Stephanie Lamar named as Victim’s Advocate

Stephanie Lamar is the first to hold the position of Victim’s Advocate in Hancock County, and started on Monday, January 2nd, 2023.

Hancock County Attorney Paul Madden, Jr. said that Stephanie’s general responsibilities will be to keep the victim informed of the nature of court proceedings so that they can understand. “Because often lay persons don’t know that and it seems to be drawn out or they don’t understand certain aspects of that,” he said.

Madden said the position is newly allocated and that arrangements were made in the beginning of the last fiscal year in July to hire a victim’s advocate for Hancock County.

“They notified me,” he said, “and Stephanie worked for me in the past. Because it’s a new position, we’re trying to sort out what all responsibilities she’ll have and how the process will work.”

Madden said Stephanie was sent to Daviess County to get some training from the victim’s advocate there on Monday, January 9th.
“She will have to go through some training through the state,” he said. “Stephanie already had experience as a child support worker and she also worked for several law offices over the years so she was very familiar with the process. That helped bring that along and bring us up to speed a little bit quicker.”

Stephanie worked for Judge Jack McCaslin in the late 90s and early 2000’s. When she worked for Madden as Child Support Case Worker, they got involved in community programs such as the Dress For School Campaign.

She is only the second recipient in history to receive the “Heart of the Community” award, for her work with the United Way program, and has been involved in many different community projects over the years.”She is an excellent choice for this new position in the County and will, no doubt, be a huge help in this role,” Attorney Paul Madden, Jr. stated.

By Jennifer Wimmer