Tulsa Woman Helps Form Crime Victims' Advocacy Group

Associated Press Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- After her daughter was brutally murdered, Catherine Doak endured years of emotional loss and grief that she worked through alone without the support of victim service counselors and advocates.

"No one contacted me. I had nowhere to turn. I had no idea where to look," Doak said. "It's a lonely place."

Doak's experience is not unique. A report issued last summer by Attorney General Drew Edmondson's office indicates a lack of resources and referrals for victims of violent crime and their survivors is the most compelling complaint they have about Oklahoma's criminal justice system.

Some of the 114 victims and survivors who participated in the needs assessment report said they reached suicidal levels of depression and never received a referral for services by law enforcement officials, prosecutors or others in the state's criminal justice system.

"A lot of these cases, they go on for years. And there's no contact person," Doak said. "I really, really thought our case had slipped through the cracks of our system."

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Authorities hope to do a better job for crime victims by convening the Victims Assistance Academy, the first organized effort in Oklahoma to provide specialized training to law enforcement officials, health care professionals and others in the victims services field.

Funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, the academy's goal is to increase the number of victim service providers, improve their skills and raise public awareness of the needs of victims of violent crime and their friends and family members, said Assistant Attorney General Susan Krug, chief of the attorney general's Victim Services Unit.

"There is a need nationwide to provide this foundation-level learning," Krug said.

The first academy, scheduled in June at East Central University in Ada, will include 50 participants including law enforcement, health care and legal professionals as well as victim advocates.

Instruction during the weeklong academy will include intense and advanced academic training on assessment skills, crisis intervention and how the criminal justice system works that providers will need when working with the victims of violent crime, Krug said.

Teaching participants to become compassionate listeners will be harder.

"How do you teach that?" she said. "So many things you cannot teach. They need that listening skill. They need that ability to communicate."

The needs-assessment report, released last June, found that, of the 114 victims and survivors who participated, 52 -- or 46 percent -- reported receiving some kind of victims services.

But some of those who received services complained that it was not always helpful. Some experienced victim-blaming behavior from service providers and a lack of follow-up services and referrals outside of the victims-service agency or victim-witness coordinator's office, the report said. Krug said an important lesson that service providers must learn is to not be judgmental with the victim of a violent crime.

"A lot of people come into this with their own baggage," she said. "People don't get that, even the ones that work in the profession."

Doak, one of the crime victims and survivors who participated in the needs assessment, said she concurs with its findings.

"I agree 100 percent. I had nothing, my family had nothing," she said.

Doak's daughter, 24-year-old Victoria Lynn Knight, was murdered on June 5, 2004, while working as an assistant manager at a payday loan business in Tulsa. Doak said she was beaten and stabbed to death by a man who robbed the business.

"It was very, very violent," she said. But police had no suspect in the case until 2007 when DNA tests on blood evidence left at the scene by the perpetrator provided a link to a man who was already serving a sentence in state prison.

"We went for a long time without even a suspect," Doak said.

In the meantime, homicide detectives did not return her phone calls and the Tulsa County District Attorney's Office did not provide her with a victim-witness coordinator until formal charges were filed.

"For three years, I had nothing," Doak said.

In March, a Tulsa County judge sentenced Anthony McClanahan, 39, to life in prison with the possibility of parole for Victoria Knight's murder. McClanahan originally was charged with first-degree murder but the count was reduced in a plea agreement.

Doak's experience in the case prompted her to launch her own victim advocacy program through the chaplaincy of the Tulsa Police Department to help the victims and survivors of solved and unsolved crimes work through their grief and emotional pain.

"I've started talking to other families of victims of violent crime," Doak said. She said she tried to direct them in the stages of their grief and emotional feelings as well as the protocol of court procedures.

"I started trying to fill the gap that I was missing in my case," she said. "I had no contacts. That's why I think its so important that we have advocacy groups. Because they are so alone, they're just glad someone has taken notice of their situation and tried to help.

"I'm there for them. If they need to talk, then we can talk."