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Thursday, April 26, 2001
Honoring those who help
Nine are hailed at 4th Victim Awards ceremony
By Sara Lee Fernandez
Caller-Times

Michelle Christenson/Caller-Times

Peggy Plowman lights a candle during the Coalition for Crime Victim Rights 4th Annual Victim Awards Ceremony Wednesday. Plowman's son, Michael, was killed in 1996 in Petronila. Nine people were honored at the ceremony.

It has been five years since Gloria Ramirez's 10-year-old son David "D.J." was killed in a drive-by shooting, but memories and emotions sometimes still make it feel as if it were yesterday.
   Now Ramirez, who wears a button with her son's picture, shares the pain of her son's death and speaks against gang violence to juveniles in boot camps and at school assemblies.
   "I know I can't change the world but if I can do my part, if we can all do our part it will make this a better place," she said. "If I could just reach one person.
   "I know that David's death wasn't in vain."
   Ramirez was among the families, friends and crime victims, and those who work in law enforcement, the legal system or agencies that work with crime victims, who on Wednesday attended the fourth annual Victim Awards Ceremony at the Nueces County Courthouse.
   "Our goal is to educate the community," said Estella Rocha, who is chairwoman of the Coalition for Crime Victims' Rights and a member of Taking Back the Streets in the Name of Jesus program. "And so that the ones that work with victims of crimes never forget to be sensitive to the victims."

Michelle Christenson/Caller-Times

Sara Lee (left), a volunteer with MADD, talks with Shirley Esparza, a fellow MADD volunteer. Lee was one of the honorees at the awards ceremony Wednesday.

   Ramirez said the coalition is important not only for the family and the victims, but for the community as a whole. "It has really helped me," she said.
   David, a fifth-grader at Montclair Elementary School, was inside his house on Greenway Drive March 8, 1996, after a birthday party when several gang members fired at the house. More than 15 shots were fired from a high-powered rifle and a semiautomatic handgun, the fatal shot shattered a window and hit him in the neck.
   Ramirez said it is important for the families of victims to go on and to share what they have gone through because it might help someone else to know they aren't alone.
   Wednesday's event, which also included awards was sponsored by the coalition, made up of 22 agencies and organizations.
   Rocha said the coalition's goal is to educate the community about crime and help victims and their families through the legal system.
   When possible the coalition tries to bring together the victim and their family with the perpetrators to show the effects of the crime, Rocha said.
   The honorees are:

Sarah Lee, a community action team coordinator for Mothers Against Drunk Driving

Walter Bryan, chief of litigation for the Nueces County Attorney's Office

Adolfo Aguilo, chief felony prosecutor for the Nueces County District Attorney's Office

Christina Gatewood, director of Crime Victim Services at the Family Counseling Service

Joseph P. Alley, first assistant chief juvenile probation officer for Nueces County Juvenile Probation Department

Marie Speer, editor and publisher of Sun Publishing

Deanie King, assistant district attorney in the juvenile section

Carola Brown, residential legal advocate at the Women's Shelter

Karla Bennett, operations chief for Naval Air Station Corpus Christi's police department.


Contact Sara Lee Fernandez at 886-3767 or fernandezs@caller.com

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