Victims’ Rights Advocate Joins Panel

Collene Campbell of San Juan Capistrano has been appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson to the California Council on Criminal Justice.

Campbell became involved with victims’ rights after years of delays in the trials of the two men eventually convicted in the death of her son, 27-year-old Scott Campbell. His body was thrown from an airplane at 5,000 feet near Catalina Island on April 17, 1982.

In 1988, while Campbell was campaigning for a state victims’ rights initiative--which later passed--her brother, racing entrepreneur Mickey Thompson, and his wife, Trudi, were murdered outside their Bradbury home in Los Angeles County. No arrests have been made in those shootings.

During the investigation of the Thompson murders, Campbell and her husband, Gary, learned that Larry Cowell, sentenced to 25 years to life in prison in their son’s death, had won a new trial. He was convicted again two years ago. Anaheim police credit the Campbells’ investigation into their son’s disappearance as instrumental in the arrest of Cowell and a co-defendant, Donald DiMascio, now serving a life-without-parole sentence.

While campaigning for the victims’ rights initiative on the ballot in 1990, Campbell was also active in supporting Wilson’s gubernatorial bid.