It’s a Good-Cop, Bad-Dog Tale, Officer’s Suit Says

A one-eyed police dog that sank his teeth into a cop instead of a crook is at the center of a lawsuit filed by the wounded officer.

Santa Ana Police Sgt. Bruce Leamer has sued the city and his own department, saying their investigation into the incident was rigged in favor of Ygor, a 7-year-old Belgian malinois.

Leamer, 48, and another officer were searching a garage for a burglar in June 2005 when Ygor latched onto Leamer’s leg and dragged him across the floor, according to the suit. The dog ignored shocks from his electric collar as well as his handler’s commands, the suit says, and had to be pulled away.

Calling Ygor an “uncontrollable deadly and dangerous weapon” and unfit for duty, Leamer alleges that the city and Police Department should have known the four-legged crime fighter was a loose canine.

Leamer’s suit, filed last week in federal court in Los Angeles, also blames the dog’s trainer, David Reaver, a police canine pioneer in the West who has been sued dozens of times over police dog bites in the last decade.

Reaver has denied allegations of anti-Semitism over the name of his Riverside kennel, Adlerhorst International Inc., saying its name comes from a German kennel where he bought a puppy more than 30 years ago. Adlerhorst, German for “eagle’s nest,” was the name of Adolf Hitler’s onetime command post in the Bavarian Alps.

Reaver called the suit part of a vendetta with Leamer’s attorney, Donald W. Cook. A longtime critic of what he calls police dog misuse, Cook has represented criminals who contended that authorities allowed their dogs to maul maliciously. Reaver estimated that Cook had cost him half a million dollars in legal fees over the last decade. Cook said that he lost the two cases against Reaver that went to trial.

More than 400 law enforcement agencies have bought dogs from Reaver, mostly German shepherds and Belgian malinois. Malinois resemble beige German shepherds with shorter hair. Males typically weigh between 60 and 80 pounds. The trained dogs cost $6,800 to $7,800.

If the suit goes to trial, Reaver said, he intends to call Ygor as a witness. “If you saw this dog, he’d come sit in your lap,” he said. “This is a very well trained, very social dog.”

On the day of the incident, Ygor’s handler ordered him to remain still on the garage floor, according to the suit. Leamer had drawn his gun and was scanning the rafters for the burglar when the dog charged and chomped. Leamer was hospitalized with severe gashes to his lower right leg and bites to his right hand, the suit says. He was unable to work for more than two months and continues to suffer leg pain, Cook said.

The fact that Ygor was wearing a shock collar indicated that his handler had had problems with him, Cook said. But Reaver said many police dogs wear the collars. Ygor probably attacked because Leamer or his handler made a mistake, Reaver said.

Before coming to Santa Ana, Ygor worked with police in Corona, where he lost an eye in a training accident. He quit Corona after his handler left the force.

Ygor, who celebrated a birthday Sunday, is still on active duty.