#WeekInJustice: Week 209
We return to the Weekly today after a short break, due to the pace we’ve been keeping here at the People’s Office.
I’ll give you an idea:
Two Fridays ago, we had our hands quite full with three different homicide prosecutors at three different homicide scenes, simultaneously. While the number of homicides overall remains at a much better rate post-COVID, that day was record-setting for us, to say the least.
Last week Friday was a much better kind of busy where I had the chance to sit down quietly with Dennisse Ley, the Executive Director for Homicide Survivors, and then joined up with our Victim Services Division at our annual National Victim’s Rights Week gathering to thank our volunteers and to lift up their extraordinary work. We are continuing to both celebrate and re-calibrate at the 50-year mark of our Victim Services.
On April 15, we joined the group Invisible Tohono, and representatives from the City of Tucson, the Tohono O’odham Nation, Pascua Yaqui Tribe, local and tribal law enforcement and other community partners for the first work session of the Southern Arizona Task Force for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples (MMIP). The goal of the meeting was to make recommendations for sharing data and reviewing current methods of identifying missing persons cases in tribal communities, while also finding gaps in existing victim services, updating policies and creating solid accountability measures.
The two-year process in which PCAO will continue to participate, will result in a report to both City and County officials to review and take action on to address this issue that plagues our native friends and neighbors.
Last, but certainly not least, I have long said that it is very difficult to lift up the work of our Civil lawyers and staff because so much of what they do is privileged legal work for the County. But I can express profound gratitude for the late-night work of Dan Jurkowitz and Sam Brown on Monday night when at 4:50 p.m., we learned that a member of the Board of Supervisors would not be attending the meeting the next morning. It wasn’t just any meeting; it was the meeting to select a new Board member to fill Supervisor Grijalva’s vacancy. Legal research ensued for hours to determine every possible angle regarding quorum, majority and super majority vote requirements, to make sure the Board would have every available tool. And a warm congratulations to new Board Member Andrés Cano. We look forward to working with you, Supervisor.
To be continued,
Laura
