2 Officers Cleared in Dog-Bite Case

The El Cajon Police Department has cleared two officers of falsifying reports on the arrests of two people who were bitten by a police dog, though witnesses contradicted the officers’ version of events.

The officers were cleared after a four-month internal investigation, officials said Tuesday. The investigation stemmed from a complaint filed against the city and Police Department by a couple claiming that they were victims of an unprovoked attack by a police dog named Rommel.

That same dog, a German shepherd, in January chewed off the ear of a handcuffed man. About one week after Rommel had chewed off Douglas Meserole’s left ear, Charles Gorman and Lynda Nelson filed the claim seeking money for their injuries.

Gorman, 36, and Nelson, 39, were stopped in the parking lot of a shopping center last October after Officer John Bennett said he noticed the couple’s car weaving in traffic. Gorman said he was handcuffed and was standing silently next to a police car when the dog jumped on him and bit his buttocks. Nelson said she then screamed, pushed Bennett, and was attacked by the dog. She said the dog bit her legs.

A few days after the charges were made public, two witnesses came forward and supported the couple’s story. Michael Tucker and his wife, Heather, said they were in the parking lot that evening and saw Rommel attack the handcuffed Gorman. The couple said Gorman offered no resistance.

The police reports filed by Bennett and backup Officer Robert Berger differed drastically from the version given by Gorman, Nelson and the Tuckers. Bennett said he repeatedly told Gorman that he was under arrest and warned the man that if he didn’t settle down he would put the dog on him.

Bennett said Nelson jumped in and began hitting him. Bennett said the dog saw him being attacked and did what it had been trained to do: protect its handler by biting the aggressor.

Bennett said that, as Nelson was being bitten, Gorman started fighting with both officers. Bennett, according to his report, ordered the dog to bite Gorman. The officer said Gorman was not handcuffed at the time.

Despite the Tuckers’ statements, Police Chief Jack Smith said that “we can find no information that would substantially contradict the officers’ version.”

Smith said that, shortly after the January ear-chewing, the dog was returned to the company that sold him to the department. The eight dogs remaining on the department’s K-9 squad have been off duty since January.

Smith said the department, after conducting a thorough study of K-9 programs throughout the country, will soon put into place a new dog policy that will emphasize a “guard-and-bark” philosophy rather than a “hold-and-bite” philosophy.