 Jessica Wong and I am going to be your host for today. Today we are talking about victim services victim services and national crime victims rights week. Here I have with me is Jeff Reisig, Yellow County's elected DA and also Laura Valdez, Yellow County's victim services director. And we also have Aloha here who is our comfort dog at victim services. Welcome. Thank you. Thanks. So I wanted to start off this conversation by talking about the history of victim services in Yellow County. Yellow County started out with the victim services program back in the mid 70s where actually there was a program that was established that was more for the assistance of being able to help victims know or witnesses know when they were going to have to be coming in to testify. These people would also provide them with transportation to bringing them to court. It wasn't until 1981 that California legislation required all of the counties within California to have a victim services program. And Yellow County started their very first victim services program, kind of the bones of what it is right now in 1981. And Jessica, I wanted to jump in and talk about the evolution of victims rights over the years. I mean, there was actually a time in California where victims didn't have the right to even go into the courtroom during a trial. You could have somebody who was a victim of rape or somebody whose family members were murdered, and they weren't allowed in the courtroom except in very specific cases. So we've come a long way from that. I mean, there was also true that domestic violence victims weren't allowed in court in a lot of cases. Yeah, I apologize. In some cases also, they would be put on the court stand and would not be given a break. So there was a lot of things that were taking place where it was important to recognize rights that victims have. So part of the evolution in California over the last few decades has been not only the evolution of the laws which give victims rights now into the Constitution in California, but also the creation of units like Lora's, which specifically service victims. Wow. Okay, so you spoke about the evolution of California and laws, but can you speak about the evolution of victim services in Yellow County and how that came about? Of course, Yellow County Victim Services in the past, I started there in 2000. And in 2000, when I first came on board, not all cases were being referred to victim services. It happened that cases were, it was mandatory that cases be referred in 2006. Once we got our new elected DA, Honorable Jeff Reisig, one of the big things that he's always advocated for is victim rights and making sure that the victims are aware of what's happening in the courtroom. So it was then that cases would start coming through to victim services. And I'll jump in. This is a team effort with Lora and I. Lora runs the victim services unit. I oversee the whole office, but we file thousands of cases every year, somewhere in the neighborhood of five to six thousand criminal cases. And each one of those cases can and often does have a victim associated with it. And what Lora's job is is to take care of those victims to make sure they understand their rights in the process, to make sure there's somebody there to comfort them and offer them services, whether it's, you know, mental health counseling, whether it's some, they need money to pay the rent because the crime has prevented them from working. There's a whole litany of things that we now do for thousands of victims every year. And what Lora doesn't tell you is that I think in the last few years you've been servicing about two thousand victims of crime. Exactly. We're at the beginning. I mean, when I first started, our case load was maybe of about 300 victims per year. Right now our case load is definitely taking quite a jump for the same reason that Jeff has very much put victims as a forefront, victims as the center of a prosecution. And the reason for that is just pretty simple. You know, when you're a victim of a crime, whether it's rape or robbery, burglary, or even, you know, sometimes property crimes, which a lot of people don't think have an impact on the victim. But if somebody breaks into your house, that can be very terrorizing. So we want to make sure that these people are taken care of from the moment the case comes to our office. And that's what Lora does. Her team does. And we're just really so proud of their team. Yeah, that's very great. So how do people know these services? How are they eligible? How do they get these services that are offered? So once a case, once a crime occurs out in the community and law enforcement is called, police will go out and write up a police report. Those reports are then referred over to the district attorney's office for review to see whether charges are going to be placed or not. Not every case ends up in the victim services program. Ultimately, it's up to the victims, whether or not they want the services. Of course, we encourage people to use the services because they're there. But it's up to them. I mean, the victim has always has the right to say yes or no. And as you heard, I mean, we're still servicing thousands of victims every year. So we're plenty busy and we don't have enough staff. But they do a great job. The services are free of charge. So there is no limit on, you know, economical, you know, we have economic social economical status, people