9 are honored for their work on behalf of crime victims

It's tough to get children who have experienced or witnessed a violent crime to talk about it.

It's tougher getting them to testify in court.

Assistant District Attorney Kalli Agelakis possesses the "rare combination of qualities" that allows her to be "a fierce, aggressive trial lawyer" and is someone who, "when she's with a victim, she's so gentle," a former supervisor of hers, Christopher Mallios, said yesterday in a phone interview.

Agelakis, 37, is "kind and gentle, and a pit bull," said Mallios, a former chief of the Family Violence and Sexual Assault Unit in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office who now works for the D.A. in another capacity.

Agelakis yesterday received the prosecutor award from the Philadelphia Coalition for Victim Advocacy (PCVA) at its 18th annual awards luncheon at the Wanamaker Building in Center City.

At the ceremony in the Crystal Tea Room, D.A. Lynne Abraham said of Agelakis: "Kalli is just a delight. She is just so physically attractive. . . . Her inner beauty shines through."

Agelakis was among nine people honored for their sensitive, caring work on behalf of victims.

Also honored was police Detective Bill Wynn, who conducts the defendant line-ups at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility.

In presenting his award, Mary Catherine Lowery, PCVA co-chair, reading from a nominating letter, said Wynn makes witnesses feel comfortable, and "he does it with heart and a huge smile every day."

The other award recipients were police Detective Rosemary DiLacqua; Anuradha Paranjape, of Temple University's School of Medicine; Janet Shaw Lemoine, for her victim-advocacy work; Katy Rose Glickman at the University of Pennsylvania; Monica Yant Kinney, of the Inquirer ; and Marquis Herring and Nia Davis, winners of the Philadelphia Young Playwrights' Annual Playwriting Festival.

Agelakis, who is now assistant chief of the D.A.'s Municipal Court Unit, refers to the cases she worked on in the sexual-assault unit from 1999 to 2003 as some of her most memorable and most touching.

"There's just so many brave children that witness [crimes] and are victimized, and you want to protect them, you want to help make it easier," she said in a phone interview before the awards ceremony.

One of the cases she said she'll always remember involved a 19-year-old mentally challenged woman who was impregnated by her then-71-year-old "uncle."

The man, Alfredo Rodriguez, was a family friend who had brought the girl to live with him in his South Philadelphia home from Puerto Rico when she was 11 so she could have a better life.

Instead, he repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted her for about eight years, starting when she was about 12.

In 2000, Rodriguez was convicted on rape and related charges.

As assistant chief of the Municipal Court Unit, Agelakis also prosecuted a homicide trial in 2006, in which the only witnesses to a daytime playground shooting were children.

Two 10-year-old boys and a 16-year-old girl were playing in a recreational area on 33rd Street near Haverford Avenue, Mantua, on April 6, 2004, when Tyre Gamble, then 19, fatally shot Taj Brokenborough-Chavis, 21.

Through her ability to get young people to speak to her, Agelakis was able to have the boys and girl testify at the trial. Gamble was convicted of first-degree murder.

Agelakis graduated from Temple University's Law School in 1996. She and her husband, Nicholas Badolato, are expecting their first child in six weeks.

The child's sex? It'll be a surprise. *