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WEST JORDAN — A jury on Friday found a Salt Lake police officer not guilty of aggravated assault after the officer ordered his dog to attack a Black man who was kneeling in his yard with his hands in the air.
The jury deliberated for about 90 minutes before reaching its verdict after four days of testimony, finding officer Nickolas Pearce not guilty of aggravated assault, a second-degree felony.
Pearce, 42, of Herriman, was accused of ordering K-9 Tuco to bite Jeffery Ryans on April 24, 2020, even though Ryans says he had his hands raised and was already complying during a domestic violence call.
On Thursday, the officer testified that he did not believe Ryans was cooperating, and said Ryans was not following commands to get on the ground.
"In my estimation and everything I had gathered at that point ... he was getting ready to flee over the back wall," Pearce said.
He said his job after ordering the dog to attack was to control the dog and maintain everyone's safety.
"It's not to be taken lightly to put a dog on a human being," Pearce testified.
Jeffrey Ryans, the man who was bit by the K-9 while being arrested, testified on Tuesday that his leg is still numb, and the injury hindered his ability to continue working for the railroad. He testified that he was trying to obey and understand the commands from multiple officers, and was acting slowly and steadily.
"I was kind of just confused on what was going on," Ryans testified.
Deputy Salt Lake County attorney Andrew Deesing said during opening arguments that Jeffrey Ryans had been living at the home for several months — although there was a protective order forbidding it, his wife was allowing him to stay in the home. He argued that Ryans was no longer creating a dangerous situation inside the home, but Pearce was creating a dangerous situation.
Pearce's attorney, Nathan Evershed, said officers need to make decisions quickly and that the situation — a domestic violence incident — was dangerous.
"No one likes to see force used, but sometimes it must be used," Evershed said during his opening arguments.
Prosecutors issued a subpoena to Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown to testify in the case. He said he was "troubled and concerned" when he saw the body camera footage and later suspended the K-9 apprehension program.
Although the judge, William Kendall, denied a request to not allow him to testify before the trial, he granted the same request during the trial after prosecutors tried to call him as part of their rebuttal instead of in their primary case. He determined that testimony that Brown had ended the program would cause prejudice.
"It essentially puts before the jury a proffered decision that the incident at issue was improper and suggests to the jury that the chief of police decided this was sufficiently concerning," the judge said.
On Thursday, Wendell Nope, who runs training programs for K-9 dogs throughout Utah, testified about proper K-9 procedure. He said language used by Pearce before deploying the dog was inflammatory, and said those commands instill fear that has more impact than the commands the officer is trying to enforce. He said they train officers to stop and consider why someone is not responding before deploying a dog.
"Once the dog is deployed, then there is going to be physical injury," he said.
Nope also said if proper procedures had been used, the bite could have been less harmful and ended more quickly.
"Throughout the entire length of that bit Mr. Ryans is not fighting, or doing anything, but attempting to stop the pain that is being inflicted upon him," he testified.
