Morris County Officials Highlight Rights Of Crime Victims

MORRIS COUNTY, NJ - The Morris County Board of Freeholders have designated April 7-13 as Crime Victims’ Rights Week 2019 in Morris County, calling attention to trauma faced by survivors of crime and honoring those who help them deal with the aftermath of crime.

Deputy Freeholder Director Heather Darling joined Morris County Prosecutor M. Knapp, Prosecutor’s Victims Witness Unit Coordinator Donna Pasquariello, Sheriff James M. Gannon, and other county law enforcement officials and police chiefs, at special event held Monday in Morristown to raise awareness about the impacts of crime on victims.

Veteran news reporter Brian Thompson of WNBC-TV in New York – and a New Jersey resident – addressed the audience this morning at the invitation of Prosecutor Knapp.

A special guest was Laurie Parks of Randolph, whose teenage daughter, Jennifer, was a fatal victim of crime in 2005.

Freeholder Darling, in her remarks, spoke of the work that has been done on behalf of crime victims over the past several decades in Morris County, efforts that pre-date the enactment of the Crime Victims Bill of Rights, which became part of the New Jersey constitution in 1991.

“To victims and survivors of crime, I would say that justice simply means that you are treated with respect---that you are listened to and actually heard," said Darling. “It means that you will have a voice in vital decisions that are made in relation to your cases, as well as to your lives."

She also lauded the prosecutor Knapp’s staff as leaders in the movement to have victims and survivors of crime treated with dignity and compassion, and to have their most important needs identified and addressed.

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