West Roxbury Resident, Longtime Victims Advocate Honored

WEST ROXBURY, MA — She was most recently called in for the high profile murder trials of 2-year-old Bella Bond and the murder trial for 21-year-old Lena Bruce in Boston's South End. And she's been at countless trials since she came on the job in 1988 to advocate for the survivors of and witnesses to violent crimes in Suffolk County.

And now West Roxbury resident Kara Hayes was given the DA’s Special Recognition Award.

Hayes served as chief of the DA’s Victim Witness Assistance Program before taking the lead on community outreach and acting as the Suffolk County District Attorney's director of community engagement and liaison to the LGBTQ community.

At a ceremony at Suffolk University Law School District Attorney Dan Conley noted her contributions to two major proceedings last year in which she served as the primary advocate for survivors and prosecution witnesses – the trial of Michael McCarthy for the 2015 murder of 2-year-old Bella Bond in Dorchester and the trial of James Witkowski for the 1992 murder of 21-year-old Lena Bruce in Boston’s South End.

“But this isn’t an award for 2017,” Conley said. “It’s an award for every year since 1988, when she became one of the pioneers in the emerging field of victim advocacy.”

Hayes was in the vanguard of building trust and relationships in the community and especially among outside agencies such as the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, Jane Doe Inc., Casa Myrna, the Living After Murder Program, and others.

In the course of her work as an advocate, she received the Access to Justice Award from the Massachusetts Office for Victim Assistance, a Boston Police Commissioner's Citation, the Suffolk DA's Homicide Unit Certificate of Recognition, and the Living After Murder Program's John Taylor Award for Service to Survivors of Homicide Victims.

Hayes maximized the advocate’s role as an integral part of the prosecution team, present from the start – often the first point of contact between a crime survivor and the DA’s office, according to the DA.

Almost 15 years ago, she wrote a “survivor’s guide” for the loved ones of homicide victims – the first of its kind to assist families from the time of a death through court proceedings and the post-conviction process. Under her supervision, Suffolk victim-witness advocates took on duties that go far beyond comforting people to making referrals and seeking assistance with counseling, safety planning, housing and relocation, and more.

More recently, she singlehandedly undertook the extensive research and qualification work that allowed Conley’s office to take on Indy, the first facility dog assigned to a prosecution agency in New England.

Hayes earned an MPA from UMass Boston, focusing on addiction, mental health, alternative criminal justice response models, juvenile diversion, intimate partner violence, drug and other specialty courts, and issues affecting women and children.

“As an advocate for people and communities, Kara has not only taken a complex and challenging job but set the standard for how it’s done,” Conley said. “We’re fortunate and extremely grateful to have her on our team.”

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Photo courtesy DA's office.