2024 Sean P. McIlmeil Hero Award
Roberta Roper
CHILD USA honors Roberta Roper with the 2024 Sean P. McIlmail Hero Award. The Sean P. McIlmail Hero Award was established in the memory of Sean, who was coming out of a difficult time in his life, doing everything he could to bring Father Robert L Brennen to justice, and who passed away before the prosecution could go forward. Sean’s parents, Deborah and Michael, generously made the CHILD USA SOL Research Institute possible .
Veteran crime victim advocate Roberta Roper and her husband, Vincent, had no idea when they sat at their kitchen table with friends 42 years ago, that the brutal murder of their daughter by two strangers would lead to the founding of what is now the Maryland Crime Victims’ Resource Center.
Roper vividly recalls the day they were told their missing daughter Stephanie’s body had been discovered. It was their youngest child’s 10th birthday, and a party was in full swing. On television, a reporter was standing in front of a shack where Stephanie’s brutally raped, tortured, beaten and partially dismembered and burned body had been found.
“Somehow, we made it through the day. It was chaos,” she says. “Not only with the birthday children running around, but friends and neighbors coming and going through the house.
“The person who was the coordinator of Stephanie’s church youth group arrived with a clipboard in his hands and said ‘I want you to know I am in charge of the Stephanie Roper Family Assistance Committee,’ meaning that he was going to help us prepare for the funeral, for trials – just coordinating the many things that must be done. And that’s how we began.”
Never previously having been involved in criminal trial, the Ropers had a couple of public meetings to try to prepare and educate themselves about the process. “What we knew about criminal justice was what we had learned in school or on TV, which of course are no match for the reality,” she says. “We invited legislators who represented us in the Maryland House of Delegates and Senate, and also the prosecutor assigned to the case to a meeting, where he explained how he would proceed in any murder case.”
The Maryland legislature had recently passed what they were hailing as a victims’ rights act, which authorized a “Victim Impact Statement” to be submitted to the judge, along with the Pre-Sentence Investigation Report, prior to the sentencing of a defendant.
The Ropers secured a copy of the bill and sent it to the prosecutor believing he would know how to deal with it. They were subpoenaed as opening witnesses, and were able to testify only to the facts that Stephanie had come home on Friday afternoon, had enjoyed a family dinner, planned to meet up with high school friends for the evening and was expected to return home. After that barebones testimony, the defense asked that the rule on witnesses be invoked.
“That’s when we found that crime victims had no rights! Over the six weeks of the trial, we had no right to information, no right to observe the proceedings, no right to be heard at sentencing,” Roper says, pointing out that this was a different time, what she refers to as the Dark Ages when the criminal justice system re-victimized survivors by silencing them.
The Ropers also quickly saw the effect of grief and the trial trauma on their four surviving children: one ran away, one said they could no longer say the pledge of allegiance to the flag because there was no liberty or justice for their family. These consequences and the shattering loss of hope made them wonder if their marriage would survive. “The vast majority of marriages do not stay intact at the death of a child,” Roper says, so we determined to do everything possible to change how the justice system treated crime victims.”
With the help of a third-year law student, the Stephanie Roper Committee and Foundation, Inc. drafted three victim-centered bills and set to work. Today, as a result of their advocacy, over 100 bills have been passed into Maryland law that Roper believes have vastly improved the process for victims. However, she is most proud of the mandatory victim impact statement law passed in 1985. “This requires the court to listen to a written and/or oral statement, giving a voice to victims that they didn’t have before,” she says. In 1994, a state constitutional amendment for crime victims’ rights was passed, which has changed the fabric of the system so that today it benefits all involved.
Roper was also involved with the federal Crime Victims Act of 2004, which provides enforcement of victims’ rights and enables legal representation to ensure those rights. She considers these important pieces of legislation to be Stephanie’s legacy.
When Roper stepped down as Executive Director in 2002, the organization became the Maryland Crime Victims Resource Center, Inc. Today, it is recognized as one of the country’s most effective voices for crime victims and survivors, including those who’ve suffered child rape and child sex abuse. Through state and federal grant funding, all services are offered free of charge. Services range from criminal justice information to support and accompaniment at proceedings, peer support groups for survivors of homicide victims, and many other referrals.
“Our 12 to 15 attorneys handle between 7-or-800 cases per year,” Roper says, “representing victims’ rights and ensuring enforcement of those rights. We have currently contracted with an organization to which we make referrals for counseling, and of course we are continuing our advocacy. We are also responsible for establishing a beautiful, tranquil garden of remembrance through the help of friends and donors, where we hold an annual event so people will know their loved ones are remembered.
“I am deeply honored to receive CHILD USA’s Sean P. McIlmail Hero Award, and commend Sean’s parents for their courage in pursuing truth and restoring hope to victims of crime.”