Crime victims to get more aid

By Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writer

When a sucker punch cracked Ramsay Templeton's jaw and sent his ensuing medical bills skyrocketing, he sought help from the state's Crime Victim Compensation Commission.

The commission, which has helped thousands of people such as Templeton since 1967, will be able to provide more help to crime victims when a new law takes effect next month.

The commission pays victims up to $10,000 for expenses that include medical and mental health counseling bills, lost wages, funeral expenses and the victim's pain and suffering. Beginning July 1, a law signed by Gov. Ben Cayetano will allow the commission to pay up to $10,000 more for medical expenses and will cap total awards at $20,000.

Templeton, 49, was pleased to hear that compensation for victims will be increased.

"It's great for people like me who don't have medical insurance — and I know there's tons of them out there — who by no fault of their own get screwed up," said Templeton, who lives in Kilauea, Kaua'i, and works as a carpenter.

It is the first time the award ceiling has been increased since the start of the commission on July 1, 1967, said commission chairman Les Ihara. The $10,000 cap on compensation awards is one of the lowest in the nation, and 44 states have higher limits, Ihara said. The median maximum compensation cap among the states is $25,000, Ihara said.

"We felt we shouldn't have our innocent victims pay out of their own pocket when it's not their fault," Ihara said. "The state owes them medical expenses that they incur in addition to the $10,000."

The commission was created to compensate victims and the dependents of deceased victims of violent crimes. It also helps people who were hurt or had property damaged while trying to prevent a crime.

Ihara said approximately 1 percent of the commission's cases involving medical expenses exceed the cap of $10,000. In some of those cases, the victim does not have medical insurance and cannot afford continued medical treatment, rehabilitation therapy or mental health counseling services, he said. The commission pays the victim only after all insurance payments have been exhausted.

Since 1967, the commission has paid out more than $18 million to more than 13,000 crime victims, said Pamela Ferguson-Brey, executive director of the commission. This year, the commission expects to have a budget of about $1 million, she said.

Compensation covers crimes including murder, manslaughter, negligent homicide and injury, assault, sexual assault, kidnapping, abuse of family and household members and international terrorism.

In addition, for the first time since the start of the commission and beginning on July 1, the compensation program will not use state taxpayer's money, Ihara said. It will be paid for entirely by fees and restitution reimbursement from offenders, a federal grant and garnished inmate wages, Ihara said.

"I think it's great the perpetrators are going to be held responsible" for payments, Templeton said. "That's how it should be."

Some of the more notable payments the commission made were to: James Boreczky, the Chicago policeman who was beaten and robbed on O'ahu's North Shore in April 1996 and families of workers who were killed in the Xerox shootings in 1999. The family of former Honolulu Star-Bulletin freelance writer Jack Wyatt could also be eligible, Ferguson-Brey said. Wyatt drowned after he was pushed into the Ala Wai Canal on Tuesday.

Honolulu Police Chief Lee Donohue applauded the increase in medical compensation. He recalled a gunshot victim's medical payments totalling more than $500,000, and said the added compensation would benefit similar victims.

"If you're an innocent victim and something seriously happens to you, and if the state is willing to help out, I don't see a problem with (the increased compensation)," Donohue said.

Templeton said he was helped by Diana Gausepohl-White, who is the coordinator of the Kaua'i Victim Witness Program, and added without her and the commission's assistance, he wouldn't have been able to pay his bills and receive compensation from his assailant.

"Nothing came out of my pocket," Templeton said. "Diana pointed me in the right direction and made it really easy for me."

The three commissioners are Ihara, Dawn Yoshimura and Sandra Joy Eastlack, who were appointed by Gov. Cayetano. The commission operates under the state Department of Public Safety.

By the end of this month, the commission is scheduled to have a Web page.