PROJECT TO AID CRIME VICTIMS: Center collects decisions to help civil recoveryAuthor(s): Paul MarcotteSource: ABA Journal, Vol. 73, No. 11 (SEPTEMBER 1, 1987), pp. 20-21Published by: American Bar AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20759479 .

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PROJECT TO AID CRIME VICTIMS Center collects decisions to help civil recovery

In April of 1986 Jeanne Clery, a

19-year-old freshman at Lehigh Uni versity in Bethlehem, Pa., was raped and then fatally strangled in her dor mitory room by another student who was on a drunken rampage.

Her attacker, Josoph Henry, was sentenced to death. In a civil suit filed this spring in Montgomery County, Pa., Clery's parents and her estate sued not only Henry but also various Lehigh University officials for $25 million in damages.

The Clery case is one of a grow ing number of instances where crime victims and their families are seeking to expand civil liability beyond the persons who committed the crimes to include third parties.

20 ABA JOURNAL / SEPTEMBER 1, 1987

Helping the Clerys and others re search the case law is the Crime Vic tims Litigation Project, established in April by the Sunny Von Bulow Na tional Victim Advocacy Center in Fort Worth, Texas. It has tabulated and collated roughly 3,500 appellate court decisions dealing with civil suits brought by crime victims.

Frank Carrington, an attorney in Virginia Beach, Va., has been respon sible for collecting and organizing the cases and law review articles about victims suits. He reviews advance sheets from courts around the coun

try, to keep the data base current. Carrington, a past chairman of

the ABA's Victims Committee and a member of President Reagan's Task

Force on Victims of Crime, said the new data base is the only such cen tral clearinghouse in the country.

For the Clery suit, Carrington checked the cases on university lia bility. The suit alleges that the uni versity knew of security problems at the university and failed to provide adequate security at Clery's dorm. Henry had entered the building through a door which had been propped open.

The suit also alleges that the uni versity knew or should have known that Henry, who worked in the uni versity's maintenance department, had a "history of violence, alcohol abuse, and mental illness." Prior to the murder, Clery had been disci

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ABA project receives grant

The Sunny Von Bulow National Victim Advocate Center has provided $95,000 to sponsor the ABA's Criminal Justice Section's Attorneys Victims Assistance Project.

The one-year project, which began last December, produces and distributes a manual for attorneys assisting victims. It also works with state and local organizations to encourage the delivery of legal assistance for victims.

-?Paul Marcotte

plined for throwing a rock through a

glass dormitory door. "Carrington flooded me with

cases on victims' rights," said Joseph Fioravanti, a Media, Pa., attorney representing the Clerys. He described Carrington as "invaluable as a re

source person."

Carrington has another booster in Richard Roble, a Clarkston, Ga., at torney who is trying to have a vic tim's suit reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

"The material that Frank fur nished us I don't want to say wouldn't have been discovered, but it would have been after a great deal of com

puter expense, research fees and time," said Roble.

The Crime Victims Litigation Project provides research at no charge for lawyers who handle victims cases on a pro bono basis. Otherwise, they charge $100 per hour.

Carrington said the cases on file range from government liability for failing to protect victims or to pre vent crime, to negligent handling of prisoners and mental patients. Other subjects include the liability of land lords, innkeepers, schools, hospitals, landowners and common carriers, and employment-related cases.

The Sunny Von Bulow center is a not-for-profit, tax exempt organi zation founded in 1985 through ini tial $1.7 million trust grants from Sunny Von Bulow's children. They established the trust as a tribute to their mother and to victims of violent crime.

?Paul Marcotte

ABAJ/Wide World

GENDER BIAS? Sharp dissent in visitation decision

An appeals court let stand a de cision reducing an Iowa man's visit ation rights because he was not a "breadwinner." But the only female judge participating in the appeal dis sented in a stinging rebuke.

The Iowa Court of Appeals in a 3-3 split decision on March 31 af firmed the result, but not the reason

ing of the trial court. Judge Rosemary Shaw Sackett,

in her dissent joined by Chief Judge Leo Oxberger, urged the court to eliminate gender-based biases from its opinions.

In the lower court, Marion County District Judge Thomas Brown restricted Dale Peterson's rights to visit his son, Jeremy, because Dale is an unemployed househusband.

"It wouldn't be a good role model for him, because in our society, it is still accepted that the husband and father is the breadwinner and works and that is the role model that Jer emy should have unless he is going to be socially crippled when he is an adult," the trial court said.

Sackett condemned the trial court ruling, saying such stereotypes are unfair to men and harm women

seeking careers.

"The court," she wrote, "must be

willing to disregard stereotypes and recognize the freedom of both men and women to make their own decisions about family care and employment out side the home. The court must be sensitive to the rights of both men and women to consider family responsibilities in making job decisions. We cannot es tablish one set of guidelines

mothers and another set of guide- '

lines for fathers. "There is no basis to determine

a father who leaves the family home each day to enter the workplace pro vides a better role model for his son than does the father who has aban doned the traditional father's role to assume homemaking and childcare responsibilities."

The appeals court judges who supported limiting visitation rights

for Dale Peterson reasoned that the prior decree meant that Jeremy, now 8 years old, would be shifted between parents too often. The judges also noted that Dale and his former wife, Caren, were unable to cooperate.

The original divorce decree and stipulation provided that Dale Peter son could visit Jeremy every other weekend and whenever he was not employed.

At the time, Peterson worked full time at 3M Company on a varying shift of two days on and two days off. He was fired in November 1984 for refusing to work overtime.

Caren Peterson petitioned for modification because her former husband could conceivably visit her child every day under the terms of the decree.

The trial judge agreed to modify visitation and limited Dale's visits with his son to every other weekend and part of summer vacation.

Dale Peterson is seeking an ap peal before the Iowa Supreme Court.

?Debra Cossens Moss

V^HH Da,e ^ j^^^B Peterson

ABA JOURNAL / SEPTEMBER 1, 1987 21

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