Faculty Biographies

Hon. John Gillis was confirmed as the Director of the Justice Department's Office for Victims of Crime in September 2001. Mr. Gillis has a long and distinguished career in victim advocacy and law enforcement. Following the 1979 murder of his daughter Louarna, Mr. Gillis helped found Justice for Homicide Victims and the Coalition of Victims Equal Rights, a statewide organization that works on behalf of the rights of victims and their families. He is also the founder of Victims & Friends United and an active member of Memory of Victims Everywhere and Parents of Murdered Children, a support group for families of homicide victims. In 1991, President George Bush presented Mr. Gillis with the National Crime Victim Service Award for his work in helping crime victims. In 1993, former Attorney General William Barr recognized Mr. Gillis' crime victim service with a Special Commendation Award. Mr. Gillis is also a member of the American Police Hall of Fame.

Hon. Norman S. Early is a former Denver District Attorney who came up through the ranks of that office, developing the Victim/Witness Assistance Program - one of the first in the nation - and serving for 10 years as Chief Deputy before his election as District Attorney in 1984, 1988, and 1992. Mr Early writes children's books and speaks nationally on children's issues, as well as issues related to victims of crime, trial tactics, diversity, and work force enhancement. Mr. Early is the founder and first president of the National Black Prosecutors Association. He is the former president of the Colorado District Attorney's Council, is a NOVA board member, twice serving as board president, and has served on the board of the National District Attorney's Association. Currently, Mr. Early is a legal analyst for MSNBC and has appeared on Court TV, and on such programs as Crossfire, Feedback, Rivera Live, Cochran & Company. He is also a principal in LE Investigators which assists companies experiencing shrinkage due to theft, drugs and workplace violence.

Hon. Paul G. Cassell was nominated for the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah by President George W. Bush on June 20, 2001. On May 13, 2002, the Senate confirmed Judge Cassell.

Judge Cassell graduated with honors from Stanford University in 1981, receiving a B.A. in Economics. Judge Cassell graduated from Stanford Law School in 1984, receiving a J.D. While at Stanford, he was elected to Order of the Coif (top ten percent of the class) and served as President of the Stanford Law Review. After graduation, Cassell served as a law clerk to then-Judge Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (1984-85) and Chief Justice Warren E. Burger of the U.S. Supreme Court (1985-86). Cassell then moved to the U.S. Justice Department, serving as Associate Deputy Attorney General (1986-88) and an Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia (1988-91). While an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Cassell handled a variety of criminal cases, including more than a dozen felony jury trials.

In 1992, Judge Cassell moved to Utah to teach at the University of Utah College of Law. He taught a variety of classes, including Evidence, Criminal Procedure, Criminal Law, Appellate Advocacy, and Crime Victims’ Rights. In 2001, Cassell was named the James I. Farr Professor of Law. Cassell published a variety of law review articles while at Utah, including articles in the Stanford Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, the BYU Law Review, and the Utah Law Review. The articles focused on reforming the criminal justice system, including expanding the procedural rights of crime victims.

While a professor at the University of Utah, Judge Cassell also personally directed litigation on a variety of victims’ issues. For example, Cassell represented dozens of victims of the Oklahoma City bombing in their efforts to attend court proceedings and testify at the sentencing of Timothy McVeigh. Cassell also represented children who were sexually assaulted, women who were victims of domestic violence, and families of murder victims on criminal justice issues. All of this litigation was handled on a pro bono basis.

Faculty Presenters

Valenda Applegarth, JD is a Senior Attorney at Greater Boston Legal services who has practiced family law, specializing in domestic violence litigation for over fifteen years. She is the creator and supervisor of the country's only Relocation Counseling Project for victims of crime. This project serves all victims of crime in a broad array of often complicated civil legal matters surrounding victim safety and relocation. The Relocation Counseling Project accesses expertise in cross substantive areas such as immigration, housing, state and federal benefits and consumer law. The project provides direct representation in identity changes, family law cases involving interstate jurisdiction and other areas of civil practice.

Phyllis Barkhurst has been working with victims of violence and to end violence against women since 1980, starting her career as a campus activist and as a volunteer on a rape crisis line. She was the first executive director of the rural domestic violence/sexual assault program in Klamath Falls, Oregon for seven years before spending eight years as the executive director of Sexual Assault Support Services in Eugene. She spent ten years on the board of Oregon’s sexual and domestic violence coalition and served for six years as a board member of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Ms. Barkhurst currently serves on an advisory committee of the American Prosecutor’s Research Institute in their project to better train prosecutors. She is one of the founders of the Oregon Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force and has been working as its Executive Director since 2001. The Task Force is leading statewide efforts to improve the response to and reduction of sexual assault in Oregon and is located in Eugene. Ms. Barkhurst spends much of her time on statewide and national public policy, legislative, and funding efforts.

