The mother of an 11-year-old girl bitten by a police dog Monday has retained a local lawyer.
“There’s obviously been a horrible, grievous wrong here,” said New Albany attorney Bart Betteau.
Michelle McGarry, mother of 11-year-old Courtney, has hired Betteau to represent her daughter’s case.
Courtney, a sixth grader at Hazelwood Middle School, was bitten on the cheek by New Albany Police dog Condor Monday afternoon after she attempted to pet the dog following a classroom demonstration on how police dogs are used in drug searches and patrols.
“She’s very sore and scared and nervous,” her mother said.
NAPD Chief Merle Harl said a group of students received permission from Condor’s handler, Officer Mike Isom, to pet the police dog while they were exiting the classroom.
That’s when things took a turn for the worse.
“They kind of circled around and got very close to the dog,” Harl said.
Courtney was one of the students eager to pet the police dog, but when she leaned in, Condor attacked.
The Hazelwood sixth-grader sustained two bites that required 15 stitches. She was treated by a school nurse before her uncle, Michael Bagshaw, picked her up and took her to Floyd Memorial Hospital and Health Services. From there, Courtney went to see plastic surgeon Donn Chatham.
When Bagshaw picked his niece up at Hazelwood he said, “She looked very scared and she looked like she had been crying a lot. “It had to be really scary,” he said.
Doctors who examined Courtney determined she may need to undergo plastic surgery for her wounds, Bagshaw said.
It’s NAPD policy that an officer should not let people pet his canine companion.
“It’s our policy that we don’t do that and we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Harl said.
During training Harl said he was advised never to lean down to a police dog.
“It’s an aggressive move,” Harl said.
Hazelwood’s administration refused to comment on the incident and all calls were forwarded to Dr. Tony Bennett, New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corporation’s assistant superintendent for administration and operations.
Although no in-class demonstrations will likely take place in the near future, Condor will still perform drug searching duties in area schools.
“It has never been the practice that dogs that are conducting active searches have been allowed to search a kid’s person and we keep every effort to keep searching dogs away from kids,” Bennett said. “I don’t think this will affect drug searches.”
Bennett said NA-FC administrators hope to set up a meeting with the police department at the end of this week to discuss procedures.
Dogs like Condor can cost the NAPD around $17,000.
So you Know
Statistics from The Dog Bite Law Adviser stated about 5 million people a year are victims of dog bites and about 800,000 require medical attention. Most of the victims who receive medical attention are children, and about half are bitten in the face.
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