Program Provides a Caring Presence in Court : Aide Is There for Victims, Witnesses

It was late Friday afternoon and the San Fernando Courthouse was almost deserted. But Juanita Arreguin was hard at work, flipping through drawer after drawer of court files to prepare for her cases the following Monday.

In court, however, she would not be making any legal arguments or speaking on behalf of her clients. She would be sitting quietly in the audience, doing her job just by being there.

For many, the courthouse is an intimidating place where they are shuffled around by bailiffs and attorneys and bombarded with legal jargon. Arreguin’s job as the victim services representative is to take the mystery out of the criminal justice system and ease fears.

The Victim/Witness Assistance Program in Los Angeles County was started in 1977 by then-Dist. Atty. John Van de Kamp to protect the rights of victims and witnesses.

There are four Victim/Witness Assistance offices in the Valley. The one in San Fernando is one of two operated by the district attorney’s office; the other, at Van Nuys Courthouse, has two representatives. The city attorney’s office likewise operates two victim-assistance offices, one at Van Nuys City Hall, the other at the North Hollywood police station.

Talks to Victims, Witnesses

Arreguin makes it a point to talk with victims and witnesses when they first meet with district attorneys.

“A lot of people don’t know their rights in court,” Arreguin said. Many victims who incurred medical expenses or lost wages because of injuries do not realize that they are entitled to state disability payments, she said.

Thomas Haak of Sylmar, a cable installer who was bedridden for six weeks after being stabbed in a bar, said he had not realized that he could recover lost wages. With Arreguin’s help, however, he has received about $700 from the state victims’ compensation fund, he said.

For victims of crime who cooperate with law-enforcement authorities, the fund provides money for lost wages and medical expenses.

For the dozen or so people who file through her office each day, Arreguin is administrator, teacher, baby sitter and friend rolled into one. She performs services that range from driving a witness home to offering a tissue to a tearful woman witness.

Witnesses and victims often do not know what to expect once they have been called to testify, Arreguin said.

Victims Often Frightened

“They just have no idea how the court system works,” she said. Often the victims are afraid of the defendants, and particularly so upon learning that they will be facing the defendants in court. Arreguin said she has to explain that the defendants have a constitutional right to confront those who accuse them.

Arreguin remembers a woman, a stabbing victim, who was terrified of a group of defendants. When the woman came into the district attorney’s office, “she was shaking like a leaf” and would not answer questions, Arreguin said. Arreguin spoke to the woman, a Latino, in Spanish.

“As the trial progressed, she got very comfortable with me and told me things that she hadn’t even told the district attorney or the detective,” Arreguin said. She confided that the defendants were threatening her out of court, “breaking into her house and leaving messages that she was not to testify,” Arreguin said.

Arreguin told the woman that, for her own good, she must report the threats to the district attorney. Also, as an officer of the court, Arreguin said, she is obligated to report any information she obtains that would be pertinent to a trial. The woman agreed that Arreguin should make the report because “she felt that she could trust me,” Arreguin said.

Spanish Essential

Arreguin said that, if she did not speak Spanish, her job would be very difficult because she would need interpreters about 65% of the time.

In many cases, witnesses or victims just want a familiar face in the courtroom, Arreguin said, so she makes a point to be in the courtroom as often as she can, postponing such tasks as filing reimbursement claims and counseling victims and witnesses.

“Most people are extremely uneasy taking the witness stand,” said Billy Webb, head of the district attorney’s office in the San Fernando Courthouse. “She has a calming effect on them.”

A deputy district attorney recalled how Arreguin calmed a woman who became hysterical and refused to testify after learning that her husband, who had beaten her nearly to death, would be released on bail. Arreguin listened to the woman’s fears but persuaded her to testify against her husband, the deputy said.

Not Always Comforting

Arreguin can not always offer words of comfort, but sometimes words are not the only way to help, she said.

“Sometimes you will sit and cry with somebody,” Arreguin said. “Sometimes you’ll hug them so tight because you feel that they need to be hugged. I don’t want to separate my emotions from these people, because they want someone who can feel what they feel.”

But her commitment takes a toll.

“I’m really strong when I’m with them, but sometimes, when I get home, I just want to be by myself because I can’t deal with the constant impact of all these emotional feelings,” she said.

“I don’t watch news as much. I don’t feel I have to constantly be reliving what’s going on at work.”

Knowing how she feels, her husband no longer asks her about her work, she said.

Arreguin mainly advises adults, but she has a special touch with children, said Nancy Lidamore, a deputy district attorney. While the children are waiting to testify or when their parents are testifying, Arreguin sits with them in the hall outside the courtroom, supplying them with toys that attorneys and court workers have donated.

Approach Described

During a child-abuse hearing that involved six children, Arreguin turned the courthouse law library into a playroom where she and a volunteer assistant kept the children amused, Lidamore said. The day before the hearing, Arreguin helped Lidamore take the children through the courtroom, explaining what would happen when they took the witness stand.

Often, people do not understand why Arreguin is helping them, or why she is doing it at no cost to them. One man repeatedly asked her, “How much do I owe you?”

Arreguin said she explained to him, “That’s my job. I get paid to be nice.”