EVANSTON — For the past eight months, Maria Oroz has been hard at work as the victim witness coordinator for the Uinta County Attorney’s office.

“I see a lot of different things,” Oroz said, “there’s never a dull moment in our office.” 

Oroz took a few moments out of her busy schedule to share with the Herald what her job entails and why it matters. 

A complete list of Oroz’s job duties is lengthy and covers a broad spectrum of services; however, providing support to victims and witnesses to criminal actions is a large part of what she does on a daily basis. She said that providing support includes everything from emotional support and crisis intervention to scheduling court testimony and providing information about the legal process and statutes. 

Sometimes the support even includes childcare duties, as evidenced by the toys in her office. Oroz said at times people need to appear in court and have nobody to watch their children, so the kids play in her office. 

Victim and witness support is both the most rewarding and the most challenging part of her job. “Sometimes there are hard cases,” she said, “and the emotional involvement gets difficult.”

Oroz also does a lot of work with court-ordered restitution and assisting victims filing compensation claims. Her position requires close coordination with other victim witness coordinators throughout the area and with the staff at SAFV. In addition, she is a certified teacher of parenting classes, which she said she has “loved doing.” 

Uinta County Attorney Loretta Howieson sang Oroz’s praises in an email to the Herald. “Maria has demonstrated that she possesses a rare combination of candor and compassion,” Howieson wrote. “These qualities, along with confidence and conviction in the office’s duties, makes her the true advocate for victims and witnesses that we have seen day to day.” 

Oroz said that sometimes people have a negative viewpoint of the staff of the county attorney’s office because of the nature of their work prosecuting criminal cases. “We’re all here because we care and we’re trying to help people,” she said. 

Oroz is a Wyoming native and studied at the University of Wyoming. She said she is happy to be back in her home state after spending some time living and working in Colorado. Her extensive background in various social services positions, as well as the fact that she is bilingual, serves her well in the county attorney’s office, she said.

Oroz said that moving into the victim witness coordinator position following Steve Aaron’s retirement was a learning process. “People told me I had some big shoes to fill,” she said, “but I’ve had lots of support here in finding my own niche.”

“This office is a good team, “ Oroz said. “Everybody has specific things they do, but we help each other out. We’re a nice family.”