Dog shooting in Des Moines

[Grateful Diver]

Meanwhile, Officers Moe, Larry and Curly get to keep their assault rifles, and given the finding of "justified", there's no motivation for them not to have as much fun shooting someone else's dog at some point.

There was no accountability here ... just a city payoff to make the whole incident "go away" ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[mattwave]

Shocking how the officers reacted, there should have been another zero on the end of that settlement. Although that would be nothing compared the loss of Rosie. Truly disgusted, those officers should pay the settlement out of their pockets.

[CaptnJack]

Meanwhile, Officers Moe, Larry and Curly get to keep their assault rifles, and given the finding of "justified", there's no motivation for them not to have as much fun shooting someone else's dog at some point.

There was no accountability here ... just a city payoff to make the whole incident "go away" ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Its a civil suit. I haven't seen it honestly, so I don't know if there were any other intangible settlement items like requiring the department to do X or Y.

Shocking how the officers reacted, there should have been another zero on the end of that settlement. Although that would be nothing compared the loss of Rosie. Truly disgusted, those officers should pay the settlement out of their pockets.

I have seen settlement amounts for a dozen or so of the ~1200 companion animals shot annually nationwide. The California settlements are larger than $51K while those in the south are much smaller, generally <$10K. For Washington, this is a sizable award.

But as mentioned, the Wright's spent alot more in legal representation and court fees on the citizen effort to criminally prosecute the 3 officers with animal cruelty. That was ultimately unsuccessful because (to recap): no court in King County was allowed to hear the case, Pierce County courts were "too busy" and putted the issue back to Des Moines city court (who couldn't hear it). Snohomish Courts finally heard the case, but couldn't decide the matter (to anyone's satisfaction). By the time it went to appeal >1yr had passed and the statute of limitations had expired for a misdemeanor animal cruelty 2 charge and it was all moot. That was a costly round robin.

[RoxnDox]

I'm glad the family was at least able to get *something* judged against those idiots (for lack of a better term that is still socially acceptable in here). Reading the comments on the Times article, it truly saddens me how much anger and vitriol is spewed out by some individuals, and how little compassion some of those "people" show towards our canine companions. Rosie will be waiting across the Rainbow Bridge for her people, but those cops have a differnt destination I fear...

[Gdog]

Guess I missed the part where they shot the dog with assault rifles?

[CaptnJack]

Guess I missed the part where they shot the dog with assault rifles?

After the Tasering...?
4 times, in a residential neighborhood with blackberry bushes for a backstop. And she still died bleeding out. (per the WSU vet autopsy)

KIRO has an interview with the Wright's lawyer (Adam Karp)
http://kiroradio.com/listen/9952684/

[John Rawlings]

Richard - I'm sure that they know it, but please let the Wright's know that there are many, many of us out here that are simply heartsick over this, and hoping that they will once again find joy in their lives.

- John

[Penopolypants]

Richard - I'm sure that they know it, but please let the Wright's know that there are many, many of us out here that are simply heartsick over this, and hoping that they will once again find joy in their lives.

- John

Agreed. My heart goes out to them, and I hope that their pain lessens with time.

[CaptnJack]

Case finally settled in Federal Court, complete, done, over, finished.

In a nutshell Des Moines asked for donations given to the Wright's be used to offset the attorney's fees they agreed to pay. Those fees (which ended up being about 50K) were on top of the agreed settlement amount of $51,000. The City lost that argument - badly. If you want to read the spanking, I attached the transcript of the final hearing.

[John Rawlings]

Wow...that really WAS a spanking. The disdain from the judge almost dripped from the pages.

It'll never bring Rosie back, but at least some justice has been served.

[Penopolypants]

Ouch! It's nice to see someone gets it, although it was a spanking for the attorney rather than the officers. Hopefully this will bring some closure to a very sad event.

[CaptnJack]

Even the City agreed they were in the wrong (hence the settlement), but they just couldn't help but dig themselves a little deeper with that whole persecute - prosecute thing.

Glad this is finally over, but a number of people (myself included) have tried to get the WA State Criminal Justice Training Center in Burien (https://fortress.wa.gov/cjtc/www/index. ... &Itemid=27)
to add basic animal behavior to the entry level LEO training program and offer something similar on a continuing education basis. So far, that idea has not gone anywhere. Hopefully $101K awards from the WA Cities insurance pool will spur some action at the Criminal Justice Commission so this an incident of this magnitude won't be repeated here in Washington.

[CaptnJack]

I came across this effort and while I'm not affiliated with the producers it seems like a noble production. The problem isn't going away even if it hasn't repeated itself locally with as much publicity. The more this issue can be elevated to the political level the more likely long term durable solutions are to be developed: between hiring sufficient animal control staff, training officers to understand dog behavior, non-lethal equipment availability etc.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/185 ... ocumentary

[Dusty2]

The sad thing is that it had to go through all these steps in the first place. These people didn't lose a dog. They lost a family member. The system treats it like a non event and everyone pulls together to protect the city coffers with no regard for the true loss these people are suffering. It's all about protecting their own not accepting any liability that could cost them $. For many it's just a dog. For us who live with our pets this is a tragedy that money can't cure. Justice was not served and the only people that gained anything were the lawyers.

Lets prey that positive action comes out of this to prevent this in the future.

[Jeff Kruse]

Never come to Puerto Rico. They excel at animal cruelty here. My wife cries every time we leave the house. It’s the number one reason we are leaving. It’s unbelievably sad.