For nearly the past decade, a big, black Labrador retriever named Blake has been a regular at Pima County's courts, accompanying witnesses to interviews and trials and sometimes even taking the stand.
One of the Pima County Attorney's Office's three courthouse facility dogs, Blake has provided comfort and support to thousands of victims and witnesses — many of them children.
But with his 11th birthday on the horizon and two young protégés ready to take over, Blake's work days have come to an end.
Blake celebrated his official retirement Tuesday, surrounded by old and new friends, including his longtime handler and roommate, victim advocate Colleen Phelan.
In 2012, then-Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall made a golden retriever named Russell the office's first courthouse dog. Blake followed shortly after and was officially placed with Phelan in 2013.
Even though Blake wasn't the first or only canine on the county's payroll, with no law on the books to allow dogs in the courtroom, Phelan said that getting him in there was a battle at first.
She would arrive at court for the 8 a.m. morning calendar, sitting in courtrooms with Blake for hours at a time and trying to get into as many as she could.
"My goal was if everybody sees what this looks like, we can move to the next steps," she said. "Once you can see what they do, the argument for why they’re not necessary kind of goes away. The process is more humane through use of courtroom dogs."
Judges were receptive and the rest is history. Blake has since become a regular sight at court, and has played a pivotal role in thousands of cases over the past nine years.
Pima County's second courthouse facility dog and the first to take the stand with a witness has retired after nine years on the job. Blake celebrated his years of hard work with friends from Tucson's criminal justice system and of course, plenty of cake. Video by Caitlin Schmidt/Arizona Daily Star.
Pima County Superior Court Judge Alan Goodwin and Deputy Pima County Attorney Victoria Otto spoke at his retirement celebration about the impact Blake had when working with minor witnesses.
Though initially skeptical of the courthouse dog program, watching Blake soothe traumatized children made a believer out of Goodwin, who previously led the county attorney office's special victim's unit.
"It's transformational, what Blake and the other dogs are able to do. Research shows dogs reduce blood pressure, stress and cortisol levels, and we don’t even have to touch them," Phelan said. "Blake has proven to many in our criminal justice system that a dog is as good a colleague as anyone, and sometimes better."
In 2016, following the passage of a new Arizona law, Blake became the first courthouse dog to take the stand in Pima County. In the five years since, he's accompanied witnesses to the stand at least 50 times, lying quietly in the box as they recount their stories.
At the end of 2021, Phelan says Blake showed her it was time for him to leave the job.
During a particularly grueling trial involving three children who all had to testify, Blake took the stand with the third and final child.
"He backed up behind the stand so that I could see him and looked at the back of courtroom and made eye contact. That look said, 'I am done, I don’t want to be here anymore,' Phelan said. "No one else noticed, but that was when I knew. The expectation is this and he’s done, and it’s now his turn to not have those rules and restrictions."
Blake isn't retiring entirely.
He's moving on to a new job in a greeter type of role at the County Attorney's Office.
"He won't go to court and he won't have to walk in the heat, but he'll still get to see people and get pets," Phelan said.
When Blake was placed with Phelan, there were fewer than 50 courthouse dogs working in the U.S. As of March, there are 267 courthouse dogs working in 41 states, and two others in Pima County: Baja joined the office in 2018 and Arrow followed in 2020.
"Blake has been a pioneer for our community," Phelan said."He's touched thousands of lives."
