LANESBORO: The postoffice was burglarized by a lone robber Sunday night, but only 94 cents secured. Postmaster T. J. Nicholson saw the burglar at work in the building and took a shot at him with a gun, firing through a store window. The burglar, in haste to get out, jumped through a window, taking glass and sash. The postmaster blazed away again and the robber dropped and when Nicholson ran up the marauder again bolted. Bloody tracks were found, but whether from the shot or caused by broken glass is unknown. The injured man has not been located.

EAST LYNN, SPRINGVILLE TWP.: The pupils who will receive perfect attendance certificates from County Supt. Stearns, this year, are Emma Brown and Alwildah Travis.

RUSH: The birthday of our oldest resident, Abraham Carter, occurred on Friday last. Mr. Carter, although 95, still goes about with a firm step.

WEST BRIDGEWATER: Quite a number from this place attended the horning at Lewis Hawley’s for Arthur Bolles and Bride, of Hallstead.

THOMPSON: Henry B. Bredison, Edison Co. photographer, is at L. J. Wrighter’s preparing to photograph their maple sugar camp in detailed operation, to be used for moving pictures.

NEW ALBANY/FOREST LAKE: The death of James E. Patch occurred April 11, 1912, at New Albany, Pa. He was born at Forest Lake, on Sept. 29, 1820 and was married to Miss Susan Steiger of Forest Lake. In 1870 he moved to Evergreen, where he was postmaster for a number of years. For 70 years he was a member of the Baptist church. In his earlier life he was a bridge builder and carpenter for the New York and Erie railroad when that road was being built from New York to Binghamton. Mr. Patch was a member of the Montrose I.O.O.F. Lodge for a great many years.

WEST LENOX: On Thursday morning while Harley Tingley was handling a gun that he thought wasn’t loaded, it went off and the bullet struck his mother in the knee. As yet they have been unable to locate the ball. Her daughter, Mrs. Leo McDonald, of Endicott, is caring for her.

NEW MILFORD: The Lackawanna surveyors are all back again, also some of the contractors have leased houses for a period of three years and have moved their families here. The outlook at present is very bright for the L. & M. change from Heart Lake to this place being commenced in the near future. ALSO Samuel Moss died Saturday night after an illness of a few weeks. He had been in the mercantile business in this town for a period of 35 or 40 years and was one of the town’s most esteemed citizens.

HEART LAKE: Newell Harrison, born Aug. 5, 1841, died here April 13, 1912. When the war broke out in 1861 he was one of the first to respond to the call for troops. He entered the State service at West Chester and was mustered into the U.S. service July 18, 1861. He fought at Bull Run, Mechanicsville, Gaines Mills, White Oak Swamp, Antietam, Fredericksburg and the Wilderness. Was captured and confined in Andersonville Prison eleven months. His last illness was the outcome of injuries received during his faithful service and the brutal treatment dealt out to our Boys in Blue while in the foul place of dread disease and untimely death. He was a member of Four Brothers Post, No. 453, of Montrose, having officiated as deputy inspector.
A tender, loving husband and father, a loyal friend and kind neighbor has gone from our midst, and will be greatly missed.

FOREST CITY: The work on the county bridge, which was suspended last fall when the cold weather came on, was resumed last week. It will be but a short time now until we have adequate connection with the farming districts of Wayne county, lying east and north-east of us.

MONTROSE: J. C. VanCampen, a former well-known resident, has returned to Montrose, opening an undertaking and upholstering business on Church street, in the Kraiss stand. Mr. VanCampen has had 15 years experience in the business in both city and towns. He and Mrs. VanCampen are heartily welcomed here by hosts of old friends. ALSO Montrose friends of the family learn with sincere regret that Mr. A. W. Kent, an architect in Buffalo, N.Y., lost his life on the ill-fated Titanic. Mr. Kent was a son of the late Mrs. Harriet Kent, who purchased the beautiful estate on Lake Avenue, of Artist James D. Smillie, where she made her summer home for many years. ALSO A follow-up from last week’s report that the Rev. Dr. J. Stuart Holden, a former speaker at the Montrose Bible Conference, was on the Titanic proved to be false. He had cancelled his passage because of the illness of his wife.

FLYNN, MIDDLETOWN TWP.: The young men who are committing those pranks around the school and church should be brought to account. ALSO We cannot expect much good weather until after the old maid’s excursion to Washington, about June 1st.

WEST AUBURN: The people of this place are highly interested in the subject of road improvement and are doing all they can to promote it in general, which is of course a very good motive. But they are shamefully neglecting and overlooking the subject of education, which is in much greater want of improvement.

