Courthouse K9
Fortune
Since 2016, children and victims of crime engaged in the criminal justice process can request assistance from Courthouse Facility Dog, Fortune. Courthouse Facility Dogs assist crime victims and witnesses during stressful stages of legal proceedings such as child forensic interviews and trials, and are handled by professionals in these fields.
Born in 2015 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and trained by Assistance Dogs of the West, Fortune is a Great American Breed who performs over 90 cues. Fortune has been present at hundreds of Child Abuse Response Team (CART) interviews and regularly sits with witnesses testifying at trial in the courtroom. Fortune has been deployed to casualty and trauma incidents including the Las Vegas mass shooting in October of 2017.
Fortune is named after US Army Sergeant Maurice Fortune, who was killed in action in Iraq in 2004.
