 NATIONAL LEGAL NEWS 5/17/13
Dogs Give Comfort – and Controversy – in Court
By Sue Manning Los Angeles (AP) – The twins were 7, shy and scared. Talking was tough and describing what happened nearly impossible.
So the prosecutor preparing them to testify against the father they said molested them borrowed a dog named Jeeter.
“It was a last ditch effort to try to build rapport with my kids, who are terribly shy,” said Kelly Dempsey, the twins’ mother. “Theprosecutor had no idea how to get through to them. ... He just believed down to the depths of his soul the girls had been wronged and he wanted so badly to find justice for them.”
In Seattle 10 years ago, Jeeter became the first professionally trained dog to help a child testify, experts said. Dogs have been used with thousands of victims and witnesses since.
Today, there are 41 courthouse,dogs working in 19 U.S. states and several more being considered, but some challenges are working their way through the courts, driven by attorneys who claim the dogs are distractions or sympathy magnets. So far, all lower courts have upheld the use of dogs.
In 2003, Jeeter was going to drug court once a week with King County deputy prosecutor Ellen O’Neill-Stephens. The rest of the week, Jeeter belonged to her son Sean, 21, who has cerebral palsy.
When her colleague asked to borrow Jeeter for the twins, the bonding was instant.
“Because of Jeeter and having him there, I don’t ever think about ‘Oh, it was scary walking in and seeing our dad after a while,’” said Erin, now a high school sophomore. “I don’t remember the bad, I only remember Jeeter. I think we escaped so much more normal than really we should have from such a bad situation because of Jeeter.
The AP normally doesn’t use names or photos of molestation victims, but the girls are allowing their first names and photos to be used because they want dogs to be available in courts. Their mother has a different last name.
Jeeter shadowed the girls. “I remember sitting in the chair. Between questions, he’d put his head in my lap and cuddle a little. One time (during a practice court session), he came into the room dressed as Zorro,” Erin said. When there were questions about anatomy, the girls used Jeeter.
“A good dog provides decreased anxiety for any victim, be it a child, adult or elderly. If it gives them the opportunity to focus and find their voice, how is that bad?” Dempsey asked
There were no objections to Jeeter in the twins’ case, and demand for a dog was so high that in 2004, the district attorney’s office got a full-time service dog, Ellie. Jeeter and Ellie were trained by Canine Companions for Independence, headquartered in Santa Rosa, north of San Francisco.
CCI has trained about 230 “facility dogs,” including courthousedogs and those working at burn centers, hospices or schools.The dogs are mostly Labrador or golden retrievers or mixes, said Jeanine Konopelski, CCI’s national director of marketing.
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Omaha Bar Association Law Day Co-chairs Doug Law (left) and John Menicucci (right) savor a
job well done with speaker Neb. Senator Amanda McGill (second from left) and OBA President Jennifer Petersen.
Realizing the Dream: Equality for All
55th Law Day Celebrated in Omaha
By Lorraine Boyd
The Daily Record
Nearly 250 people attended the Omaha Bar Association’s Law Day luncheon last week at its new venue, the Marriott Regency.
There, guests were introduced to the winners of the Public Service Awards: Charles V. Sederstrom and Project Harmony, represented by Executive Director Gene Klein. The winners of the annual poster and essay contests were
also presented with their awards. Nebraska Senator Amanda McGill was chosen as the featured speaker because of her efforts in the Legislature to halt human trafficking in the Midlands. It is difficult to “realize the dream” of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when millions of people are being trafficked across the globe today.
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Click here for more pictures of this year’s event.
 Recently retired Judge Randall Rehmeier, a Nebraska District Court Judge of the 2nd Judicial District, picks jurors for a 5th grade Mock Trial during Job Shadowing on Law Day 2013.
12th Annual Law Day Job Shadowing
Activity Sponsored in Nine Communities
By Lorraine Boyd
The Daily Record
This year, court personnel in Otoe, Webster and Nuckolls Counties joined veteran Job Shadowing coordinators around the state in helping fifth graders understand more about the law and our system of justice. Fifth graders visited local courtrooms.
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 From left, T. Geoffrey Lieben, Virginia Albers, David S. Houghton, and John Slowiaczek are some of the leaders of the law firm of Lieben, Whitted, Houghton, Slowiaczek & Cavanagh, P.C., L.L.O.
Big O! Excellence Awards
Milestones Reached by Area Law Firms
By Julien R. Fielding
The Daily Record
Two Omaha law firms – Brown & Brown; and Lieben, Whitted, Houghton, Slowiaczek & Cavanagh - are celebrating their 25-year anniversaries, but they won’t be doing it alone.
On Monday, May 20, at the Big O! Excellence Awards, the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce will honor and recognize them along with a number of other companies that have reached significant milestones.
