Janet Fine (left), executive director of the Massachusetts Office of Victim Assistance, presents Kara Hayes with the Access to Justice Award at the State House. Hayes and Trooper Anthony Alestock (in background) received the award, presented annually to those “whose leadership and outreach efforts have made victim rights and services more available and accessible to underserved populations.”
Boston, April 11, 2012—Three members of Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley’s office were recognized at the State House today for their work on behalf of the victims and survivors of violent crime.
The Massachusetts Office of Victim Assistance honored Kara Hayes, the chief of Conley’s Victim Witness Assistance Program, and Trooper Anthony Alestock, a State Police detective assigned to Conley’s office, with the Access to Justice Award, which is presented annually to those “whose leadership and outreach efforts have made victim rights and services more available and accessible to underserved populations.”
Hayes began her career at the DA’s office 20 years ago with an assignment at Dorchester District Court, where she served as the sole victim-witness advocate in New England’s busiest jury trial session. She went on to supervise advocates in the Juvenile, Gang, and Homicide units. Upon taking office in 2002, Conley tapped Hayes for her current assignment, in which she directs and oversees about 30 victim advocates in nine district courts and 10 Superior Court trial teams.
“At the same time she was providing personal service to dozens of clients at a time and supervising a team of fellow advocates, Kara found ways to increase the quality of her work and the effectiveness of our office,” Conley said. “Guidelines she drafted became policies enacted office wide. Relationships she built with colleagues at other agencies became informational bridges that we simply couldn’t work without today. And even while she trained with the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center as a hotline operator to better understand and serve the victims of sexual violence, she still found time for her clients. Kara was and remains the rare advocate who can forge a connection with a victim or survivor prior to arraignment and carry it all the way through to trial and the inevitable appeal.”
Alestock has been a State trooper for more than 16 years, with past assignments as a drill instructor at the State Police Academy, on the State Police SWAT team, and in the Mounted Unit prior to his assignment to Conley’s office last summer. His primary duties on the Suffolk County State Police Detective Unit involve the investigation of homicides and other violent crimes in Chelsea, Revere, Winthrop, and State property within the City of Boston.
Alestock was nominated for his work investigating the January rape of a homeless woman in the Prudential tunnel. The victim reported the incident a day after the attack and was transported to a hospital but left before a sexual assault evidence collection kit could be conducted. Alestock undertook a search for her, eventually locating the woman and convincing her to have the rape kit performed. Moreover, he continued to maintain contact with her and even tracked down additional witnesses – also homeless and equally difficult to locate – and convinced them to testify before the grand jury.
“Through his efforts and his commitment to the victim, Trooper Alestock affirmed a central tenet of our office philosophy,” Conley said. At the heart of every case there is a person, and every person – wheover they might be, whatever their station in life – matters to us.”
Also recognized today was Jennifer Sears, celebrating her 10th consecutive year as a Suffolk County victim-witness advocate. Sears is currently assigned to Conley’s Gang Unit, where she recently led the DA’s office – and likely the Commonwealth – in Witness Protection Fund petitions for victims, witnesses, and families in danger of retaliation for cooperating in the prosecution of gang-related shootings and homicides.
“Whether it’s a gang member reluctant to betray the code of the street, a sexual assault survivor reluctant to face an assailant again, a child caught up in the aftershocks of an adult’s terrible crime, or any of the countless people who need help in a time of need, our victim-witness advocates are the ones who build the connections allowing them to find the strength to take the stand,” Conley said. “Time and again, that testimony hasn’t merely won a conviction in court: it’s empowered the victims and shown them resilience they didn’t know they had.”
