Community requests Department of Justice to investigate black man’s dog mauling case | City

Local community organizations are requesting the U.S. Department of Justice investigate a police dog mauling case from 2020, according to a press release by the Greater Lafayette Committee for Criminal Justice reform.

Richard Bailey, 46, a Black Lafayette resident, was “mauled by a police dog while being arrested for suspected battery,” on May 9, 2020, the Associated Press reported.

“The police officers responded to an emergency call to our 911 center, where it was reported that a man had battered multiple people, including throwing a woman across the room,” Lafayette Police Department Chief Patrick Flannelly said, according to local reporting.

Lafayette police officer Joshua Saxton’s dog mauled Bailey at the neck for 30 seconds, puncturing his trachea, cutting his carotid artery, damaging the tissue in his neck, injuring his shoulder and breaking his finger, according to local reporting.

After three prosecutors reviewed the charges on the police officers, it was concluded that they were not at fault and Bailey was charged with 11 different counts: criminal confinement, battery with a deadly weapon, battery with moderate injury, strangulation, intimidation, resisting law enforcement, interfering with reporting a crime, criminal mischief, public intoxication and two counts of battery, according to court document access site MyCase.

Since then, the Greater Lafayette Committee for Criminal Justice Reform has been working on finding a way to bring change and learn about the DOJ. Frank Rosenthal, group member and a professor in the department of health and kinesiology, said they’ve been working on ensuring the DOJ request was phrased accurately and clear to the audience.

The Greater Lafayette Committee for Criminal Justice Reform is an ad hoc group that was formed after the case in an attempt to ensure accountability for the incident, Rosenthal said.

This group consists of 10-20 community members who are all interested in this issue, Rosenthal said.

A letter detailing what needs to be addressed in the investigation was included in the press release. Some points include releasing the body cam evidence of excessive force and the flawed investigation by the first special prosecutor.

The group wants “accountability for this incident” and “change in policies in LPD,” he said.

“The letter (requests) the DOJ to investigate this incident asserts that the police officers violated Bailey’s civil rights protected under the U.S. Constitution by the Fourth Amendment, prohibiting ‘unreasonable searches and seizures’ and the Fourteenth Amendment requiring ‘due process of law’ and ‘equal protection of the laws,” the letter reads.

Rosenthal said police dog bites are of “national significance” and it “happens all the time.”

The letter points to a high rate of police dog bites in Lafayette compared to other cities, as well as a national study that shows that African Americans are disproportionately the victims of police dog bites.

“There were an estimated 32,951 K-9 dog bite emergency department visits, accounting for 1.1% of all ED dog bite visits,” according to a 2019 study by PubMed, an archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature by the U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information.

“The K-9 group was nearly all male (95.0 vs 52.1%) and more commonly Black (42.0 vs 13.0%) compared to the non K-9 group.”

Indiana State Rep. Chris Campbell and nine other community groups signed the letter.

LPD said Wednesday their public information officer wasn’t available for comment. Campbell did not immediately respond to comment Wednesday night.