In The News

Week honors victims and survivors of crime
By Elaine He
The Bronx Beat
Columbia University
eh2365@columbia.edu

April 11, 2008

Minerva Colon knew she needed help when she considered throwing her daughters out of a window. Leola Graves-Hayes finds herself thinking about pulling the lever on an electric chair. Maria Ortiz would like to murder with her bare hands.

Colon, Graves-Hayes and Ortiz are the collateral damage of gun violence in the Bronx. Each had a relative killed.

“I lost my son over an egg,” said Graves-Hayes, who explained that her son was shot pointblank three times in the chest because he had thrown some eggs at the wrong person.

Ortiz’s son was found shot in a car. No one was arrested for his murder.

Burglars pistol-whipped Colon and shot her husband in their bedroom after he pushed her to safety.

(Watch the slide show about these three families.)

They all reacted to the trauma in their own way. While the criminal justice system has left Ortiz feeling powerless over her son’s unsolved murder, Graves-Hayes has made legislative reform her mission. She is organizing a trip to Albany on April 14 to urge lawmakers to create a law that will identify murderers in a neighborhood, similar to the way Megan’s Law identifies sex offenders.

Colon’s life has taken still a different turn. Almost a year after her husband’s murder, Colon’s daughters told her that they hated her.

“‘You know, I hate you. You should’ve died. Not my father.’ I started laughing. I couldn’t cry,” she said.

Colon threatened to open the window and throw them out, and claim temporary insanity.

“That’s what woke me up. That’s when I realized that I needed help, and with my daughters. I was focused on me; I didn’t realize my daughters were getting angrier.”

Colon called Safe Horizon, a nonprofit organization that works with city departments to aid crime victims. She and her daughters have been in therapy for the past six years.

The week of April 13 is Crime Victims’ Rights Week, which recognizes the suffering and courage of crime survivors like Colon, Graves-Hayes and Ortiz, in addition to bringing public awareness to the rights and services available to crime victims.

“It’s the only time in the year where all crime victims come together,” said Beth Ann Holzhay, director of Bronx County District Attorney’s Crime Victims Assistance Unit.

Victims of crime are not only suffering from trauma, but they are stigmatized as well, said Holzhay. They are often isolated and have feelings of guilt or shame; society treats them as if they were doing something wrong to bring the crime on themselves, said Holzhay.

Crime victims — whether they have been assaulted, robbed, stalked or harassed — have rights, as do family members of victims, said Vilma Torres, director of homicide victims programs at Safe Horizon. They include the right to speak to the court at sentencing, be notified if the offender is released from jail and apply for financial assistance to cover funeral, medical, counseling and transportation expenses, said Torres. Crime victims and their families can find detailed information on their rights at the New York State Crime Victims Board Web site at www.cvb.state.ny.us.

Holzhay emphasized that immigration status is never checked and bilingual services are available. Undocumented crime victims have rights and are eligible to receive assistance. Often, a woman may stay in an unsafe relationship because her partner is threatening to revoke sponsorship, she said.

“They could say, ‘You leave me and they will deport you,’” Holzhay said.

Crime Victims’ Rights Week will begin with the 23rd annual candlelight vigil from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the West End Collegiate Church at 368 West End Ave. in Manhattan on April 13. The program includes a keynote address by Andy Ostroy, the husband of the murdered actress Adrienne Shelly, music performances by artists from the Metropolitan Opera and New York Philharmonic and a video featuring the stories of crime survivors. Organizers are expecting 200 to 300 people to attend.

The Bronx Committee for National Crime Victims’ Rights Week is sponsoring a display of the Bronx Clothesline Project from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and a survivor’s tribute from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Eugenio María de Hostos Community College at 475 Grand Concourse on April 15. See a slide show of the Bronx Clothesline Project, which displays T-shirts created by crime victims, their family or friends. For more information, visit the Bronx District Attorney’s Office’s Web site, bronxda.nyc.gov, or call 800-862-2637.

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