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COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho (AP) — A $350,000 claim has been filed against the city of Coeur d'Alene by a man whose dog was shot and killed by one of the city's police officers.
The claim filed Tuesday by Craig Jones also names the Coeur d'Alene Police Department and Officer David Kelley in seeking damages for loss and pain in the July 9 killing of a 2-year-old black Labrador mix named Arfee.
The claim gives the city 90 days to settle or Jones and his attorney, Adam Karp of Bellingham, Washington, say they will file a federal lawsuit.
"I do think it's a very reasonable offer given the history of other cases around the country, given the epidemic of police killing people's companion dogs, and the failure of police departments to take this seriously as they should and to rectify it," Karp, who specializes in animal law, told The Spokesman-Review (http://bit.ly/1rfdSS0 ).
City Attorney Mike Gridley said the City Council will discuss the claim in an upcoming executive session.
"I look forward to talking with Mr. Karp regarding this and the damages in the case," Gridley said.
The lawsuit would be filed in federal court, Karp said, because Coeur d'Alene violated his client's right of protection against unlawful property seizure under the Fourth Amendment.
Coeur d'Alene police on July 9 put out a statement that an officer responding earlier that day to a report of a suspicious van shot and killed a "vicious pit bull" that lunged for an officer's face. An internal police review released in September found Kelley violated police policy.
"The potential for injury to citizens, including a potential suspect in the vehicle, does not appear to have been factored in to the decision prior to using deadly force," the report said.
Jones has said he had parked behind a coffee shop so Arfee would have shade, and he left the window halfway down. Jones was inside the coffee shop, unaware of what was happening outside.
"This case is based on the value of Arfee, of course, to Mr. Jones," Karp said. "There's also essentially the 'psychic totaling' of the vehicle, for lack of a better description. So every time Mr. Jones would have to get into that van, he'd have to essentially re-enact in his mind the horror of what happened to his dog and the blood stains. Essentially it totaled the vehicle."
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Information from: The Spokesman-Review, http://www.spokesman.com
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