Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner will reconvene the Crime Victims Advisory Committee, a group of residents that was formed to advise his office on the best ways to support crime victims and witnesses.
The panel was established in 2018 – just months into Krasner's first term – but it dissolved during the COVID-19 pandemic. It gives crime victims, their family members and witnesses a role in creating policies involving victim services. The group also provides peer support to other people affected by crime.
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The committee was disbanded during the pandemic because it could no longer function in-person or in the ways it had previously, Krasner said at a press conference Tuesday morning.
"It is my intention to get this group up and running very quickly," Krasner said.
The committee offers counseling, explains court proceedings to victims and witnesses, and keeps people informed about trial dates and when offenders are being released from custody.
The district attorney's office plans to review applications for the committee and have the 20-person panel in place by April 1.
Krasner was joined at the news conference by a group of mothers who lost children to violence over the years.
They included Danielle Oglesby, whose 23-year-old daughter, Dominique, was killed in a shooting in 2018 at a restaurant in West Philadelphia after an argument turned violent. Oglesby was a few months away from graduating from Penn State University. Her father and grandfather also were injured by gunfire after they attempted to intervene. Danielle said she lives with post-traumatic stress disorder and described the fallout of gun violence as a "lifelong situation."
"The traumatic effects are damaging, especially to know that at any point my grief can take over me," Oglesby said. "It is so disheartening that we go through that on a daily basis."
Phyllis Gibson said the help she received from victim advocates was invaluable after she lost her son, John, in a shooting.
"They came to my house to comfort me. They left me with resources, and at that time everything was a blur," Gibson said.
Krasner said he decided to relaunch CVAC because his office continues to see the need for peer resources for people impacted by crime in Philadelphia.
"I appreciate the pain that they go through daily and have gone through," Krasner said.
The original CVAC was overseen by former state Rep. Movita Johnson-Harrell, who resigned from office in 2019 amid allegations that she stole money from her nonprofit and used it to pay for personal expenses. Johnson-Harrell reached a plea agreement and spent three months in Philadelphia County Prison.
Johnson-Harrell became one of Philadelphia's most prominent victim advocates after she lost her father, brother, two sons and a nephew to gun violence over a period of several decades. Krasner said Tuesday that Johnson-Harrell will serve as a consultant for the reconvened CVAC, but will not formally be on the committee.
Johnson-Harrell said the services offered by the committee help grieving families and can play a role in reducing crime.
"Victims will be creating policies specifically for victims," Johnson-Harrell said.
In addition to the CVAC and other services available through the district attorney's office, the Philadelphia Police Department has victim programs and the city has the Office of the Victim Advocate.