CLIFFORD: Ord Morgan has rented the Grimes Miller farm for another year. He has not bought the Geo. Stephens property, as given by your Royal correspondent two or three weeks ago. Also, John Wilson has not sold his place and moved to Buffalo, as related by the same authority.

NEWS BRIEFS: The town of Crossfork, Potter Co., will soon be obliterated off the map and the old lumbering town will only be a memory in the minds of those who visited it in the days when the sawmills and other industries were running full blast. The past week was the last for the only industry which has been keeping the town together for some time. ALSO Because no hearse in Washington, Pa., was big enough to accommodate the large coffin built for William P. Bane, the body of the tallest man who served in the Civil War was carried on a draped wagon. He was 7 ft. 4 in. tall and weighed 300 pounds. It was Bane whom Lincoln addressed at Gettysburg, saying: “Will that fellow please get down off the stump?”

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If you have ever been a victim of a criminal act, you know that the entire experience is very difficult and emotionally draining. I cannot begin to even estimate how many burglary cases I have prosecuted over the past 13 years -though I am sure it exceeds a thousand cases. There is one thing that has been common to all of those cases - every victim talks about the loss of a sense of security that they possessed (and often took for granted) prior to the burglary. I have never been a victim of a burglary - so I truly do not know what it is like to know that a stranger has been going through your home (or business) and your personal belongings. I have heard countless burglary victims talk about the sleepless nights, anxiety and depression that inevitably follows a burglary.

Unfortunately, the criminal justice system tends to fail to really address these concerns - and often augments a victim’s anger, resentment and frustrations. While the law has come a long way in providing victims with more rights and input into the process, the stark reality is that the criminal justice system has been intentionally designed to protect the rights of the accused - not victims. As a result, many crime victims end up with a negative view toward the criminal justice system, i.e., they feel like the criminal justice system failed them and simply perpetuated the victimization.

Prosecutors need to make a real effort at including victims in the process itself. We have a victim coordinator who has special training in helping victims through the system from start to finish - and the victim coordinator acts as the liaison between the prosecutor and the victim. With hundreds of crime victims each year, the ability for an individual prosecutor to speak directly with each victim is limited by reality of time and resources. The victim coordinator provides the victim with a direct contact person who can field questions, assist with paperwork, and provide access to the prosecutor when necessary and appropriate. But even with an advocate in the system itself, victims are often left with a feeling of frustration.

To some degree, this feeling of frustration is even greater in the juvenile system, where the concept of restorative justice clashes with a victim’s sense of retribution, punishment and consequences. In the juvenile system, the court must utilize the least restrictive alternatives for rehabilitation prior to resorting to more restrictive tools. For this reason, a very, very low percentage of juvenile offenders are placed outside the home in Susquehanna County. The overwhelming majority of juvenile offenders are placed on juvenile supervision until they demonstrate that more restrictive means are necessary to control their behavior - and this is something that understandably does not seem like a real consequence to many victims.

I had a burglary victim in a juvenile case the other day that was struggling with these feelings of frustration over the idea that the juvenile offenders who broke into his business would simply go home after the hearing. Probation really does not seem like much of a consequence when compared to the severity of the offense and the hardships it causes. I encouraged him to speak at the juvenile hearing - not that his words would change how the Court approached the juvenile - but so that the juvenile would understand the devastating impact that his criminal conduct had on the business owner. Throughout the years, I have noticed that these victim statements have a real impact on juveniles as the reality of what they did - and the damage they caused - hits them. Without the victim being willing to speak, the juveniles often leave these hearings without the personal feeling that only the victim can really provide.

In this particular case, the business owner spoke with real emotion and passion over just how difficult a burglary can be to a victim - from a personal level and from a business level. After the hearing, the juvenile came over to the victim and shook his hand and apologized. At that moment, the victim took that opportunity - not to vent his frustrations over what had happened to him and how much he had personally lost - but to encourage the juvenile to move forward with his life. I heard the victim repeat several times to the juvenile that he was a “good kid” and encouraged him to learn from this mistake and become a better person.

It was an honor to be present for that exchange - even more so because I personally knew how frustrated the business owner was over the burglary and the damage it caused. Still, this particular victim stepped away from his personal suffering and took an opportunity to make a difference in the life of a troubled kid. There is no way to really know whether words of encouragement make any difference, but I know that they certainly cannot hurt. From past experience, I know that even a few kind words can make a difference to a juvenile in the context of a court proceeding. As I said, being a crime victim is very difficult, but crime victims surprise me every single day with the grace and courage that they demonstrate.

Please submit any questions, concerns, or comments to Susquehanna County District Attorney’s Office, P.O. Box 218, Montrose, Pennsylvania 18801 or at our website www.SusquehannaCounty-DA.org or discuss this and all articles at http://dadesk.blogspot.com/.