Colorado district attorney criticizes defense used by Jefferson County Sheriff's deputy in K9 attack of girl

A six-person jury in Douglas County on Thursday found a Jefferson County Sheriff's deputy not guilty of charges related to a department K-9 attack on a little girl and her father. Jeffco Sheriff's Deputy Zachary Oliver was found not guilty on misdemeanor charges of harboring a dangerous job.

The verdict left 23rd Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler angered over the defense used.

"Nobody else interprets it that way. No other sheriff's office that I'm aware of does it that way. I love law enforcement. I respect them, I fight for them. This is a character flaw. This is a failure of leadership in this organization to produce this result."

The dog, a Belgian Malinois, was assigned to Deputy Oliver as a handler after his previous dog was killed in the line of duty. That meant the dog named Ragnar would live with Oliver, who has a home in Castle Rock. Last August, while Oliver was inside the home last August, when the dog escaped its enclosure outside and vaulted a fence to a little girl's birthday party next door. The dog attacked a ball, a two-year-old girl, and then her father as he tried to protect his daughter.

He was fond of law enforcement, said the family's civil attorney Dagny Van Der Jagt.

"Today was definitely a turning point for him. Just the disappointment that he experienced with his family. The lack of responsibility and accountability on the other side."

Oliver's defense referred to a section of Colorado law that grants protection to law enforcement for the actions of K-9s acting in the capacity of their duties.

"And so the sheriff's deputy says, well, wait a minute. At the time, the dog got away. I was inside cleaning urine out of his kennel, and that is the performance of my duties, and therefore I should be granted immunity from prosecution. No joke," said Brauchler. "Jefferson County Sheriff's leadership allowed two of their employees to come, presumably on a taxpayer dime, and came down and testified that yes, we have a contract with the canine handler to do certain things, and thus things that he does like caring for the dog are performance of duties."

Van Der Jagt said the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office had changed its position on what happened from the time after the attack in August of last year, "The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office would say we will take care of the family. Those are the statements they would say publicly this was an off-duty police officer. And all of a sudden it's an on-duty police officer at all times."

She is working on a lawsuit, not yet filed, for the family.

"This is an extremely traumatic event for him and for the entire family, and they still suffer the consequences not only physically, but mentally." The little girl, who has now turned three since the attack, says Van Der Jagt has a fear of all kinds of animals. Van Der Jagt believes the move by the sheriff's office to back up Oliver's defense means the dog's actions occurred while it was under department responsibility.

"I guess for our civil purposes, they make a statement that the canine was on duty and so was the officer, then there's an admission to liability."

Brauchler maintains that it may be time to review the law if it is going to be applied in this way. 

"That just can't be how the law works. I mean nobody. Nobody in my position has been a better cheerleader and defender of law enforcement than I have. But this right here is an act of gutlessness, a lack of courage and accountability, and I'm pretty incensed by this… This dog could have killed the two-year-old, killed the two-year-old's twin, killed the mom, killed the dad. Hell killed anyone who tried to stop it from killing. And this guy and the department sound like they'd shrug it off as well. You know. He was cleaning up the dog's urine at the time," said Brauchler.

The sheriff's office declined to comment on Brauchler's remarks on the case. The dog, Ragnar, is still with Deputy Oliver, even as he works. An internal investigation known as a bite review is not yet complete because the department was awaiting completion of the misdemeanor case against Oliver, said JeffCo Sheriff spokeswoman Karlyn Tilley. The dog is not allowed out of the vehicle in any official capacity, explained Tilley.

Oliver is resigning from the department and leaving within a couple of weeks to move out of state. Tilley says Oliver will not have the option to keep the dog, which is the property of the department. What will happen with the dog is not yet decided, but Tilley said, "He will not be a working dog for us anymore."