbach after the death of 4-year-old Marlee Rose Reed, who was beaten to death by her stepfather, Brentt Sherwood.
Marlee’s grandparents, Melvin and Donna Reed, helped found the group in 2005. Mr. Reed, the current president, accepted the citation.
“It’s a real honor,” Mr. Reed said afterward.
Mrs. Reed said their work with BACA has helped them deal with their own loss.
“It’s been very good therapy for us, though it gets emotional sometimes,” she said. “We continue on to help the children because it’s with the children the rest of their lives. Just because the trial’s over ... the children still need somebody.”
BACA will hold the fourth annual Marlee Reed Memorial Ride on May 4, which was Marlee’s birthday.
Victim witness coordinators Candace Armstrong and Lori Buttorff said the biggest part of their job is keeping the victims informed about the latest developments in their cases.
“They’re taking back control ... It’s empowering,” Buttorff said. “Probably the harder things are just trying to get people to understand the system.”
The two deal with victims of all kinds of crime — from shoplifting to murder — and Armstrong said it can be difficult, with the more serious cases, not to get emotional.
“You have to be compassionate anyway ... Just striving for the goal of putting that person whole,” she said, “even though that’s not the right word, because you can never put them whole.”
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