from all cultures, colors, everything free of charge. And but like Jeff says, victims have the right to say, yes, I want your services or no, I don't. But as you can imagine, people don't plan to be victims of crime. So when a crime occurs, that person's life gets flipped upside down. And we're there to be able to help them find a new normal. One of the things Laura and her team have been great at is reaching out to the underserved populations, victims in communities that may naturally have some hesitation about working with the police or law enforcement. And over the last several years, we've really been proactive about going out and making contact with people in those communities and building relationships so that there's trust so that when, you know, God forbid they are a victim of a crime, if somebody at the community is a victim of a crime, they trust us and come to us and work with us. Yeah. Wow. So you're mentioning services. And since we have Aloha here today, I was wondering, is Aloha included in those services? So Aloha is a comfort dog for victims of violent crime. She will go with victims to court whenever they have to testify or also whenever they're being interviewed by the investigations. If there's a question about how the prosecution is going to take place and there's a question about something that happened where law enforcement wasn't very clear on it, the victim might have to come in and talk about their victimization again. Aloha is there to be able to comfort them, to make them feel more at ease. And she has a skill about her where she is able to recognize when somebody is anxious, where when she feels somebody with anxiety or sadness, she will go up to them and comfort them. So she's worked very well. She's been working with the program now for almost five years. Aloha is an awesome dog. She's actually our second comfort dog. We had a comfort dog start with us in 2007. Seven. And we were one of the very first DA's in California to do that. And part of that's because we love dogs. But it's been really awesome especially for those cases involving children. So I want to just switch gears here and talk about National Crime Victims Rights Week. Is there, can you elaborate on it and let us know the significance about this event? Of course. So actually I'll start with President Reagan, believe it or not, where he wanted victim rights to be more aware and more out in the community's eye, in the nation's eye. And he started National Crime Victims Rights Week. Yolo County started commemorating and recognizing our victims through National Crime Victims Rights Week in the year 2007, was when it started. We had our very first program at that time. And it started out very small. But every year, you know, our main focus is definitely to put the focus back where it belongs on the victims. Yeah, this is a community event. So what we do is during the whole week, we're honoring victims and bringing public awareness to victims rights and victims of crime. But on one particular day, we have a presentation during the lunch hour, which this year will be on April. April 9th. At noon and Woodland and the at the Woodland Opera House. The Woodland Opera House. So this will be our 12th year. And what we do at this event is, again, we're bringing public awareness to victims, the struggles that they've endured. And we're talking about specific individuals who were victims in a lot of cases and having their family members there, because it takes courage to go through the process and bravery and perseverance. And it's just heartbreaking when you hear some of the stories about how people were victimized and what they had to do really to get to the end of the process. And one of the victims we're going to be talking about this year is Ronald Antonio. And Ronald Antonio was worked at a tire shop. He was a good man, came from a large family in Woodland. And in 2016, he was brutally murdered by gang members in Woodland simply because they mistook him for a rival. He was completely innocent. He just happened to be in the wrong place when he crossed the path of the wrong men. But we're going to talk about Ronald's story. His case went to trial this year, last year, and those individuals were convicted. But Ronald Antonio is the victim of a homicide. We're going to have his family there. We're going to have his friends there. We're going to talk about the process that we went through to get justice and honor the family for having the courage and the perseverance to really endure the process, which is no easy task. Yeah. So I just wanted to repeat for our viewers, so when is this event and what time is it? Our 12th annual National Crime Victims Rights Week will be held on Monday, April 9th, at noon at the Woodland Opera House. And I would like to take this opportunity to invite the entire community to come join us. It is a very meaningful event where we honor and we commemorate people that have been victimized in Yolo County. Okay. And the Yolo County District Attorney's Office is the one that puts on this event? Yes. It is the Yolo County District Attorney's Office. Okay. Well, this is all the time that we have, so I would like to thank you for being here today. If you would like more information about the Yolo County District Attorney's Office, you can visit their website at www.yoloda.org or their Facebook, Instagram, at yolo.da, or Twitter, at YoloDA. Thank you so much for watching. Bye.