ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office has a new employee, and her main job is to provide comfort to her co-workers. She can’t prosecute cases, and she’s not on the payroll, but Rebekah Reyes says Roselle has one of the most important jobs at the Bernalillo County D.A’s office.
“There’s a huge rate of burnout in this job,” said Reyes. “Dogs like Roselle really help prevent some of that,” she explained.
The 4-year-old black lab helps ease some of the anxiety her co-workers, like Reyes, deal with. Reyes is a prosecutor on the Special Victims Unit. During her six-year career, she’s seen firsthand some of the most heinous acts of violence in our community. “We prosecute all of the child death cases in our division,” said Reyes. “Anytime a child is killed by a parent or a caregiver, those cases come to us,” she said.
Reyes helped with the Brandon Reynolds case. He’s the man who just accepted a plea deal last week, for beating his daughter to death with a shoe in 2019.
“Oftentimes we’re out at those crime scenes, or at the autopsies,” Reyes explained. “We see what the child’s body looks like, and how they were disposed of in some cases.”
That’s where Roselle comes in, much like Woodstick, the Courthouse Facilities Canine KRQE News 13 introduced you to a couple of months ago who comforts victims during the pretrial process. In the short time, Roselle has been at the D.A’s office, she’s already played a big role in helping her colleagues cope.
“They’re always up to just come sit in your lap, and let you talk to them or cry. They don’t judge,” said Reyes. Proving the unconditional love of a dog can help the healing process.
Roselle has only been at the D.A’s office for about a month. They got her through Assistance Dogs of the West, using a grant they received from United Way.
