New four-legged staffer at Nassau DA's office bringing comfort to crime victims

The Nassau County District Attorney’s Office is adding a new staff member: Samosa, part golden retriever, part Labrador retriever and wholly trained to bring a softer touch to the multipronged crime-fighting team.

Samosa, alongside her human partner and eight other dogs and their handlers, is set to graduate Friday from service dog training at Genesis Church in Medford. She will be assigned to the Special Victims Bureau of the district attorney's office with her training partner, Amber Kempermann, also a prosecutor in the bureau. Samosa previously spent six to nine months being trained as a service dog by the Medford chapter of the nationwide nonprofit Canine Companions.

Friday's graduation marks the end of two additional weeks of training with Kempermann. Samosa's next assignment: providing comfort and calmness for crime victims as they sit for interviews with prosecutors like Kempermann.

"Samosa will be very helpful in easing the anxieties and discomfort that come with victims coming into our office to discuss the details of some of the worst parts of their lives," Kempermann said. "So her just being there to support is what's going to be a really good opportunity for us."

A 2019 study found service dogs can benefit people with physical disabilities and chronic conditions.

The Nassau District Attorney’s Office previously had another service dog, Mega, who retired several years ago. Kempermann said she saw how much of a positive impact Mega had on people, so she volunteered to train the dog's eventual successor. The next step was contacting Canine Companions, who eventually paired her up with Samosa.

The organization provides service dogs to adults, children and veterans with disabilities and "facility" dogs to professionals working in health care, criminal justice and education.

Canine Companions dogs are Labradors, golden retrievers or a mix of both because of their ease at training and friendly disposition.

Those traits will come in handy for Samosa. She and Kempermann — by her side with commands when needed — will join crime victims as prosecutors and investigators conduct interviews during the course of compiling cases.

They'll seek information that can often be hard for crime victims to divulge. Samosa's main mission in that moment will be resting her head on a person’s lap or "covering" the person by laying on their lap, with her hind legs placed on the floor.

Scott and Mary Mace, of Kittery, Maine, have raised 13 dogs for Canine Companions and will be attending Friday's graduation. They raise dogs from about 8 months old, and after around 16 months of age, the dogs get sent to train with instructors at Canine Companion chapters across the country.

Goliath, a golden/Lab mix trained by the Maces, will also be graduating and then hopefully placed as a service animal.

Scott Mace, 62, said his volunteer job raising dogs is a win-win for him.

Dogs that don't cut it as service animals have a "change in career," he said, preferring that expression to "dropouts," since many still become therapy animals, which requires less training and commitment.

"Either they come back to us, or they go to the recipient and change somebody's life for the better," Mace said.

Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said Samosa will mainly work with child victims in sexual abuse cases but will be available for adults.

"Victims who have to relive and retell what was the worst moment of their lives will be comforted by these gentle friends, these dogs," Donnelly said, "and we have seen them give victims the strength to face their assailants and bring these criminals to justice."