Savannah Perkins

By Savannah Perkins

 

The soon-to-be-former director of the local center for children’s justice introduced his successor at the Cache County Council meeting Tuesday evening.  

 

“After a search and interview process which was organized and conducted by the county attorney and the human resources department, my replacement is here,” said Mike Stauffer, the director of Cache County Children’s Justice Center. “She is a quick study so I am sure that she will be a great director.”

 

Joan Liquin, who is currently a victim advocate in the County Attorney’s Office, was announced as Stauffer’s replacement.  

 

“Mike has done an exceptional job and done great work,” Liquin said. “I appreciate that the shoes I have to fill are quite big.”

 

Liquin began her career as a program coordinator at Utah State University for five years, from there she worked as a projects coordinator for the Logan Police Department and for the past 12 years she has been with the County Attorney’s Office as a victim advocate, working through the court system, mainly focusing on juvenile court.

 

Stauffer explained that the center is a child friendly facility, where children who are suspected of having been abused are brought to be interviewed about the circumstances of what happened to them.

 

“It is lightyears ahead of how we used to do it when I was a young deputy sheriff,” Stauffer said. “When we would get a case of child abuse reported in the 1970s, which rarely happened, we were ill-prepared to deal with it.”

 

The center helped with 398 children abuse cases from the valley during 2015, Stauffer said. This number is higher than he has ever seen during his 12 years with the center.

 

Liquin said she will continue Stauffer’s efforts to expand services into Box Elder County and Rich County areas as those services are needed.

 

“It has been a pleasure and an honor for me to work there for the past 12 years and I feel the facility will be in good hands,” Stauffer said.