Tulare County quilt remembers 25 violent crime victims

The Tulare County District Attorney’s Office held its annual memorial quilt unveiling in observance of National Crime Victims’ Rights Week.

On April 24, families and friends of crime victims, law enforcement, and other concerned members of the community filled the Visalia Convention Center Charter Oak Ballroom, where memorial quilts from previous years were on display.

National Crime Victims’ Rights Week focuses attention on the millions of Americans impacted by crime, as well as the people who advocate on their behalf.

The DA’s office observes the week by unveiling a handmade memorial quilt dedicated to local residents who died as the result of violent crime over the past year. This year’s quilt, which includes 25 victims, is the 25th such memorial.

Shared experience of loss

The evening’s program began with a welcome from Assistant District Attorney Erica Gonzalez, a presentation of colors by the TCDA Honor Guard, an invocation by Pastor Kyle Sawyer of the Northeast Assembly of God, and a proclamation from the Tulare County Board of Supervisors.

“Before I read the proclamation, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the depth of emotion that surrounds this gathering, an emotion I feel profoundly each time I attend this ceremony,” said Tulare County Supervisor Eddie Valero, who left meetings in Sacramento early to make the presentation.

“For 25 years, these memorial quilts weave together the stories of loss, resilience, and remembrance,” he said. “Each image stitched into these quilts carries the weight of a life taken too soon, and the enduring love of families and communities left behind.

“It’s personal for many of us, myself included,” he continued. “One of the quilts honors the son of the cook at my parents’ restaurant, a young boy from Orosi whose life was cut short by violence in Seville. I’ve watched his mother navigate in unimaginable grief over the years, and I carry Santiago’s story with me today.”

Valero then read the board’s proclamation dedicated to the “23 million Americans (who) suffer from the indignity of crime each year, and many experience emotional, physical, psychological, and financial harm as a result of such crime.”

Roxanne Serna, Tulare County district representative for State Sen. Melissa Hurtado, also made a presentation and shared comments.

“I stand before you not just as a speaker, but as someone who shares in your grief,” she said. “I lost my brother on Dec. 4, 2006. He was a victim of a violent crime, taken from us far too soon. At the time, he left behind a 3-year-old son and an unborn daughter, who never had the chance to meet her father.

“He was a wonderful brother,” she added. “I loved him so much. We were inseparable. I can relate to all your grief.

“It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years,” she said. “The pain doesn’t disappear. It simply changes shape. But what has remained consistent is the support this program has offered to families that find it. For 25 years, this ceremony and the service behind it have created a safe space for remembrance, healing and connection. It means more than words can fully express.”

Creating a safe space for victims

District Attorney Tim Ward then conducted a discussion with his predecessor, former District Attorney Phil Cline, who served from 1992 to 2012, when the victims advocate program became part of the DA’s office and the first memorial quilt unveiling was held.

“We dealt with rape, homicide, child molestation, people killed in drunk driving cases,” Cline said. “During that entire time, you get exposed to the heartache, the tragedy of victims of crime, and then those that are left behind, the families of the victims. From that experience, this ceremony came about.

“Like with my experiences, the experience of our staff, every day was dealing with victims of crime and their families – a mother who’s lost a son, a sister who’s lost a brother, someone who’s lost a baby,” he said. “It was the staff that came up with the idea for doing this ­– the secretaries, the witness coordinators, the victim advocates, the line prosecutors, the investigators.”

Crime victims were not always treated well by the judicial system when Cline started as DA, something that he and the other prosecutors wanted to change.

“When I was a prosecutor and before we started this program, it was not unusual for us to go into court and we’d have the mother who had lost her son to violent crime,” Cline said. “The mother was not allowed to speak to the court during sentencing. The mother of the defendant, the person that did the killing, was allowed.

“We wanted to be the voice for the victims,” he said. “Victims were not treated that well in court. When I became district attorney, I knew that I wanted somehow, some way, to get the victim program into the DA’s office. It was in another department.

“I was approached early on by the board of supervisors asking me to take over another unit that was in another department,” he recalled. “They wanted me to take that over. It was a troublesome unit. I didn’t really want to do it, but I saw an opportunity there. I told them, I would take that troublesome one if you put (victim advocates) in the DA’s office so that we can personally serve the victims of crime.

