VICTIMS: WOMAN TURNS TRAGEDY INTO CRUSADE

PERRYVILLE -- Sarah Froems~dorf couldn't shed a tear during the murder trial of her husband's killer.

She sat silently as the prosecution described the way her husband a state trooper on a routine traffic stop was shot four times using his own service revolver, the second slug severing his spinal cord and killing him instantly.

And she listened as the family of Jerome Mallett, the man convicted of first degree murder, wept on the stand and pleaded for mercy from the jurors. She listened as the defense unsuccessfully argued that the shooting was in self-defense.

But she and her three young daughters were warned against showing any emotion during the two-week trial. To do so could have resulted in a mistrial, they were told.

"If my children cried, I was told it could mean an automatic mistrial, yet the defense was allowed to cry and ask for mercy," she said.

She asked herself why she and her daughters had so many rules to follow, while the accused and his family seemed to be granted every leniency in the courtroom proceedings.

"There were other things, too. My 13-year-old, Teri, was very intimidated and afraid of Jerome Mallett. She came to me crying, saying she couldn't face him any more in the courtroom," she said.

"I told her to stare him down, and eventually he'll be intimidated by you. At the trial when he was testifying, his attorney asked that Teri either leave the courtroom or sit in the back. Her presence was `upsetting' him."

She also learned a lot about the criminal justice system and the rights of victims and their families.

Now, she's part of a network of victims' rights activists across the country and is the founder of the Missouri State Survivors Association.

But she never forgets how it all started.

James Froemsdorf was a 35-year-old Missouri State Highway Patrolman when he was killed in the line of duty by a man on the run from authorities in Texas.

On March 2, 1985, Froemsdorf, a Cape Girardeau native, stopped a speeding motorist along Interstate 55, near the Brewer exit in Perry County.

The motorist was Mallett, who was wanted for stealing $60,000 worth of jewelry from a story in Texas. Froemsdorf radioed Mallett's license number, and discovered he was wanted for armed robbery and probation violation. He handcuffed Mallett and took him to the patrol car.

According to trial testimony, Mallett, then 26, broke free from the handcuffs, struggled with Froemsdorf and somehow managed to get possession of Froemsdorf's service revolver, a .357 Magnum.

He shot Froemsdorf a nine year veteran of the patrol four times. A pathologist testified that the first shot hit the trooper in the chest area of his bullet-proof vest, knocking him against the driver's side door of the patrol car and "rendering him helpless."

Froemsdorf was then shot twice in the right side of the neck, one of shots striking his spinal cord and killing him instantly, the pathologist said. The fourth shot grazed Froemsdorf's shoulder.

Mallett then fled, leaving behind a partially completed speeding ticket, his Social Security card, a Texas identification card and Texas driver's permit in the patrol car.

Froemsdorf's revolver was found later than night in a wrecked car Mallett admitted to abandoning in St. Francois County.

A passing motorist noticed Froemsdorf's slumped body in the patrol car and reported it to police.

Froemsdorf became the first Missouri state trooper to be killed in the line of duty in 16 years, and the brutal killing touched off a massive, statewide manhunt resulting in Mallett's capture three days later.

In fact, it was just nine hours after Froemsdorf's funeral that Mallett was captured at a motel in Desloge. More than 600 people, including Gov. John Ashcroft, attended the funeral in Cape Girardeau.

Mallett was convicted of first-degree murder in March 1986 and was sentenced to death. He is on death row at the Potosi Correctional Center. Appeals have so far been denied.

Sarah Froemsdorf thinks her husband's murder could have been prevented.

"When I look at Jerome Mallett's record, three times he tried to kill police officers and three times it was plea bargained away," she said. "He had already violated probation and had 65 outstanding warrants in Texas.

"Maybe if somewhere along the line, someone had not just slapped his hand, Jim would be alive today."

She said the loss shattered her life and the lives of her three daughters.

"The youngest two were only 7 and 8 when this happened. Their security was shattered," she said. "My oldest daughter was 13, and to this day, I don't think she has completely recovered."

Froemsdorf said she went through several stages after her husband's death ... first denial and then anger. The anger stayed.

She began communicating with other widows. And she started a support group with a monthly newsletter.

She found she wasn't alone in identifying an inadequacy in the area of victims' right.

"Every one of the victims I've met from across the state tells me the same stories," said Froemsdorf, of Perryville. "They were victimized by the very system that is there supposedly to protect them."

Victims never choose to be victims, she said, but the criminal has a choice of whether or not to commit the crime.

"Jim didn't have a choice, I didn't have a choice, and my children certainly didn't have a choice," she said.

Missouri also has no laws that require victims to be kept informed of the progress of their assailant's case, to be reimbursed for medical expenses and property losses and to have any say in decisions, pleas or sentencing. Victims also have no right of appeal.

"Victims feel victimized by the system," she said. "This is especially true in rape cases."

The Missouri State Survivors Association has been taken over by Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS), a national organization. Froemsdorf has since devoted her time to promoting an amendment to the Missouri Constitution that would entitle victims the right to be informed, the right to restitution, speedy disposition of their cases and reasonable protection from the defendant.

The amendment will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot.

Froemsdorf said just getting the amendment on the ballot was a victory. She lobbied in support of the amendment in 1990 and 1991, testifying before the state Senate and House.

"Every day I had off I was in Jefferson City," said Froemsdorf, a registered nurse who works at Southeast Missouri Hospital.

"That's what it took for the bill to pass. And now, I talk to as many people as I can, because the more people I talk to, the more voters I talk to."

Froemsdorf said most people aren't aware of the lack of victims' rights under current state law. She said that while protecting the rights of accused is important, "Now we need to back the victim with a constitutional amendment just like the criminal has. Now is the time to protect the victims and many of the good people of this world."

In Missouri, only 10 counties out of 114 have victim's advocate services through county prosecuting attorney's offices, and funds to pay back victim's losses are scarce.

If the amendment passes, both of those things will likely change, she said.

"One out of three people is going to be a victim of crime before the year is out," she said. "People should realize that sooner or later, they're going to get hit."

But she said she was typical in that she never expected such a ruthless crime to hit so close to home.

"At first you deny it, then you become very angry, then you learn to live with it," she said. "You don't ever get over it."