Dahmer Court Clerk A ‘Victim,’ Seeks Disability

A former court clerk who sat through gruesome testimony during serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s trial says the experience has given her years of panic attacks and depression.

A hearing begins Tuesday on Vickie Hines’ workers’ compensation claim, seeking about $65,000 in wages lost after her claimed disability forced her to quit in 1994.

She also wants about $12,000 for mental health treatment.

Dahmer, arrested in 1991, eventually admitted killing 17 boys and young men, some of whom were dismembered and cannibalized. He was beaten to death by a fellow prison inmate in 1994.

Hines sat just a few feet from Dahmer throughout his three-week trial in 1992.

“In a way she’s Jeffery Dahmer’s last victim - at least the last victim we know about,” Hines’ lawyer, Robert Blondis, said Saturday.

As a result of the trial, Hines suffered panic attacks, began drinking before work, had nightmares and became withdrawn, Blondis said.