‘Dogs work magic’: Group wants therapy pups to help traumatized witnesses testify

Hufflepuff is a 2-year-old half-French, half-English bulldog with an almost magical ability to bring calm. Which makes sense because his name comes from the Harry Potter novels.

“The dogs literally work magic. I can’t explain it,” said Stephani Loffredo, Hufflepuff’s owner and handler, as yet another passerby stops to say “Hiiii!” to the nearly 70-pound trained therapy dog.

Loffredo, who is treasurer of a volunteer-based nonprofit organization called Courtroom Critters, is hoping to get the organization, which so far consists of 20 teams of handlers and therapy dogs such as Hufflepuff, approved for the use of its dogs in the courtrooms of the Regional Justice Center, and eventually other local courtrooms.

The objective is to have the dogs be present in the courtroom to help traumatized, scared, or anxious witnesses give testimony, Loffredo said during an interview Wednesday in front of the Regional Justice Center in downtown Las Vegas.

At this time, Loffredo said, she wants the dogs to be helping traumatized victims and witnesses for the prosecution.

Loffredo and the Las Vegas group’s president, Darlene Barzideh, made a presentation, with Hufflepuff in tow, to staffers with the Clark County district attorney’s office in July as part of their effort to have the dogs approved.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson, who also met Hufflepuff the day they visited the courthouse, said in an interview that he had a positive interaction with the organization.

He wants therapy dogs to be used in courtrooms but said there are a number of logistical considerations to get approval for the dogs to work in a setting with county employees. The process to potentially get that approval is ongoing, Wolfson said.

“I am in favor of the concept of having therapy dogs because I think they’re a great tool to assist us in assisting victims, especially children,” Wolfson said. “So I’m 100 percent behind the concept of having therapy dogs.”

The dogs have also lent their calming powers at The Shade Tree, a domestic violence shelter in Las Vegas, and to survivors of the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting, Loffredo said.

‘Very, very nurturing for everybody’

Hufflepuff and his grandmother, Scarlett, another bulldog owned by Loffredo, were both at the Sunrise Remembrance ceremony to commemorate to the victims and survivors of the Route 91 mass shooting on Oct. 1. Dogs including Hufflepuff also spent time at the Las Vegas Community Healing Garden on the weekend of this year’s sixth anniversary of the shooting.

“It’s become just something that is very, very nurturing for everybody,” said Jackie Harris, the behavioral health program coordinator at the Vegas Strong Resiliency Center, which offers services and resources to survivors of the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting, including first responders, as well as crime victims.

Therapy dogs working in courtrooms is something that is spreading in use around the country.

The Courthouse Dogs Foundation, which provides information and education about using trained dogs in courtrooms as well as during the investigation and prosecution of crimes, says on its website over 300 dogs trained to provide assistance in legal settings are working with various agencies in 41 different states.

Harris said she supports the idea of having the therapy dogs used in local courtrooms.

“As a mental health provider, and as a person who works with folks who have been through traumatic experiences, I’m in support of anything that can help,” Harris said, adding that particularly with kids, it would “be really great to have an animal there that could calm them before they have to maybe go and testify.”

In recent years there have been questions raised about whether or not a dog used in court could potentially influence a jury.

In 2015 in Ohio, according to media reports, an appellate court ruled that a therapy dog that was used to help a child testify during the trial of a man convicted of having sex with a minor and providing drugs to another did not influence the jury. The man had filed an appeal arguing that the dog was a distraction, according to the Columbus Dispatch newspaper.

‘Just helping them tell their story’

Wolfson said he doesn’t think the use of therapy dogs would be a concern in terms of influencing jurors in Las Vegas.

“I think most jurors understand that it’s a traumatic experience for the witness and any witness that would use assistance in their testimony, I think it’s understandable,” Wolfson said. “And I would not object if the defense had a witness that was a child and they brought in a therapy dog on their own to assist their witnesses. I would have an understanding of that.”

Loffredo said the dogs can only help if it means witnesses will be able to speak their truth. She said Hufflepuff has been working as part of an ongoing court case in Utah that she declined to discuss in detail.

“If you want to look at it in the whole, I believe it’s better to be able to have a witness speak because the dog is not telling them what to say, the dog is not judging, the dog is just helping them tell their story.”

For now, Loffredo is hoping that Hufflepuff, Scarlett, and the other dogs in the organization will be able to work in Las Vegas courtrooms soon.

“I’m just waiting for them to go through their process and hopefully soon the dogs will be able to come here regularly and work with people,” Loffredo said.

Loffredo says the organization is seeking more volunteers. Anybody who wants more information can visit @courtroomcritters on Instagram or Courtroom Critters on Facebook.

Contact Brett Clarkson at bclarkson@reviewjournal.com.