Mi Yung C. Park

Mi Yung Claire Park is a trial attorney with the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where she works tirelessly to ensure that victims of child exploitation are afforded their rights to restitution and to be heard at sentencing. 

In case after case, when Ms. Park encounters obstacles to the provision of victims’ rights, she refuses to be deterred. To ensure adequate restitution is ordered, Ms. Park takes time to understand the long-term impact of these crimes by talking with mental health professionals. She works to ensure that the restitution awarded takes into account the long-term mental health needs of her clients. 

Ms. Park works hard to determine assets to satisfy restitution orders on behalf of her clients. In one case, she identified state retirement funds of an offender and requested that they be liquidated for the purposes of paying restitution. Although this process is complicated because of the potential tax penalties for early withdrawal, Ms. Park is working with other federal agencies to resolve this issue on behalf of her clients. She also works to make sure that victims are afforded their right to be heard at sentencing despite obstacles which may make travel for the victims difficult. 

As a result of these and many other efforts, victims across the country are able to feel they have a voice in the process, and that they are able to obtain restitution in order to begin healing from the crimes committed against them.