CPCS in the Community
Fall River Office visits SSTAR
Public Defenders, Investigators and Social Service Advocates visited the Stanley Street Treatment and Resource Center (SSTAR), a non-profit health care and social service agency which is a model for addiction and mental health treatment internationally (http://www.sstar.org/). They met with Nancy E. Paull, the CEO of SSTAR and a wonderful advocate for people in Fall River and New Bedford struggling with addiction, mental illness and poverty for over three decades.
Ben Evans awarded Public Defender of the Year
On May 7, 2015, the Massachusetts Bar Association presented Ben Evans, a supervising attorney in the Public Defender Division’s Fall River office with the prestigious Access to Justice Defender Award.After graduating from law school, Ben started as a staff attorney in the New Bedford office. Ben has been a supervising attorney in the Fall River office since 2011. Ben has been a mentor to many staff attorneys and law school interns. For more information from the Massachusetts Bar Association, click here.
CPCS Receives Award from RWU Law
On January 30, 2015, the Roger Williams University School of Law held its inaugural Champion of Justice dinner at the Providence Biltmore Hotel in Rhode Island. The law school presented the Committee for Public Counsel Services with its 2015 Community Partner Champion Award in recognition of CPCS’s “impact and accomplishments” in supporting the law school’s public interest programs. Tom Mello and Ben Evans, supervising attorneys for the New Bedford and Fall River Public Defender Division offices, accepted the Champion of Justice Award for CPCS. Many other CPCS staff attorneys attended the dinner and award ceremony. To see the Champions of Justice video featuring CPCS attorneys, view it here.