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Sunday, May 5, 2002
Claire Harwell: Warrior for Justice
By Melissa W. Sais
For the Journal
With a passion for righting the wrongs of violence and a penchant for service, Claire Harwell knows her gifts and uses them well.
A prosecutor with the New Mexico Attorney General's Office, Harwell takes on difficult cases of violence against women, including the case of David Parker Ray, the Elephant Butte sex torturer. She will go to trial this summer on the Patrick Ryan case, in which a biologist is accused of using a bear tranquilizer on a woman and repeatedly raping her.
"Claire exemplifies the power a woman can have in obtaining justice for others," says Attorney General Patricia Madrid. "She speaks softly, but if you face her in court you will see a warrior."
Harwell, 43, doesn't see herself as fighting for something. Instead she says she is engaged in a struggle to stop violence by teaching people to respect themselves, others and the environment.
"I think physical touch is so important," Harwell says. "We can't tolerate that being contaminated by violence. If we permit it, it will seep into every area of our communal life."
As Harwell prepares for the the bear tranquilizer case, boxes of files form the perimeter of her small Downtown Albuquerque office. Several vases of long-stemmed silk and live flowers in purple and yellow sit on her desk and window sill with photos of her nieces. "When I'm preparing for trial, I have things everywhere," she says. "I put the flowers there to draw the eyes up and distract from the mess."
Path to success
Each step in Harwell's varied career path has been built on the traits she considers her gifts: public speaking and empathizing with people. "One of the keys to being effective is to identify what your gifts are and figure out where they work," she says.
As a high school student, Harwell knew she wanted to practice law or become a therapist. She went on to earn a bachelor's degree in comparative literature at the University of North Carolina, served as a police officer at Duke University while her then-husband attended graduate school and worked as a rape crisis counselor and coordinator.
Harwell says there was no "a-ha moment" when she decided to focus her career on helping victims of violence. "Though I'm very certain about it now," she says.
"My current job is perfect for all of (my interests)," she says. "Working primarily in violent crime prosecution, I'm working with people in crisis. And because of my background, I know at an empathic level what someone is going through."
Growing up on the west coast of Florida, Harwell was a debater and competitive public speaker in high school and the oldest of four children. Her father, a retired Presbyterian minister, and her mother, a retired Christian educator, taught them all the importance of spirituality and service.
"The spirituality piece is central," says Harwell, who is an elder in the First Presbyterian Church. "I think it's essential to personal development that you have a personal spiritual journey that engages your heart and head.
"I think spirituality grounds you and makes you feel confident in yourself so you can give of yourself to others. People who have been through life-threatening situations need you to give of yourself when you ask them to relive that experience."
Harwell calls service a fundamental part of spirituality. "That's what it's about; we get fed by caring for others," she says. "If we as individuals invest our best in the community, the community becomes the best it can be."
Harwell actively serves on the boards of the New Mexico Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs, the Women's Community Association, the Albuquerque Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Unit and the Human Rights advisory board of the ARCA.
Harwell's friend, Albuquerque clinical psychologist Carol Hamilton, says her commitment to service extends well past community involvement. "She has a servant's heart with everyone," Hamilton says. "Service prevails in her friendships. If you need her help, she'll show up."
An interest in exploring new cities brought Harwell and her husband from State College, Penn., to Albuquerque in 1988. She divorced but made Albuquerque her home. She received a law degree from the University of New Mexico in 1992 and began working as an assistant district attorney in the Second Judicial District, where she spent two years exclusively prosecuting felony crimes against children. She joined the Attorney General's Office in 1999 and has focused on crimes against women.
"Claire has a wonderful though difficult gift," Madrid says. "She has an amazing ability to communicate the perspective of the victim in the courtroom. I call her ability a gift, but I'd like people to realize the gift comes with a price. Getting so close to the horror helps her obtain justice, but it brings its nightmares."
Harwell says in almost every case there is one thing that gets to her.
"I don't know how to predict what's going to hit me," she says. "And I don't think I would be effective if I completely walled-off myself."
Hamilton says Harwell has tremendous stamina working in a very grueling area, but she never becomes hardened. "She reacts emotionally to things," Hamilton says. "Her vulnerability is a beautiful thing about her."
"I tell survivors in advance that I'm not going to be a stone," Harwell says. She may sniffle or dab her eyes in the courtroom, as she did during an interview with a reporter.
Harwell copes in a number of ways. She doesn't take case files home with her. She uses meditation and exercise. "I go home and run like hell when I'm angry," she says.
She sees a counselor when she reads her own danger signs, and she has used a type of hypnosis to rid her mind of lingering images.
She also wanders the woods with her 150-pound Irish wolfhound, named Nouwen after the theologian Henri Nouwen, and beads necklaces for her friends. She doesn't watch television, opting to read theology and watercolor instead.
"I have a network of great friends who understand the personal horrors of my work day," she adds. "People who have seen it, too."
Looking to the future, Harwell says she would like to make an impact at the international level in women's rights, while at that same time studying more of the world's cultures.
"Once you identify what you're good at and what you want to be good at, it flows," she says. "Our greatest unhappiness is when we fight what we're good at."