Douglas E. Beloof, JD Professor Beloof began his law career clerking for Justice Thomas H. Tongue of the Oregon Supreme Court. He has been a prosecutor and a criminal defense attorney as well as practicing tort law as a plaintiff’s and defense attorney. As director of the Multnomah County Victims’ Assistance Program, he worked to establish procedures to assist victims of crime, including a domestic violence program and multidisciplinary teams to deal with child abuse. While there he also lectured at national conferences on victims in the criminal justice system. Beloof has published the book Victims in Criminal Procedure, which won a national award for writing in victimology and the law. He has also written The Third Model of Criminal Process: The Victim Participation Model, about civil liberties for crime victims. Beloof has received awards from Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the National Organization of Victims Assistance. He has testified in front of the U.S. House and Senate judiciary committees and has been cited by the Senate Judiciary Committee as a leading expert on victim laws. Beloof is the executive director of the National Crime Victim Law Institute housed at Lewis & Clark Law school.

Sandy Bromley Esq., JD is the Director of Services for the Maryland Crime Victims' Resource Center, Inc., formerly the Stephanie Roper Foundation, Inc., a statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring that victims of crime receive justice and are treated with dignity and compassion through comprehensive victims’ rights and services. As the Director of Services, Ms. Bromley is responsible for all direct victims’ services programs, including legal advocacy and social and therapeutic services. Prior to this position, Ms Bromley served as the staff attorney for the MCVRC representing all victims of crime with legal issues directly related to their victimization experience, including criminal justice rights, restitution request and collection, CICB appeals, and family law and guardianship. Ms. Bromley is a graduate of Ohio University and the New England School of Law. Prior to accepting a position with the MCVRC, Ms. Bromley worked for several youth and family services organizations and was involved in the representation of abused and neglected children and in creating policy regarding children who witness domestic violence.

Russell P. Butler, JD is an Attorney who serves as Executive Director of the Maryland Crime Victims’ Resource Center, Inc. From 1985 to 2002, Russell served as lobbyist for the Stephanie Roper Committee, Inc., and also as the legal counsel for the Stephanie Roper Foundation, Inc. Russell has also served as lobbyist for MADD from 1999 to 2003. Russell serves on a number of Maryland criminal justice advisory committees including the State Commission on Criminal Sentencing Policy and the Article 27 Revision Committee. Russell is the 2004-2005 Chair of the Maryland State Bar Association’s Section on Criminal Law and Practice.

Carol Dorris, JD is the Senior Staff Attorney, Public Policy, for the National Center for Victims of Crime located in Washington, DC, where she has been on staff since 1991. Founded in 1985, the National Center is a national non-profit organization dedicated to helping victims, their families, and communities who have been harmed by crime rebuild their lives. Her duties include analyzing victims’ rights laws, providing legislative technical assistance to state and federal lawmakers, and conducting comprehensive research on pertinent victim-related legal issues. She is also the Project Director of the VictimLaw legislative database project. Previously, Ms. Dorris served in-house as Assistant Counsel, Mortgage Servicing, at Standard Federal Savings Bank in Frederick, MD. Prior to relocating to the Washington, D.C. area in 1990, Ms. Dorris was in private practice with the firm of Harris & Harris in Macon, GA where she specialized in residential real estate and general business law. She is a graduate of Penn State University and the University of Georgia School of Law.

Donna Dunn is the Program Manager of the Sexual Violence Justice Institute (SVJI) of the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assault (MCASA). An activist in the movement to end violence against women, Ms. Dunn has over 20 years of experience community based private non-profits (rape crisis center and battered women’s shelter), as the Sexual Assault Program Director for the state of Minnesota and as consultant to a number of MN counties creating a coordinated community response to sexual assault. She is a graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College and Vanderbilt University.

