Furry Peace, Justice will visit crime victims
The Orange-Osceola State Attorney’s Office will get two new volunteers — Justice and Peace, certified therapy dogs.
Justice, a 4-year-old German shepherd, belongs to Assistant State Attorney Michelle Latham, head of the domestic violence division where Justice will also work one day a week. Peace, a 21-month-old golden retriever who belongs to Downtown Trinity Lutheran Church, will visit with victims in the sex crimes unit once every other week.
The dogs and their trainers volunteer their time, so their visits will not cost the office, spokeswoman Eryka Washington said.
Peace and Justice will be available to victims when they come into the State Attorney’s Office to talk about their cases or re-tell details of their case, Washington said. Prosecutors and victim’s advocates can schedule those meetings on days when the dogs will be in the office.
Both dogs volunteer their time in senior homes and nursing facilities. Peace even has a Facebook page where people can request visits from her.
Peace, who came to the
church as part of the Lutheran Church Charities’ Comfort Dog Ministry, wears a blue vest and usually has a bandana around her neck, said Eric Havens, general manager of the church. Peace lives with him and his wife, Wendy Havens, program manager for the Orlando church’s comfort dog program.
“They have that sense where they can find that person who’s in need, whether there’s something that’s happened in their lives and they need comforting. They just have that sixth sense,” Havens said. “Lots of times they start talking, divulging what’s on their minds.”
Havens said the partnership started as a coincidence: Erin McCaulley, victim services director for the State Attorney’s Office, called Havens to see if she could use some of the church’s parking spots for victims’ families during trials. He agreed — and then got an idea.
“The Lord opened the door to me,” Havens said. “I said, I have a favor to ask you.”
Peace came to the church three months ago after a rigorous 2,000-hour training course at a Lutheran Church Charities ministry in Illinois, which started when she was 8 weeks old, Havens said. Her six trainers, all church members, were working on getting her into the community on a regular basis. So Havens asked: Could Peace work with the State Attorney’s Office?
Latham also suggested bringing in her own dog after seeing the response she got in nursing homes, Washington said. And so the program was born.
Comfort dogs are already occasional visitors in Orange and Osceola county courtrooms: The Ninth Judicial Circuit, which manages judges and juries in the counties, has a K-9th Circuit Program that assigns comfort dogs to people — especially children — who testify in court. Peace and Justice will likely stay at the State Attorney’s Office, not in the courtroom, Washington said.