Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance – help balance the scales of justice

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We need help with the proposed Victims’ Rights U.S. Constitutional Amendment!

COVA needs your assistance in contacting your U.S. Representative or Congressman/Congresswoman’s Office and vocalizing your support for the proposed Victims’ Rights U.S. Constitutional Amendment for Crime Victims!  It is time to rally the troops and support what we all believe in and work for!
SIGN A PETITION AND/OR CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE:

There is an online petition supporting the Victims’ Rights Amendment on the NVCAP website.  There’s a “Sign Petition” link on the Web site:  www.nvcap.org.

Please encourage everyone you know to sign the petition and put a link to the petition (http://www.nvcap.org/phpPETITION/index.php) on your agency’s website.  We need to get hundreds/thousands of signatures!

CALL:

As always, paying  their own way, Collene, along with nationally known crime victims attorney Steve Twist, went to D.C. this month.  Excitingly, they were able to get a commitment from the Chair of the Judiciary Committee, Lamar Smith,   that if we obtain 100 Representatives/Congressmen/Congresswomen  (we already have 12) to co-sponsor the proposed Victims’ Rights U.S. Constitutional Amendment, they will take it to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote.  We have 435 Representatives/Congressmen /Congresswomen  in the U.S. House of Representatives to draw from, therefore we should be able to accomplish our goal.

We victims have worked and waited a long time for this opportunity to help balance the justice system!  We would like to make our goal and stimulate a vote prior to the election.  We feel  it important that our representatives openly declare in their vote if they support only the criminals having rights in our Constitution or whether they feel victims should be treated equally and fairly!  Hopefully you are ready to “stand on the gas” and get your Representative/Congressman /Congresswoman and any other folks who can contact their representatives to become a co-sponsor of 2012 H.J. Res. 106, introduced March 26, 2012.

If we who have lived it and are knowledgeable crime victims don’t make it happen, no one else will!  Don’t let future victims down. Thirty years ago, in 1982, President Ronald Reagan’s Victims’ Task Force said the Constitution must be changed to include victims’ rights. Had others before us done what we’re committingto do, we all would have lived much better lives. Let’s change history and do it for others.  We have attached the “Directory of the U.S. House of Representatives” with the states in alphabetical order so you can  move forward.

Directory of the U.S. House of Representatives
Suggestions for Contacting your Representatives:

Make a call to your U.S. Representative/Congressman /Congresswoman’s Office staff  and ask to speak to their Legislative Aid.

1.  When the intern answers the phone:

“Hi,  my name is _____________ and I’m a victim of violent crime (or I know people who have been victims.)

The reason for my call today is to respectfully ask that Rep./Congressman /Congresswoman)  ________  would consider co – sponsoring 2012 House Joint Resolution 106, which is a U.S. Constitutional Amendment  to protect the rights of crime victims.”

2.  So if they say they will pass the message along:

Then you may want to ask: “Is there a legislative aid (LA) who would handle this type of call?”

3.  And they would generally say “yes,” and look for the name. When they give the name:

a. Get the correct spelling of the name (for future reference and for email purposes because all House emails are  ( FirstName.LastName@mail.house.gov).  Many times they offer the email address which is a good double check of the correct spellings of names.

b.  Also, ask to be connected to their voice mail to leave a message as an initial cold call exposure so when the follow-up email comes they will recognize it.  The voice mail message could be:

“Hello, my name is ____________ and sadly I know the horrors of crime and the imbalance of our justice system, ______________.  The reason for my call today is to respectfully ask that Rep./Congressman /Congresswoman  __________________  co-sponsor 2012 House Joint Resolution 106, which is a U.S. Constitutional Amendment to protect the rights of crime victims.    If you would care to return my call, my number is _____________or you may get additional information at nvcap.org [generally using the N-as in Nancy, V as in Victor….for clarity].  We would truly appreciate any consideration that the Congressman/Congresswoman could make toward this very important resolution.”

