Jessica Cejnar Andrews / Monday, Sept. 16 @ 3:53 p.m. / Local Government, Oregon
Commissioners Retire Police Dog After Josephine County Deems Him 'Untrainable,' D'Arvit Will Go To Former Handler
Monday's special meeting
Previously:
• Conflict Between Curry County Sheriff, Director of Operations Over K9 Program Continues
• Proposed K9 Vehicle Sale to Josephine County Puts Curry County Sheriff At Odds With Commissioners
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After hearing from their director of operations that a K9 being fostered in Josephine County is a bite risk, two Curry County commissioners agreed to release the dog to his former handler.
Commissioners Brad Alcorn and Jay Trost at a special meeting Monday approved a release of liability concerning D’Arvit. The dog will live out his life with former Curry County Sheriff’s deputy, Tim King, “under the condition that the dog will not be used in any sort of law enforcement or security purpose,” said Director of Operations Ted Fitzgerald, who is also Curry County counsel.
Commissioner John Herzog was absent.
The Board’s decision comes about roughly six weeks after Curry County Sheriff John Ward told commissioners that Josephine County Sheriff Dave Daniels had agreed to foster the dog.
On Monday Fitzgerald told commissioners that Daniels initially wanted to move forward with re-training D’Arvit starting the beginning of September. However, on Friday, Daniels contacted Fitzgerald and said they weren’t going to continue training the dog.
“The dog is untrainable at least within the scope available to Josephine County,” Fitzgerald told commissioners. “The trainer had been working there with the handler and, after a couple of weeks of training, the dog is still a bite risk to the handler. The dog does not release unless it’s choked off.”
Fitzgerald said when Daniels asked him if Curry County wanted the dog back, he reached out to King to see if he was interested in taking D’Arvit.
Daniels is putting together a transfer agreement between his office and King so D’Arvit could go back to him, Fitzgerald said. A release of liability between Curry County and King is also necessary, he told commissioners.
The Curry County Board of Commissioners and its director of operations have been at odds with Ward over the K9 program since the sheriff told them he had transferred D’Arvit to Josephine County for fostering at a special meeting July 29.
At that meeting, Ward had informed commissioners that D’Arvit was a “dirty dog” because he didn’t have enough training, which Josephine County Sheriff Dave Daniels was willing to provide.
On Aug. 1, in addition to rejecting a proposal from Ward to sell a K9 car to Josephine County, commissioners said they’d rather D’Arvit stay in Curry County.
They were dismayed to hear that Ward had offered the car to Josephine County before he went before the Board of Commissioners. And after Ward said he had consulted with Dick Wilson, a local realtor who had donated the money to the sheriff’s office to buy D’Arvit, Fitzgerald said the donation and the dog was also a county asset.
“You don’t go back and consult the people that made the donation when you’re deciding about the disposition of county property,” Fitzgerald told Ward.
On Aug. 27, Fitzgerald said that Ward’s decision to retire another K9, this one named Hulk, to his handler Sgt. Zane Van Zelf also circumvented procurement rules.
Ward, who has since filed a state bar complaint against Fitzgerald, told the Outpost on Sept. 10 that he would not accept invitations from the Board to attend their meetings.
On Monday, Alcorn said he and his colleagues were told that King did not want D’Arvit, so he was offered to the other law enforcement agencies in Curry County, which also declined to take the dog. Releasing the dog to Josephine County would have been “the next best option,” Alcorn said.
“Obviously I feel very strongly about this because of my involvement with the program here in Curry County,” he said. “But also as a former K9 handler, I can tell you that having to put my dog down was one of the most difficult things I’ve had to do in my career so I hate to ever separate a dog from a handler even if it’s been a year, year-and-a-half, whatever, I always hate to do that.”
Despite not being suitable for any law enforcement environment, according to Fitzgerald, D’Arvit is a nice dog.
“He likes to have his belly scratched,” he said.
Fitzgerald said during the budget process the Board of Commissioners was assured that D’Arvit was a valuable K9 resource.
“To have found out he was a dirty dog later in that process, and then to have it actually verified by the third party who accepted the dog is… these are questions that led us to ask for the records regarding the K9 program,” he said. “And we still don’t have them.”
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