Meg Garvin, JD is the lead staff attorney for the National Crime Victim Law Institute and manages the State and Federal Demonstration Project under the Office for Victims of Crime grant. The Project's components include establishing and providing training and assistance to 9 legal clinics across the country that will each provide direct representation to crime victims in trial courts; establishing a network of victims' rights attorneys nationwide; assisting attorneys who represent crime victims in trial courts; writing amicus briefs for appellate courts nationwide on victims' rights issues; and educating both the public and the legal profession about crime victim rights. Ms. Garvin comes to the Project after a private practice litigation career in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Prior to private practice Ms. Garvin clerked for the Honorable Donald P. Lay of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. She has also served as pro bono appellate counsel through the Minnesota State Public Defender’s Office.

Ellen Goldberg, LCSW is a mental health consultant for Multnomah County in portland, Oregon. She has worked for the past eight years as part of the Family upport Team at CARES NW, a nationally known, highly respected child abuse evaluation and resource center. As a child and family threapist at CARES NW, Ms. Goldberg provides therapy, resources and support to families, CARES staff and the community. Helping children and families to manage crises and to heal from the trauma of child sexual abuse are her specialties. She has provided mental health services in the schools and outpatient child and family therapy at the Parry Center. Before becoming a mental health professional, she taught in a variety of educational settings: public high schools, alternative schools, adult basic education and GED programs. Ms. Goldberg is a poet and writing teacher, awarded a Performing Arts in Public Places grant by the Metropolitan Arts Commission.

Lisa Hurst, JD has been a government affairs attorney with Smith Alling Lane, a multifaceted public services corporation that provides governmental affairs and legal representation to a wide array of clients, since 1998 and has worked in government affairs for over seven years. Lisa has been directly involved in much of the forensic DNA research and policy formulation conducted by the firm. She has considerable experience in serving private and public clients alike, and has assisted clients with substantially diverse interests. Among other strengths, Lisa offers clients extensive federal and state regulatory knowledge and grant expertise. This background, combined with her understanding of the Congressional process, gives her a unique perspective in working with both legislative proposals and agency regulations. Before joining the firm, Lisa worked in Washington, D.C. for a Member of Congress and most recently as an associate with a large D.C. lobbying firm. A native of Kentucky, Lisa received her undergraduate degree from Miami University of Ohio.

Julise Johanson, JD is the director and staff attorney for the Victims of Crime Resource Center and the Crime Victims Legal Clinic at the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law. Past experience includes clinical instructor for McGeorge School of Law Community Legal Services Program, staff attorney for California Rural Legal Assistance, private practice, and staff attorney for the Domestic Violence Restraining Order Clinic in San Francisco, California.

Keli Luther, JD is currently the executive director and lead counsel for the Crime Victims Legal Assistance Project (CVLAP) in Tempe, Arizona. CVLAP is the first direct representation legal clinic for crime victims in the United States and has been recognized by the United States Department of Justice and the National Crime Victim Law Institute as a model site for the nation. It is the mission of CVLAP to vigorously advocate for the protection and enforcement of a crime victim’s constitutional rights in court. Formed in 2001, CVLAP is comprised of staff attorneys, Arizona State University College of Law students and volunteer attorneys who represent crime victims pro bono during all criminal proceedings. Ms. Luther began her work at CVLAP as a volunteer. She was later hired permanently as the project’s staff attorney. Within the scope of her position, Ms. Luther has represented crime victims throughout the criminal justice process including advocating at both the trial and appellate level including the United States and Arizona Supreme Court. She has also researched, drafted and argued motions resulting in key victims’ rights victories involving constitutional issues as right to be heard, speedy trial, evidentiary disclosure issues such as victim privacy and victim impact statements. Ms. Luther drafted the United States Supreme Court amicus curiae brief on behalf of all crime victims in Ring v. State of Arizona. Prior to Ms. Luther’s constitutional work with crime victims, she practiced in the area of corporate and constitutional law litigation in Washington, D.C. before returning home to Arizona in late 2001.

Jamie Mills, JD is a solo practitioner in Hartford, Connecticut. She has represented the Connecticut Sexual Assault Crisis Services, Inc. since 1987. Her practice is limited to representing employees in labor and employment related matters and victims of sexual assault and abuse in civil cases. Attorney Mills is on the Executive Committee of the Labor and Employment Section and the Women’s Law Section of the Connecticut Bar Association. She is also an adjunct professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law where she teaches Gender, Sexuality and the Law and a Civil Clinic in GLBT issues. Attorney Mills received her J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law in 1987 where she received the American Jurisprudence Award for Labor Law.