4.  If you happen to get a legislative assistant on the phone, you might wish to say:

“Hello, my name is __________ and I have been deeply involved with crime and crime victims, ___________.  The reason for my call today is to respectfully ask that Rep./Congressman /Congresswoman co-sponsor the badly needed 2012 H.J. Res. 106  U.S. Constitutional Amendment  to protect the rights of crime victims.

[If they don’t cut you off, then say….] While any amendment to the Constitution must be considered very carefully, the accused criminal has 23 rights under the Constitution while victims have NOT A SINGLE RIGHT.

**It is good to note that: “This resolution is being sponsored by Rep. Trent  Franks, Republican from Arizona and Rep. Jim Costa, Democrat from California and we are also asking for your co-sponsorship as well.  [And if they are still engaged…]  If you’d like more information, you can go to nvcap.org.”
new COVA Logo

More Information:

Please contact COVA with any further questions or inquiries.  COVA believes strongly in this proposed Victims’ Rights U.S. Constitutional Amendment and we ask you to please help us!  Keep us posted and let us know your success with this vital effort as you become a part of history in helping our nation!
COVA
90 Galapago St.
Denver, CO 80223
303-861-1160
800-261-2682

August 7, 2011 the 6th day of Morgan’s stalking

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Morgan heard no tapping tonight – it was quiet, we hoped this is the end of all of this stress…boy were we wrong! Here is a picture of baby Wylah at that time.

Today on August 7, 2012 I think back:  It has always been so amazing to me when I look at what a kind and wonderful woman Morgan had grown into.  She never complains, even at age 19, at having to come home to have dinner with her father and I, she enjoys going on vacations and “adventures” with us, involves us in her daily life’s journey, and is always right there when we need her to lift our spirits, by playing her keyboard and singing, baking a cake, blasting her music, and dancing through the house (she loved being silly), taking us for a walk, putting on some random movie that she knows we will enjoy, or just quietly walking up to us, putting her hand on our back and saying, “don’t stress, everything is going to be OK.”  We really miss her!  She would bring a bunch of her friends over to cook or bake or watch movie, or all three at the same time.  They would play on my Conga drums, laugh and fill the house with joy.  We miss that now.  Her friends come by to visit us now and we love seeing them so much, but we can see even for them there is always something missing….Morgan.

Click here to read about the 7th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=486 

ADDITIONAL RESOURCE ON STALKING FROM COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY WOMEN’S PROGRAMS AND STUDIES

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Additional Resources

For excellent information on stalking, including stalking behavior logs, safety plan guidelines, and a complete handbook for victims, contact the National Center for Victims of Crime Stalking Resource Center online at www.ncvc.org, call 1-800-FYI-CALL (M-F 8:30 AM – 8:30 PM EST), or e-mail gethelp@ncvc.org

A survey of university undergraduates revealed that 20% had been stalked or harassed by a former dating partner. (Haugaar & Seri 2004)

More than one million women and nearly 400,000 men are stalked annually in the United States (U.S. Justice Dept. 1998)

 

THE START OF MANY THINGS WE DID WRONG IN MORGAN’S STALKING CASE

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How did her stalker always know right when Morgan came home?  He always started his tapping and banging on her window within 15 minutes of her arriving at her house.  This is a very important question as the Sheriff’s Patrol Officers later on believed it had to be someone in our neighborhood that could see her coming home.  The Sheriff’s suggested that we not speak to our neighbors about what was happening, in order to give them a better chance of catching this stalker off-guard if he was in our neighborhood…the problem with this tactic is that if more people in your neighborhood know, the more eyes you have watching out for you, it makes it harder on the criminal to sneak around, and it is easier to catch the criminal, but we did not know at the time so we took the Patrol Officer’s suggestion and tried to keep it quiet for the time being.  

A little later on when we captured the first picture of the stalker and there were Sheriff’s Patrol Officers parked all around our house not all the neighbors could be kept in the dark any longer.  One of them just stormed up our driveway and demanded to know what was going on.  He also stopped and spoke with one of the officers.  So a couple of them did find out, which was good because right after that happened  we came the closest (in my opinion) to catching the stalker…but you will read about that on August 29th.