Dog Helps Young Rape Victim Testify

Dog Helps Young Rape Victim Testify



POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. — Rosie, the first judicially approved courtroom dog in New York, was in the witness box here nuzzling a 15-year-old girl who was testifying that her father had raped and impregnated her. Rosie sat by the teenager’s feet. At particularly bad moments, she leaned in.

When the trial ended in June with the father’s conviction, the teenager “was most grateful to Rosie above all,” said David A. Crenshaw, a psychologist who works with the teenager. “She just kept hugging Rosie.”

Now an appeal planned by the defense lawyers is placing Rosie at the heart of a legal debate that will test whether there will be more Rosies in courtrooms in New York and, possibly, other states.

Rosie is a golden retriever therapy dog who specializes in comforting people when they are under stress. Both prosecutors and defense lawyers have described her as adorable, though she has been known to slobber. Prosecutors here noted that she is also in the vanguard of a growing trial trend: in Arizona, Hawaii, Indiana, Idaho and some other states in the last few years, courts have allowed such trained dogs to offer children and other vulnerable witnesses nuzzling solace in front of juries.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/09/nyregion/dog-helps-rape-victim-15-testify.html?_r=1&hp

:shrug:

:loveya: Rosie and all the other therapy/rescue/working dogs out there!

And I concur totally about working dogs -- a friend of mine's life was saved by a mini-poodle who alerts when she's about to pass out, giving her daughter time to call an ambulance.

Even non-therapy dogs can provide incredible empathy and comfort. After my dad died last fall, my dogs barely left my side for the month where my life consisted of going to work, knitting, and sleeping.

:)

And my Cody has helped me through a lot of tough times. I think this is a great idea. I cannot imagine how terrifying it would be for a kid to testify, even worse against a parent. Let them have a little comfort.

this story made me do the "happy dance"!

:grouphug:

His public defenders, David S. Martin and Steven W. Levine, have raised a series of objections that they say seem likely to land the case in New York’s highest court. They argue that as a therapy dog, Rosie responds to people under stress by comforting them, whether the stress comes from confronting a guilty defendant or lying under oath.

But they say jurors are likely to conclude that the dog is helping victims expose the truth. “Every time she stroked the dog,” Mr. Martin said in an interview, “it sent an unconscious message to the jury that she was under stress because she was telling the truth.”