Jessica Mindlin, JD is the Senior Staff Attorney for the National Crime Victim Law Institute and the Institute’s Center for Law & Public Policy on Sexual Violence (CLPPS). Currently, Ms. Mindlin coordinates a national project to provide legal technical assistance to staff attorneys at sexual assault and dual (domestic violence and sexual assault) coalitions. She is also an instructor for Lewis and Clark Law School’s Crime Victim Litigation Clinic. Prior to joining NCVLI and CLPPS, Ms. Mindlin served as a Statewide Support Unit Attorney for the Oregon Law Center, where she provided litigation supervision, mentoring, and technical assistance on family law matters, and policy consultation on state and national domestic and sexual violence and stalking issues. She is the former coordinator of the Oregon Supreme Court-Oregon State Bar Task Force on Gender Fairness, and former director of the Oregon Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence's Legal Access Project.

Kim Montagriff, JD as an NCVLI staff attorney, performs research, provides technical assistance, and participates in impact litigation on issues affecting victims of crime under the Office for Victims of Crime grant. As Assistant Attorney General for the state of Colorado, she worked in the appellate unit of the Criminal Enforcement Section, drafting appellate briefs for submission to the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court. Ms. Montagriff clerked for Justice Kirshbaum on the Colorado State Supreme Court and served as a Lawyering Process Professor and legal writing instructor at the University of Denver College of Law.

Wendy Murphy, JD is an Adjunct Professor, New England School of Law. Visiting Scholar, Harvard Law School, 2002-2003; Mary Joe Frug Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, New England School of Law, Spring 2002 [“Perspectives in Sexual Violence”, “Criminal Procedure”]; Trial attorney specializing in the representation of crime victims, women, children, crisis centers and victim service providers; Founder and Director, Victim Advocacy & Research Group; Former Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Prosecutor, Middlesex County; Former Lecturer/Adjunct Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and New England School of Law, “Reproductive Rights and Technologies”; contributing editor, Sexual Assault Report, Civic Research Institute, NY; co-Editor, "Child Abuse and the Law", Haworth Press, (pending); CBS News Legal Analyst; Former Senior Legal Analyst, MSNBC. Named Lawyer of the Year for 1996, Massachusetts Lawyer's Weekly; Recognized by Glamour Magazine as one of five “Activist Mothers” in America dedicated to children's rights (1996); featured in Redbook Magazine, “The New Reason Rapists are Going Free” (1997); Abigail Adams Award recipient, Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus, (1997); Boston College, Honorary Drum Major of the Year Award for Public Service, (1997); Voices for Justice Award, The Support Committee for Battered Women, (1999); Featured in the ABA Journal, “No Escape From Science”, (August 2000); Jane Doe, Inc. M. Patricia Cronin Award for Activism in Public Policy, (2001); National Crime Victim Law Institute, Award for Outstanding Legal Achievement, (2002); National Sexual Violence Legal Resource Center, Award for Outstanding Effectiveness in Promoting Awareness and Prevention of Sexual Violence, (2004). Ms. Murphy writes and lectures widely on women’s, victims’ and children’s rights and the criminal justice system.

Karen Phifer, LCSW is the Clinic Operations Supervisor at CARES Northwest. Her work duties include supervision of the Intake Counselors and Child Abuse Specialists called in to see child abuse victims after hours. Additionally Karen has helped to develop the Drug Endangered Child Protocol for CARES Northwest, Multnomah County, Clackamas County and Washington County. Before coming to CARES Northwest, Karen was the Child Abuse & Neglect Medical Social Worker at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital for nine years.

Patricia Powers, JD is a Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for Yakima County, Washington and is Supervising Attorney of the Sexual Assault-Domestic Violence Division of the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Ms. Powers graduated from Gonzaga University School of Law in 1976 and was admitted to the practice of law in Washington State in 1976. She has practiced law primarily as a trial attorney; as a private practitioner, Assistant Attorney General, Directing Attorney of the Yakama Nation’s Public Defender’s Office and since 1988, as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney. Ms. Powers is recognized nationally as an expert in the areas of sexual assault and domestic violence trial advocacy. She is a faculty member and trainer for the American Prosecutors Research Institute and the National District Attorneys Association.

Richard Pompelio, JD is the Chairman of the Victims of Crime Compensation Board for New Jersey. He has been involved in victims' rights legislation in New Jersey, including the Victim’s Rights Amendment in 1991, and has represented many victims in courts throughout the state. He was appointed Chairman of the New Jersey Victims of Crime Compensation Board on February 11, 2003 by Governor James E. McGreevey. Prior to his appointment, Mr. Pompelio had established a private law practice but dissolved his partnership in 1992 to create the New Jersey Crime Victims’ Law Center. The impetus for his work at the center was based on his personal experience as a crime victim (his teenage son, Tony, was murdered in 1989) and of the indignities he and his family suffered in their dealings with the county prosecutor's office. The center is dedicated to the pro bono representation of crime victims in the criminal justice system. Mr. Pompelio is admitted to practice law before the courts in New Jersey and New York and the Supreme Court of the United States.

