Calming canine

Faulkner County gets first courthouse dog

Fawn Borden, left, and Susan Bradshaw are handlers for Barb, a certified facility dog. The 20th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is the first in Arkansas to get a courthouse dog. Barb can be used to calm youth ages 18 and younger when they testify as witnesses or victims in criminal cases. Bradshaw is victim/witness coordinator and supervisor of the Victim Services Office, a part of the prosecutor’s office, and Borden is victim/witness coordinator.
Fawn Borden, left, and Susan Bradshaw are handlers for Barb, a certified facility dog. The 20th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is the first in Arkansas to get a courthouse dog. Barb can be used to calm youth ages 18 and younger when they testify as witnesses or victims in criminal cases. Bradshaw is victim/witness coordinator and supervisor of the Victim Services Office, a part of the prosecutor’s office, and Borden is victim/witness coordinator.

Barb was snoring as she lay in the 20th Judicial District Victim Services Office in Conway, oblivious to the fact that she’s the first courthouse dog in the state.

The 2-year-old Labrador/golden retriever mix is a certified facility dog assigned to the prosecutor’s office and trained to assist children who testify in criminal proceedings. She will be used in Faulkner, Van Buren and Searcy counties.

Arkansas is also the first state to enact legislation regarding the use of a facility dog, said Cody Hiland, 20th Judicial District prosecuting attorney, who asked for the law.

The Courthouse Dogs Child Witness Support Act was enacted in 2015 to ensure that child witnesses or victims may be assisted by certified facility dogs, and Barb came to Conway in February.

“We deal with so much bad stuff; this has been one of the more positive things to be a part of. We’re really, really proud of it,” Hiland said.

Children often have to go into graphic detail about their sexual assault or rape to “12 strangers,” Hiland said. Barb, owned and trained by Canine Companions for Independence, is designed to help the children stay calm.

However, Hiland was skeptical when Susan Bradshaw, victim/witness coordinator, suggested participating in the program.

Bradshaw said she received an email from the state Prosecuting Attorney Coordinator’s Office asking if any prosecutor’s office used a facility dog.

“I said, ‘No, … but I’d love to know more about it,’” she said. A link in the email for the Courthouse Dogs Foundation in Seattle was provided.

When Bradshaw threw out the idea to Hiland, he was hesitant.

“It might have been too warm and fuzzy for him,” Bradshaw said, no pun intended.

Hiland agreed that he was ambivalent in the beginning.

“Anything that’s new, you don’t want to be the first one to try something and fail,” he said.

Bradshaw, like a dog with a bone, didn’t give up. She asked senior trial attorney and fellow dog lover Carol Crews to help her change Hiland’s mind.

Hiland said that what sealed the deal was when he heard about a court proceeding in which a 12-year-old girl with cerebral palsy had to testify in a sexual-assault case.

The girl became so upset she had to be taken off the stand. “She had a meltdown,” Hiland said.

It was Bradshaw’s client, and they took her off the stand and to the bathroom.

“We had to go in there and try to calm her down and get her to breathe; it was really rough,” Bradshaw said. “We were barely able to get her to speak again.”

Although the girl’s abuser was found guilty, Hiland said, the incident was the turning point.

“I said, ‘You know what? We’re going to do what it takes,’” he said.

Bradshaw took the lead and started the lengthy process in December 2014 to get a certified dog.

Hiland wanted to put some teeth in the idea.

“I thought, why not create some legislation to ensure that these kids have a right and opportunity to have the dog? I wanted it to be the public policy of the state of Arkansas that we’re going to value our children when they’re testifying,” Hiland said.

He approached state Rep. Rebecca Petty, R-Rogers, and she sponsored the bill, along with co-sponsors state Sens. Jason Rapert, R-Conway; David Sanders, R-Little Rock; and Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs.

“It flew through the Legislature,” Hiland said. “It was fantastic; it was a great experience.” The bill became law in March 2015.

Bradshaw said that first, she had a long phone conversation with a representative of the Courthouse Dog Foundation, who referred Bradshaw to Canine Companions for Independence. Different animal-service organizations are used to train the dogs, but the foundation primarily uses Canine Companions for Independence, she said.

Barb has been training since she was born, Bradshaw said, and the dog spent six to eight months in intensive training in Oceanside, California. Bradshaw and Barb’s other handler, victim/witness advocate Fawn Borden, spent two weeks in Oceanside, where they took written and practical tests.

“They trained us to learn everything she’d learned in two years; no pressure,” Bradshaw said with a laugh.

The women brought Barb to Conway on Feb. 16.

“We just started using her immediately, as far as meetings, meeting children who came in, bailiffs and court staff; taking her around to meet more and more people. She’s so laid-back,” Bradshaw said.

Barb hasn’t been used during a trial yet because the law requires a hearing before a judge in which prosecutors have to show “some sort of relationship has been formed with the child and the dog,” Bradshaw said.

“We have to find a case nearer to the beginning,” she said.

Barb arrived knowing 40 commands and with a $1 million liability insurance policy. Bradshaw said the policy is to cover the county if anything “bizarre” happens and the dog hurts someone — which she said she can’t imagine, knowing Barb. Barb also has to be recertified every year through Canine Companions for Independence.

A $5,656 state General Improvement Fund grant is being used to cover the cost of Barb’s food and veterinarian bills for one year, as well as the employees’ trip to California.

“It’s like leasing a car; the dog is not ours — it’s leased to us to work as long as she works,” Bradshaw said. “We can keep her as a pet dog afterward.”

Bradshaw said the office is looking for a funding source for the future.

“What my vision would be is a facility-dog foundation to pave the way so that it’s not everybody individually fundraising for their one dog,” Bradshaw said. Two people from Grandma’s House, a children’s advocacy center in Harrison, were in California last week training for a facility dog.

Barb goes to work every day in the Victim Services Office in the Faulkner County Justice Building on South German Lane, and she primarily goes home with Bradshaw.

“I have two other dogs, two cats and a guinea pig, so she fits in with the zoo at our house,” Bradshaw said.

Bradshaw said her vision for the dog was to give children “a sense of empowerment and control.”

Sometimes, children don’t have family members in attendance, Bradshaw said.

“We’re sitting there in the audience trying to support them. It’s so hard for them — if they can’t get the words out and tell what happened to them, then we can’t get the jury to hear it and consider what he did and whether he should be convicted.”

The child will respond to the dog’s demeanor, she said.

“If [the dogs are] calm or laid out, … if they’re not worried about that person, why am I, because I’ve got this big dog at my feet, and I feel safe. Or, they can hold onto the leash and feel in control,” Bradshaw said.

“Then we started thinking about — not only that — it’s scary to even come into our office,” she said. It’s an unfamiliar place for the children, and they have to meet with attorneys and tell their stories as if they were on the witness stand.

“Every time they come here, there will be this friendly dog here,” Bradshaw said. “We’ve used her already several times in meetings, and we hear [the kids] say, ‘That was really fun,’ or ‘That wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.’”

Barb has been taken to court during pretrial days.

“Kids sitting down here waiting to testify — they’re down here playing with the dog, rolling all over her and throwing the ball,” Bradshaw said, adding that it takes their minds off having to testify.

Hiland said he’s already received an email from a child victim’s mother, thanking him for having the dog.

“I’ve been around a lot of these kids testifying,” Hiland said. “If it helps them just a little bit, it’s worth it.”

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.

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