Courthouse_Dogs

This is one of Ellen's favorite success stories that shows how one of these dogs can make a difference:

A five-year-old boy saw his mother severely beaten by her boyfriend. In addition to that, the boyfriend poured gasoline on his mother and him and threatened to set them on fire. The little boy made the 911 call, and he and his mother were soon placed in a shelter for their own protection. However, the little boy was so traumatized by this, that he stopped talking altogether. When pressed, he would put his hand down his throat as if he were trying to vomit. He was brought into the King County Prosecutor's office to speak with an interviewer about what happened. After his mother explained to the interviewer that her son was unlikely to speak, the interviewer asked the mother if her son liked dogs. She said that he loved dogs. So, he meet a courthouse facility dog named Ellie, and the two of them played together before the interview began. Once they began the interview, Ellie snuggled beside him and he was able to tell the interviewer what happened for the first time. When the boy would struggle for words, she would snuggle in closer. At one point after this happened, he told the interviewer, "see, Ellie loves me." Because she was there to provide this comfort, he was able to finish the interview, and before they left the room, he kissed her.

Most courthouse facility dogs around the US are Labrador retrievers, golden retrievers, or a cross of these two breeds. Assistance Dog schools have found that these dogs have the best temperament to do this work, and people usually see these dogs as friendly. A well-bred retriever is quiet and obedient, and is not aggressive at all. One thing that is important in the courthouse is that these dogs look very different from a police canine dog. Since K9 units usually use German shepherds or Belgian Malinois, those would be bad breeds to choose.

Each courthouse facility dog has a primary handler with whom they live full-time. This is typically a victim advocate, detective, forensic interviewer, guardian ad litem, or a deputy prosecuting attorney. They go to work with their handler every day, and when they're off-duty, they have the same great life as a pet dog.

Some assistance dog organizations place these dogs, valued at about $40,000, free of charge or at very low cost (typically around $5000). These schools also provide training to the handlers free of charge. The rest of the expenses can be covered by nonprofit organizations, the primary handler, or funds made available by law enforcement organizations. Usually those funds are moneys seized from narcotics traffickers. Many veterinarians and pet stores provide their services/products to these dogs free of charge.

This is from Ellen O'Neill-Stephens:

While I was working as a deputy prosecuting attorney in Seattle, Washington, I saw how stressful it was for victims and witnesses to testify in trials. It seemed like there had to be a better way to seek the truth without causing emotional harm to people. This idea occurred to me when my son, who is disabled, got a service dog named Jeeter. When I saw how comforting this dog was for him, and everyone else that encountered this dog, I realized that this type of dog could help people through the legal process. There was one day a week when Jeeter couldn't be with my son, so I asked the juvenile drug court judge if Jeeter could come to court and help the teenagers in their drug recovery (that was where I currently posted). The judge and the drug court team agreed that Jeeter's presence would be good for these teenagers. His presence was such a success that other prosecutors in my office asked if Jeeter could help children that had been sexually assaulted. We started bringing him to those cases too, and it made an incredible difference.

Pretty soon, the demand for Jeeter grew, and because he was only working one day a week, the King County Prosecutors Office applied for a facility dog from Canine Companions for Independence. This dog's name is Ellie, and she has been working in the prosecutor's office since 2004 with great success.

I'm also including a link to a news article that was written about Jeeter when he helped 7-year-old twin sisters testify after they had been abused. I'm also giving you the link to another article written about how we got started!

Judges have usually only met pet dogs, and based on those experiences, they are very reluctant to have a dog in the courtroom. They need to maintain courtroom decorum and protect the rights of the defendant. After they meet a professionally trained courthouse facility dog, they can see that having a quiet non-reactive dog in the courtroom would be acceptable. For instance, our dogs don't bark or growl unless specifically commanded to do so, and can lie quietly for very long periods of time (about 2 hours without needing a break). You can read more about the training standards on Assistance Dogs International's website- they set all of the standards for facility dogs. That's one about why the concept was hard to get off the ground.

Judges also worry that the dog will make one witness look more appealing to the jury. We've helped developed protocols that minimize this problem- for instance, usually the jury is dismissed from the courtroom until the witness and the dog are settled on the witness stand, and then the jury is brought back in. Often, in a jury trial, the jury never actually sees the dog with the witness because they dog is shielded by the witness stand. The witnesses are also instructed not to bend down or directly interact with the dog during testimony. Until we developed solutions for those, that was a roadblock for us.

A less direct but very real obstacle for us has also been finding the funding to provide training around the united states. We try to offer trainings to ensure that agencies and courts are using best practices with courthouse facility dogs, but sometimes funding can be a limiting factor.