Meet the DA’s newest hire – Kimi, the companion dog

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz welcomes golden retriever and labrador retriever mix Kimi, who has assisted four abuse victims during interviews.Eagle photo by Noah Powelson

By Noah Powelson

The Queens district attorney’s office has a new employee – a support dog who has already begun to aid crime victims and witnesses recounting stressful and traumatizing experiences inside Queens’ Criminal Court.

Two-year-old Kimi was introduced to the DA’s office in August as the first facility dog working in Queens courthouses. Kimi spent the past year being trained by professional instructors, who taught the pup commands to provide victims with support.

The announcement of Kimi’s inclusion on the DA’s staff comes as part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, who announced Kimi’s inclusion on staff as part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month on Wednesday, said the dog had already assisted four victims and a witness in a child abuse case.

“She has already earned her badge,” Katz said.

Kimi was provided to the Queen’s DA’s office free of charge from the national nonprofit Canine Companions. The group provides service dogs to individuals and organizations at no cost, and has placed more than 8,000 dogs since its founding in 1975. In recent years, they’ve been placing facility dogs inside district attorney’s offices across New York State.

Jessica Reis, a representative of Canine Companions, told the Eagle that their dogs typically work with children at the center of domestic violence or child abuse cases.

“It allows children who go through abuse to tell the dog what is happening, as opposed to the adult they don’t really know,” Reis said. “That’s the goal here, to help the community feel comfortable coming in when they have a problem.”