A deal was made, he said.

“For the first time, we were able to expand the personnel to create the position of victim advocate, to have people that would serve victims and reach out to them and follow up with them,” he said. “We’re dealing with victims and witnesses, and then that’s over. We go on to the next case. But the victim’s family is left with the loss and they need services after the court is over.”

Cline said that the memorial quilts came out of his office’s “desire to stay with the victims of crime after the case was over, to honor them, to not forget what had happened to the families of victims, not forget the losses that they had with the victims of violent crime.”

A guest panel followed the program, which included three women whose loved ones were victims of violent crime. Monica Reyes lost her brother, Gina Moreno lost a son and Alice Aleman Fisher lost her husband.

Honor, remember, talk

Brian Johnson, a former ABC30 South Valley correspondent, gave his perspective on covering crime stories in Tulare County.

“I don’t miss having to call family members or friends of victims of crime, especially the day after that person may have passed away,” he said. “That never got any easier. I didn’t like doing it then, and I don’t ever want to do it again.”

He offered his advice to family members of crime victims about how to deal with the media.

“If you’re a family member or a friend of a victim of crime, just be cautious about folks that are reaching out to you from the media,” he said. “If they’re calling themselves the media, try and do your homework and maybe stick with those more traditional outlets such as ABC30 or the Visalia Times-Delta because there are so many people now that like to say they are media or reporters, but they don’t have a background. They didn’t go to school for it.

“Not to say they can’t be a journalist, but they may not have those values and ethics in terms of telling the best story and the most accurate and fair story,” he said. “I would say it’s easier to say than do, I realize, but as much as possible avoid social media, and I say that knowing that social media can have some really major value for families.”

Johnson’s main concerns are about the comments section that usually follow stories on social media.

“I’ve always kind of seen that as the nastiest place, the ugliest place sometimes on social media and on the Internet,” he said. “There’s not a lot of moderation on there. The comments section can get a little out of control, and if you’re a family member or a friend, you may see something that could affect you negatively.”

But there are reasons to speak to the media, according to Johnson.

“I would say, and I’m biased, but you may want to consider participating at some point,” he said. “Obviously, you want the story to be fair. You want to evaluate if the reporter is going to do a good job of telling the one-on-one story, but I think that it is a way to honor, remember, talk about your loved one.

“For better or for worse, there’s a lot to be said about the state of journalism today, but they can be that voice for you,” he said. “We know that oftentimes victims’ families don’t have an opportunity to speak in the courtroom until a sentencing hearing. That’s a long time in many cases to get to that point.

“If you choose to, and again, it is ultimately up to you to speak with members of the media, that’s your way of using your voice on behalf of your loved one,” he added. “That can be a positive thing.”

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‘No victim will ever be forgotten’

Ward was the final speaker before the new quilt was unveiled.

“Every quilt on display around this room is unique because of the individual lives reflected in them and the love that went into creating those quilts,” he said. “Each gathering of these quilts inevitably brings tears, and every year new families walk through these doors and they are graciously welcomed by survivors who sadly have experienced that very unique and very specific, overwhelming type of grief.

“With a commitment to simply walk through these doors, you display by your action and your participation far more than any words that I could speak,” Ward said. “You convey an eloquent message that no victim will ever be forgotten and no family is or should ever feel alone in their sorrow. You and your families and your lost loved ones, you bind our system of justice together just as the threads of love form these quilts.

“Tonight, focus on each other and no matter what, the sons, the daughters, the sisters, the brothers, the mothers, the fathers, all around this room will not be overlooked, they will not be ignored, and they certainly will never be forgotten,” he said.

Ward read off the names of the 25 people memorialized on this year’s quilt, asking the families of each person to stand. After reading the list of names, he asked the families of the people on the previous year’s quilts to also stand.

“You’ll see that you stand among a new family and you are not alone and will not ever be such,” he said. “No loved one is alone. They are now united in a new family that’s represented by needles, by thread, and by love.”

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Tulare County quilt remembers 25 violent crime victims