Lawsuit: Police K9 bites innocent customer at store’s grand opening
Marion County OR Aug 28 2018 A 66-year-old man filed a $50,000 lawsuit against the Marion County Sheriff’s Office Thursday, claiming a police dog that was supposed to greet customers viciously bit him in the abdomen at the grand opening of a store.
Joseph Carr, a retired truck driver, claims that Deputy Jason Bernards seemed to invite him to pet Rolo, the police dog, by stating “say hi” as Carr and his wife approached the entrance of the Wilco Farm Store in Salem.
But when Carr bent down to pet the Belgian Malinois on the head and under the ear, the canine suddenly responded by hunching down, growling and sinking his teeth into Carr on Sept. 18, 2016, according to the suit.
Jane Vetto, Marion County counsel, said her office will defend the sheriff’s office and its employees against the suit. She declined Friday to make any further comment.
A representative from Wilco Farm Stores also declined comment. The suit faults the 19-store cooperative for inviting Rolo to meet-and-greet customers at the grand opening. The company is based in Mount Angel, and sells everything from horse feed to canning supplies.
Carr’s attorney, Brian Hefner of Colorado Springs, Colo., said the deputy claimed the bite was Carr’s fault. Hefner said the deputy’s written report states that it appeared Carr wrapped his “hands around Rolo’s snout.” But Hefner said store surveillance video shows Carr petting Rolo under his right ear and patting the dog’s head.
Rolo started working for the sheriff’s office in 2013. He quickly gained a reputation for his keen ability to track down suspects. Within his first months on the job, Rolo had sniffed out a man crouching in tall grass after a strip bar fight; an alleged burglar who ran from the scene and then passed out in his house; and yet another man who hid in a cave after deputies pursued him in a high-speed chase in the mountains.
Carr’s lawsuit states that Rolo’s bite left a puncture wound that has disfigured his abdomen and serves as “a constant reminder of this horrific and unnecessary event.”
Carr received a tetanus shot as a precaution. Due to complications from the injection site in his left shoulder, Carr wasn’t able to move his left arm without severe pain, the suit alleges. But he continued to work as a truck driver because he hadn’t yet retired at the time.
Carr also couldn’t play golf, a favorite sport, for months, the suit says. And almost a full year passed before he was able to swing a golf club without “excruciating pain,” the suit states.
The suit was filed in Marion County Circuit Court.
OregonLive.com
