A Menlo Park man is finally out of the doghouse.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office dropped all charges Thursday against 25-year-old Richard Dillon. Last month, Dillon was cited for barking back at a Palo Alto police dog.
A prosecutor called the behavior reckless and irresponsible, but not enough to warrant criminal prosecution. A relieved defendant agreed.
"I'm getting a lot of 'woof, woof' -- people barking at me," Dillon said. "This was all a joke."
The misdemeanor of interfering with a canine cop is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1000 fine.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. NoNonsense English offers this material non-commercially for research and educational purposes. I believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, i.e. the media service or newspaper which first published the article online and which is indicated at the top of the article unless otherwise specified.