Meet Bronksey – the Staten Island District Attorney’s new victims advocate.
The 2-year-old golden retriever-lab mix has just joined the office to help calm the nerves of witnesses, especially children, as they testify in stressful situations. He’s also the first permanent “comfort dog” to be employed by a district attorneys office in New York City.
“We investigate over 300 child abuse cases a year and you can imagine how difficult it must be for a child to explain some horrific incident that happened to them to strangers,” Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan said yesterday in announcing his newest addition to the office.
Bronksey was donated by Canine Companions for Independence, a non-profit that trains therapy dogs. One administrative change had to be made immediately; the dog’s name was original “Bronx.”
“We had a really difficult time taking a dog named Bronx in Staten Island, so we made a little variation,” Donovan said, joking that he didn’t want the Bronx DA to think they stole his dog.
While Bronksey was supposed to take a week to get used to his new office, he was called into action early to help a 12-year-boy who was sexually assaulted by a relative testify before the grand jury.
Donovan said that as they were leaving the courthouse, the mom thanked prosecutors for the use of the dog, “making this process, this terrible ordeal, a little bit better.”
Therapy dogs have been long been used in hospitals, in nursing homes and with the disabled to reduce stress and anxiety. They are increasingly being used in other ways.
More and more dogs are being used more in courtroom settings across the country and last year, Yale Law School offered therapy dogs to be checked out like books for 30 minutes at a time to help stressed out law students studying.
However, the practice of using therapy dogs to help people testify is not without controversy. Last year a dog was used to calm a 15-year-old Poughkeepsie girl as she testified against her father, whom was convicted raping and impregnated her.
The man’s attorney later appealed the conviction arguing that the formal setting of a courtroom is useful in dissuading witnesses from lying. Defense attorneys argue that the cute canines can sway jurors and make witnesses look more wholesome.
For the time being, Donovan said Bronksey is only being used during questioning with investigators and before and after courtroom testimony, Donovan said.
bdefalco@nypost.com