Brown & Brown
From left, members of the Brown & Brown law firm team are Matthew Heffron, Thomas Brown, Douglas Lash, William C. Brown, and Steven Olson. Not pictured is Erin Dahms.
– Photo by Robert Ervin
In 1988, James W.R. Brown was 70 years old, the age at which his former firm required its partners to retire. But Brown wasn’t ready to retire, so he founded Brown & Brown with his sons, James R., Thomas R., and William C. Their first office was on the 17th Floor of the Woodmen Tower. Three years later they moved to the Scoular Building at 2027 Dodge St., and have been there ever since.
Over the years, the firm has had more than an address change. For instance, James R., who had actually practiced medicine for 15 years before going to law school, has since left Brown & Brown; the parting was amicable, William C. said. And after having practiced law for an additional 23 years, James W.R. decided, at 93 years old, that it was time to retire.
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 Medal of Honor winner Sal Giunta gives a riveting, and humble, account of his courageous fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2007.
Sal Giunta
Uncommon Valor: The Importance
Of Teamwork, Sacrifice and Leadership
By Lorraine Boyd
The Daily Record
Nebraska’s bankers got a lesson in the importance of “teamwork, sacrifice and leadership” at the Nebraska Bankers Association annual convention May 1-3. They learned it from a decorated expert: Salvatore “Sal” Giunta, the first living Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War.
Former Staff Sergeant Giunta, now 28, was not quite eligible to vote when he enlisted for a four-year tour in the United States Army. Inspired by the events of 9/11, he had had to wait until he finished high school before he could sign up.
By then his interest had lagged, but one day the Subway employee, lured by the promise of a free T-shirt, visited the recruitment office in his hometown of Clinton, Iowa. Attracted to jumping out of planes, he chose the Infantry Airborne (“Sky Soldiers”).
The handsome, unassuming young man, wearing the impressive medal and a friendly smile, addressed the assembly of bankers with a confidence seemingly beyond his years. His speaking style was effortless, engaging, relaxed. Yet, the words he spoke were full of intensity as he recounted his harrowing and character-building experiences while serving in Afghanistan.
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Operation Blue Storm Named Most Outstanding Case
United States Attorney for the District of Nebraska, Deborah R. Gilg, has announced that Operation Blue Storm was selected as the National Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) most outstanding regional drug trafficking case for 2012. An awards ceremony was held at the United States Attorney’s Office honoring the investigators and prosecutors involved in this case. The cooperative efforts of these individuals made the Operation Blue Storm OCDETF case such a resounding success. The award recipient agencies involved in the case included twenty-five investigators and prosecutors from the following agencies: Bellevue Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service, Omaha Police Department, Peoria (AZ) Police Department and United States Attorney’s Office – District of Nebraska.
At the ceremony, United States Attorney Deborah R. Gilg commented, “The outstanding work done by this collaboration of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies disrupted a major tentacle of the Sinaloa Mexican Cartel to the Midwestern region. This demonstrates law enforcement teamwork at its best.”
The OCDETF program was established in 1982 as a multi-agency, nationwide effort to pursue intelligence-driven, coordinated multi-jurisdictional investigations of criminal organizations trafficking drugs and laundering the illicit proceeds of crime. The OCDETF Program forms the centerpiece of the DOJ counter-narcotics strategy and is also the platform through which the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Treasury pursue complex drug and drug-related money laundering investigations. Through the OCDETF Program, these three Executive Departments use prosecutor-led, multi-agency task forces to combat high-priority national and international organized criminal organizations.
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Margaret White plans to “stick around” as long as she can make an impact on families in the community. – Photo by jordangreen.com
Papio Fun Park Ideal for ‘Staycations’
By Dan McCann
The Daily Record
Margaret White is committed to helping families and friends stay connected – not by Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, but in person, actively, on the go-kart track, the mini-golf course, or in the laser tag arena.
“I just like to provide a positive experience for people,” said White, owner of Papio Fun Park in Papillion.
The family entertainment center, a destination for diversion since 1990, was honored as the Greater Omaha Chamber’s Small Business of the Month for May. White’s late husband Paul and one of his friends, Mike Dailey, hatched the idea for the center based on gut instinct.
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 There’s a great view from the offices of Husch Blackwell’s 21st floor offices in downtown Omaha – sweeping, just John Menicucci’s aspirations.
Menicucci Applies Techniques He
Learned in Military to Legal Career
By Matt Goodlett
The Daily Record
John Menicucci lives by a mantra that he learned in the Army: Always improve your position.
These words may not seem applicable to his career as a lawyer, but Menicucci said, “It doesn’t always mean you need a promotion, but you’re always trying to better yourself, starting with your individual skills. It is a holistic approach to being a lawyer.”
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