Our Team

The Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit is a resource that spans many different avenues of benefit, not only for the victm/survivors but also those who have contact with them in all different capacities. We have assembled trainings that can offer focus on the implementation of the EAA in it’s varied environments to provide the best use possible of this invaluable resource.

Norma Peterson

EXecutive Director

When my sister-in-law Stacy Peterson went missing, our family’s life was forever changed in ways I couldn’t have even imagined. I met Susan and realized there was a way I could empower victims to share their experiences in a way that could be both life changing and possibly life saving. After Susan passed I worked with those who had worked so diligently with her to create this invaluable resource. In doing so, I am moving her work forward to help make the Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit a standard protocol for victims and anyone who works with or on behalf of victims. This is my way of honoring Stacy, Kathleen Savio and Susan, three women who are forever intertwined in my heart.

I have worked for the last several years to bring awareness to the fact that the EAA (Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit) exists and is a viable tool for victims of DV, law enforcement and the judicial system. I have also helped victims to create their own EAA and am currently working with local law enforcement and state legislators to establish this in their protocol when working with victims. In recent years I have spoken and taught classes about the EAA at the National Missing Persons Conference held in Wilmington, North Carolina and became a Illinois State Coordinator. I have spoken to criminal justice students at Aurora University about implementing the EAA as a part of law enforcement protocol.

Michelle Cruz

Attorney

Attorney Michelle Cruz is a graduate of the University of Connecticut, School of Law, holds a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Mount Holyoke College and an Associate Degree in the Administration of Justice.  She served as an Assistant District Attorney in Massachusetts and where she specialized in prosecuting crimes involving victims such as sexual assault, child abuse and domestic violence. In 2007 she was appointed by Governor M. Jodi Rell as the State Victim Advocate where she ran the state’s victims’ rights enforcement agency.  She worked to improve the field of domestic violence, drafting several investigative reports (including the Jennifer Magnano Investigation which has been utilized in a documentary, Jen42, on coercive control) which led to sweeping changes to the state’s response to domestic violence.  She advocated for laws that enhanced the rights of crime victims, including domestic violence laws and laws to revamp the missing persons investigations.  She argued numerous motions on behalf of CT crime victims.  She has published numerous articles, has made media appearances both on radio and television, including Deadline with Tamron Hall, and has been spoken at numerous conferences on a variety of topics, including, coercive control, missing persons, domestic violence, mass casualties, and victims’ rights, in both the US and Canada.  Currently, Attorney Cruz is in a private in Springfield, serving clients in MA and CT.  She recently was successful in negotiating the largest settlement ($750,000.00) in the city of Springfield, before trial in a police brutality case which also led to a federal bureau of investigation and indictment by the MA Attorney General of fourteen police officers and two civilians for the attack on her client and charges related to obstruction of justice and perjury.   Attorney Cruz was also successful in suing the city of Chicopee, involving the Amanda Plasse case; a case of first impression for MA, involving violation of a murder victim’s family’s privacy rights.  The lawsuit involved law enforcement officers who photographed Amanda Plasse, the murder victim, and distributed those photos in the department and in the community.  She focuses her practice on Victims’ Right, Children and Family law, Title IX investigations and civil rights litigation.