The Christian County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is pleased to announce that four members of the office were recognized this morning as Christian County Employees of the Year.

Commissioner Lynn Morris presented First Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kristen Tuohy, Senior Prosecuting Attorney Shana Mora, Victim Advocate Cathryn Ables, and Victim Advocate Shannon Stephens with the honor of Employees of the Year.

These four were recognized for their role in combating child sexual and physical abuse.  In February of 2022 Kristen Tuohy, Shana Mora, and Cathryn Ables were part of a multidisciplinary team from Christian County who were selected from applications from across Missouri to attend a Train the Trainer:  Crime Scene to Trial.    

This training is presented by Zero Abuse Project.  Zero Abuse Project is a 501(c)(3) organization.   It is committed “to transforming institutions in order to effectively prevent, recognize, and respond to child sexual abuse.”  Zero Abuse Project programs “are designed to provide cross-disciplinary education and training, advocacy for systemic legal change, guidance for survivor support, and leadership on emerging technologies.” They “take a holistic approach by also recognizing and addressing the intersecting forms of child maltreatment in connection with child sexual abuse.”  Zero Abuse Project is working to eliminate child sexual abuse in all of its forms.  The Chief Program Officer is Victor Vieth.  Victor Vieth is nationally and internationally recognized for his work in addressing child abuse.

The goal of this training is not only to make the participants more knowledge and better able to respond, investigate and prosecute these crimes, also for those trained to be able to train others in their area.  They completed their training in February 2022.  The members from the Christian County Prosecuting Attorney’s office along with their other team members and members from the Child Advocacy Center organized and presented this Crime Scene to Trial Training to allied professionals from our area in September 2022.    

There were three teams trained.  These teams were made up of prosecutors, law enforcement, investigators from the Division of Social Services, and forensic interviewers.  They reviewed a mock crime from initial crime scene including interviewing suspects, interviewing witnesses, forensically interviewing child victims and witnesses, seizing evidence, requesting lab analysis, requesting search warrants and ultimately presenting charging decisions to all the participants.  Kristen Tuohy, Shana Mora, and Cathryn Ables, from the Christian Count Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, served on the faculty for this training.  Just as in a real case, there are many people to interview, there were many people who played roles of various individuals from the mock scenario.  Shannon Stephens was one of those who assisted with the training in this way.  She played a vital and crucial role in the scenario.  Her preparation and excellent job in the role – was integral to the success of the training. 

 The training required the coordination and cooperation of various offices and agencies that serve sex crimes and child abuse victims here in Christian County.  Additionally, the training included Victor Vieth and another member his team who participated in the training provided in Christian County.   They were here also to evaluate the quality of the training.  At the conclusion of this training, the Christian County team was approved by Zero Abuse to continue to present Crime Scene to Trial training to allied professional from our region .  They will continue to offer this training to allied professionals in southwest Missouri.   Christian County is the first team in Missouri who has been approved to provide this training.    

These four demonstrate the commitment to be the most prepared and knowledge in combating child physical and sexual abuse.  We are very fortunate in Christian County to have such dedicated and committed individuals represented in all the allied agencies and offices that respond to, investigate, and protect those who have been victims of child physical and/or sexual abuse.

The Christian County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has released its 2022 annual report. Click here to view report: https://prosecutorsmogov-my.sharepoint.com/:b:/g/personal/adam_alb_prosecutors_mo_gov/ERKaftHUSH1Io8qvpICPjIQBoGTTL9q4N-EVQ8NKCeG4Sw?e=GfQSGx