Before Jennifer Barbettini became a supervising victim advocate for the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office, where she’s been employed for 12 years, she worked at Casa Pacifica Centers for Children and Families. Her job was in an emergency crisis shelter helping abused and neglected girls aged 6 to 17 who had been removed from their homes. The Camarillo nonprofit employed an enormous Newfoundland therapy dog named Archie who weighed 165 pounds and lavished love on people in need of comfort.
Barbettini told the Ventura County Reporter she attended a training program for DA victim advocates where she met counterparts from across the state, and learned that the San Bernardino County DA’s office was in the process of acquiring dogs to assist crime victims and their families. She approached her supervisor, Michael Jump, the Chief Deputy District Attorney of Victim and Community Services, and called him the “dream maker” when it came to starting a Courthouse Dogs Program in 2020.
“I said, ‘What do you think about dogs?’ He’s like, ‘I love dogs,’” Barbettini said. “‘What do you think about dogs in the courthouse?’ ‘I love dogs in the courthouse.’”
The first black Labrador retriever to join the Courthouse Dog Program was Star in June 2020, followed by one of her littermates, Trakr, in October 2020. Star had one litter of puppies while still living at Assistance Dogs of the West (ADW), an accredited dog training facility in Santa Fe, New Mexico. One of Star’s puppies, Comet, became the third dog to join the DA’s office in 2021.
According to Barbettini, since Ventura County launched its Courthouse Dogs Program, other counties have followed.
“They are all over,” she said, noting that there were about 10 working courthouse dogs across all of California when she started her research. “There are way more than that. I would say 20 or 30 dogs now, it’s just crazy. And even L.A. has utilized the same agency; there’s quite a few ADW dogs in California.”
Victim advocates Andrea Stewart (left) and Jennifer Barbettini with Star at the DA’s office.
Helping victims
The three dogs have five handlers who are all victim advocates working at the Hall of Justice in Ventura as well as offsite locations such as the Ventura County Family Justice Center or medical offices where forensic examinations are conducted. When they are not working, the dogs go home with other DA employees, including a prosecutor and an investigator.
The dogs sit silently in court with child crime victims who must testify in frightening surroundings, sometimes even including a jury, their own upset family members and a courtroom full of other observers.
Senior Victim Advocate Andrea Stewart said victim advocates are sometimes the first people crime victims come in contact with from the criminal justice system after talking initially with investigators. Not only do victim advocates explain how the complicated legal process works, they are often the only people from the DA’s office who are with victims and their families throughout their entire ordeal. Major cases are typically handled by at least three different prosecutors and can sometimes take as long as three to five years to resolve.
“And with the dogs, we’ve had quite a few cases where we’ve met with the children during the forensic interviews, when children are disclosing the abuse that they’ve been through, the dogs have been with them through that. Then the dog is there with them at witness prep to get ready to testify, and then the dogs are there with them at sentencing, if it ends up there,” said Stewart, who has been with the office for 10 years.
She loves having dogs as pets and has primarily had boxers at home, so she told the VCReporter she was glad to become a handler and have a Labrador retriever to interact with for the first time.
“This is the first lab in my life so it’s just been amazing. Just the sheer work that we’ve seen them do and the support they provide for our victims has been amazing,” Stewart said.
Courthouse dogs Star and Trackr meet airline pilots while en route to New Orleans to accept an award.
‘Something to focus on’
Victim Advocate Jordan Arnett has been with the DA’s office for three years and first came in contact with a courthouse dog as an intern at the Riverside County DA’s office. She was happy to accept a dog handler role in Ventura County.
“When I moved here, obviously I met our three dogs and I loved them from when I first met them and just saw how great the program is and how much of an impact they make on victims,” Arnett said.
She told the VCReporter during an interview at the DA’s office on May 14 that she and Comet were headed to a sentencing involving child sex crimes.
“I have a minor with her parents. They are going to be giving victim impact statements. So, we’re going to go provide that support and stand up with her while she provides that statement to the court,” Arnett said. “Just by putting their head on their lap or laying on their feet, it just kind of provides that relief for the victim or gives them something to focus on, petting and stuff like that. It’s really cool.”
Scenes of disaster
Caitlin Kearns joined the DA’s Crime Victim’s Assistance Unit nine years ago and previously worked as an officer with the Santa Barbara Police Department. She’s also a crisis intervention expert who teaches other peace officers about mass-casualty incidents and disaster response.
“My collateral assignment in all this is being a dog handler and it’s been amazing. I love dogs, I’ve always had an affinity for black labs. We had hunting dogs growing up,” Kearns told the VCReporter.
Dogs don’t just lighten the mood; they can have a real psychological benefit for victims undergoing traumatic experiences in court, Kearns said.
“I love that support that it provides to the victims in seeing people in their worst moments, or having to recall their worst moments, and having the dogs be there to lighten that,” the veteran victim advocate said. “Releases whatever it may be, stress, anxiety. And so, it’s really awesome to see that they can bridge that gap for that victim.”
As much as a human victim advocate can help with wise words or just by being present, dogs have the ability to comfort people in a different way, Kearns added. “It’s a really awesome program and I’m glad that we get to provide service that they provide to victims that essentially a human can’t provide. You know, sometimes there’s only so many words you can say and only so much support you can give a person. But the dogs really pull out that kind of primal part of us that helps with that support that a human can’t provide.”
Ventura County’s courthouse dogs play a serious role and ligthen the spirits of crime victims.
On the road
Law enforcement and rescue agencies among several regions surrounding Ventura County maintain a memorandum of understanding to provide mutual aid in times of crisis, including Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. After the 2018 Borderline Bar and Grill shooting, courthouse dogs from the L.A. County DA’s office were sent to Thousand Oaks to comfort victims. This year, Ventura County’s courthouse dogs visited with people who lost their homes to fire in Pacific Palisades.
Ventura County’s dogs also traveled to Las Vegas for ceremonies observing the fifth anniversary of the shooting at the 2017 Route 91 Harvest music festival which killed 60 people and wounded more than 400, including numerous Ventura County residents. The dogs apparently made such a great impression visiting different venues in Las Vegas that they later won an award for their work from the National Organization for Victim Advocacy and got to travel to New Orleans to be honored during a ceremony themselves.
The dogs’ recognition also extends to trading cards with their photos and other information, as well as toy versions of themselves with little red vests and a DA’s badge that are handed out to child crime victims. The dogs each have their own Instagram site as well, featuring photos of them dressed up in serious-looking neckties or silly holiday costumes. Star, Trakr and Comet also travel to community events like a recent ribbon cutting in Ventura for the Childhood Matters Wellness Center, a nonprofit offering mental health treatment in collaboration with the Family Justice Center.
Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said the Courthouse Dog Program has been beneficial to crime victims.
“I have witnessed firsthand the transformative power of our Courthouse Dog Program,” Nasarenko wrote about the program on the DA office’s website. “These remarkable four-legged allies provide unwavering support to vulnerable individuals navigating the daunting legal system. With their calming presence and unconditional love, Star, Trakr and Comet offer a unique sense of comfort, allowing witnesses and victims to share their experiences and emotions with renewed courage.”
For more information on the Courthouse Dog Program, visit da.venturacounty.gov/courthouse-dogs/.
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