Anaheim’s Family Justice Center to Be Tribute to Abused Child

He had been a firefighter and paramedic for 29 years, so Richard Chavez had seen his share of horrific scenes. But nothing hit him quite like the sight of 13-month-old Samantha Rose Gutierrez’s lifeless body on the floor of a cramped bedroom.

Chavez, now an Anaheim councilman, still visits the child’s grave four years after she starved to death. He is haunted by the abuse and neglect she endured and the utter failure of local agencies to notice her suffering and declining condition.

But lately, Chavez has had something to lift his spirits. In early October, Anaheim will open the Family Justice Center, a help center for victims of child abuse, domestic violence and sexual assault. The center will also offer educational programs on how to recognize signs of domestic abuse. Child-care advocates and law enforcement officials say such a facility might have saved Samantha’s life.

“If her suffering eventually saves some other children from suffering, then that was her purpose on this earth,” Chavez said as he fought back tears. “She was a soldier.”

For Chavez, the justice center represents a meaningful end to a terrible tragedy. But for Anaheim Police Chief John Welter, the facility is an extension of what he helped create in San Diego four years ago: an effective tool in fighting domestic violence.

“I wanted to see a collaborative approach to dealing with family crimes,” Welter said. “They are complex and tend to lead to further street crime as people live in these conditions.”

The justice center concept is catching on nationally and internationally. A 2003 initiative by President Bush helped create 15 centers throughout the country -- the facilities in San Diego and Anaheim were not part of that program -- and similar centers were recently opened in England, Canada and Mexico.

The facility in San Diego has already had a significant impact. Since it opened in 2002, the annual domestic homicide rate has dropped nearly 50%, from nine to five.

The increase in the number of victims served has been impressive. In its first month, the center served 87 victims and fielded 650 phone calls. Last month, there were 1,014 walk-ins and 4,000 phone calls.

The Anaheim project started too late to be covered by the president’s initiative, so much of the funding has come from the city. A $500,000 state grant paid for start-up costs, but the $4.1-million annual operating budget will come from the city’s general fund.

The night he was confirmed as chief in March 2004, Welter began gathering support for a justice center during a meeting with Chavez and Lorri Galloway, director of the Eli Home shelter for abused woman and children who was elected to the council later that year.

Lt. Bob Conklin, the justice center’s director, said previous councils might not have been as eager to back a center that will give free care to many low-income families and undocumented residents of Anaheim and other north Orange County communities.

“We had all the right people in all the right council seats at the right time,” said Conklin, who is also president of the center’s nonprofit arm. “We’ve always done a good job of arresting and prosecuting and putting these guys away for a long time. But we haven’t been as effective with prevention and education.”

In the months after Samantha’s death, Galloway and Chavez were critical of the Police Department, which had visited the Gutierrez home three times before she died.

“Once John Welter took over, I saw a very different attitude in the department,” Galloway said. “We had someone in charge” who made family crimes a priority.

Modeled after the San Diego facility, the Anaheim center is in a residential neighborhood near Harbor Boulevard and the Santa Ana Freeway.

The two-story structure, which was an office building for decades, doesn’t look or feel like a police station. In fact, all 20 police personnel work on the second floor.

In the death of baby Samantha, the circumstances were far different. A grand jury report blamed a lack of communication among Orange County agencies for failing to recognize a pattern of abuse. Two years ago, Samantha’s mother was sentenced to eight years in prison for child abuse.

In memory of Samantha, Galloway and the Eli Home are donating a sculpture of an angel holding a baby that will be placed in the center’s main lobby.