In January of 1976, after about 10 months on the job, Joan was approached at her duty post in South Boston High School and told to report to the Bourne Barracks, on Cape Cod. There she met a State Police Woman (this was her job title) named Grayce Johnson. Joan started training with her for the investigation of "Morals" cases. Today these would be referred to as Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault cases. This was the beginning of a job with which she truly connected and wanted to make her career. She loved this work and felt as if this was what she was meant to do. Over the next six months, she trained with the two remaining State Police Women learning the details of investigating those cases, the statutes pertaining to them, and the prosecution of defendants.
After that training, Joan worked on her own all over the state at State Police Barracks and local police departments. A lot of travel was involved but she was dedicated to her work, and she cared about bringing justice to those victims. She worked with state or local law enforcement investigators from the inception of the case straight through to prosecution.
With her growing expertise, she found herself being welcomed wherever her assistance was requested. At one point, she was even summonsed to the MSP Commissioner's Office for her input and opinion. A few statutes under the Massachusetts General Laws were being re-written and she was pleased to have been consulted as a subject matter expert.
Joan remembers a specific rape case in Central Massachusetts. At the beginning of the trial, the prosecutor became frustrated because the female victim was too intimidated to fully cooperate with him on the stand. Joan remembers him stepping back from the prosecution table and asking her if she would please conduct the questioning of this witness in his place. The victim was then able to tell her story in open court in a conversation with Joan versus being interrogated by a male. Down the road, Joan was qualified by some trial judges as an "expert witness" on this subject matter. Despite the long hours, Joan was pleased with her career path.
Unfortunately, things were about to change!!!
Wow! Thank you for being there.