Liani Heh Reeves, JD works on the Office on Violence Against Women legal technical assistance project for coalition staff attorneys and on sexual violence-related issues and projects for NCVLI's Center for Law & Public Policy on Sexual Violence. She is a former Assistant Attorney General with the Oregon Department of Justice Trial Division and a former victim advocate with the Marion County District Attorney's Office. As President of Students Against Rape Together at Willamette University, she created and implemented sexual assault awareness programs, including an annual Sexual Assault Awareness Week and a Campus Safety Improvement Project. Ms. Reeves is active in minority communities, serving as the current Co-Chair of the Oregon Minority Lawyers Association. She is also a founding Board Member and the current Chair of Public Affairs of the Korean American Citizens League and an appointed member of the Oregon Judicial Department's Access to Justice for All Committee. She received the 2004 Martin Luther King, Jr. Award from the Willamette University College of Law Multicultural Law Students Association honoring work and dedication towards the ideals of equal civil and human rights.

Melissa Stephenson, JD is General Counsel for the N.M. Victims' Rights Project. Melissa comes to the Project after more than a decade of public service developing and championing programs for people with severe disabilities. She was a management analyst for the President's Committee for Employment of People With Severe Disabilities, then left the federal government to work for NISH, a national non-profit agency, and in both positions focused on federal and state administrative law that affected persons with disabilities. She has worked on appellate party and amici briefs on primarily constitutional issues before the New Mexico Supreme Court, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court. She is the co-author of Wharton's Criminal Procedure (Vol. 1 published 2003, Vol. 2 published 2005), is an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law and has taught legal subjects at the PLSI American Indian Law Center.

Joanna Tucker Davis, JD is currently an attorney with the National Crime Victim Law Institute, a non-profit organization that works through legal education, scholarship, information resources and legal advocacy to promote balance and fairness in the justice system for victims of crime. Ms. Tucker Davis is working to establish victim assistance clinics nationwide to provide legal representation for crime victims and conducts impact litigation on behalf of victims throughout the country. As an assistant district attorney in Manhattan, Ms. Tucker Davis investigated and tried a wide range of crimes, including violent felonies and cases of domestic violence. She was also a member of the New York County District Attorney's Office Sex Crimes Unit, where she prosecuted rape and other sexual assault cases involving crimes perpetrated by strangers, acquaintances and domestic partners. She has a B.A. from Colgate University, an M.A. in English from Binghamton University, and earned her J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Steve Twist, JD serves as Assistant General Counsel for Viad Corp in Phoenix, Arizona. He also serves as volunteer General Counsel for the National Victims Constitutional Amendment Project, he is Special Counsel to the National Crime Victim Law Institute, and is founder and current President of Arizona Voice for Crime Victims. Mr. Twist serves on the national boards of the National Organization of Parents of Murdered Children and the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA). He also serves as NOVA’s Vice President for Public Policy. Mr. Twist teaches victims rights law at the Arizona State University College of Law and he is a founder of the Crime Victims Legal Assistance Project at the law school which provides free legal representation to crime victims seeking to protect their legal rights. Mr. Twist has worked in the field of victims rights since 1975 when, as a lawyer for the Navajo Nation, he drafted a Resolution which established the Navajo Victims Rights Commission. He is the former Chief Assistant Attorney General of the State of Arizona. He is the author of the Arizona constitutional amendment for victims’ rights and the Arizona Victims’ Rights Implementation Act. He has extensive experience litigating the enforcement of victims’ rights. He has worked across the country helping the Congress, state legislatures, and local groups consider and pass victims’ rights amendments and implementing statutes. Mr. Twist has testified extensively in Congress on the need for a federal Crime Victims Rights Amendment. He is a principal author of the Federal Crime Victims Rights Act (HR 5107, Title 1).His testimony and other selected writings on victims rights are available at www.nvcap.org. He speaks extensively on drafting, lobbying, and enforcing victims rights laws. He is a 2003 recipient of the President’s National Crime Victims Service Award. Mr. Twist has a B.A. degree in Political Science (‘71) and a J.D. degree in law (‘74) from Arizona State University.