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Live Date Title Instructor Time
Watch Now Working with Teen Victims: Tips for the Investigation and Prosecution of Child Abuse Cases Beth Merachnik, JD  90 minutes

Brief Overview: Cases of child abuse involving a teenage victim presents its own unique challenges for prosecution. Understanding adolescent brain development is important for forensic interviewers as well as investigators and prosecutors. Preparing the case requires not only thorough investigation but thoughtful communication with a teen victim to obtain the facts of the crime and provide essential information about the prosecutor's role and judicial process. This approach will facilitate building a strong criminal case for prosecution.

Expert Presenter: Beth Merachnik, JD, serves as the Deputy Director of the Association of Prosecuting Attorney’s (APA) Child Abuse Prosecution Project. She is the former Director of APA’s Smart Prosecution Project. Ms. Merachnik is a former prosecutor from Massachusetts having served for over twenty years in both the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office and the Office of the Attorney General. Ms. Merachnik prosecuted a wide variety of cases during her career at the District Attorney’s office, including crimes of homicide, sexual assault and child abuse. For over four years, Ms. Merachnik held the position Director of the Middlesex Domestic Violence in which she was responsible for implementing policy and program development, preparing training programs, facilitating community outreach and designing strategies for prosecution and victim safety.

Ms. Merachnik served at the Office of the Attorney General, first as the Chief of the Community-Based Justice Bureau. The bureau was dedicated to developing programs and policies, devising strategies, drafting legislation and providing training in the areas of family violence, child protection, juvenile justice and community safety. Following this, Ms. Merachnik served as Senior Counsel and Trial Attorney in the Criminal Bureau, prosecuting financial crime, public corruption and computer crime. Ms. Merachnik served on the Governor’s Commission for Sexual and Domestic Violence where she was co-chair of the legislative sub-committee.

Connecting you with experts in the field of child abuse

Continuing Education Credits

This activity has also been designed to meet the Minnesota Board of Social Work for 1.5 hours CEU.

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For any programming questions, please contact Sara Lee at sara.lee1@childrensmn.org.
For any technical questions, please contact Kia Kehrer at kia.kehrer@childrensmn.org.