Former Miami Cop Takes Deal In K9's Death
MIAMI (CBS4) - A former Miami police officer accused of starving his K9 to death will not see the inside of a prison.
On Tuesday Rondal Brown, 51, accepted a plea deal from prosecutors in exchange for pleading no contest to a single count of animal cruelty. Under terms of the deal, Brown will serve a year of probation, surrender his law enforcement certification and never again seek employment with the City of Miami.
He will also have to pay court costs along with making a thousand dollar donation to the Animal Services Trust Fund and $500 donation to the Jimmy Ryce Foundation.
Brown, who is now retired, was arrested in March 2008 and charged with animal cruelty.
Investigators say when Brown's four-year-old bloodhound named Dynasty died in November, 2007 she weighed only 33 pounds, nearly half of what she weighed ten months earlier.
According to police, a necropsy performed at the animal clinic revealed an open wound on the dog's front paw where the bone and tendon were visible. The necropsy also revealed the dog had no body fat or muscle tissue and lacked any food or fecal matter in her intestinal track. The doctors estimated that it would have taken at least a month for the dog to reach its physical condition.
Investigators concluded that Officer Brown intentionally failed to provide Dynasty with the daily care it needed to sustain its life resulting in the dog's death from malnutrition.
Dynasty was a bloodhound that specialized in finding missing persons. Dynasty was donated to the Miami Police Department in 2004 by the Jimmy Ryce Foundation, which donates bloodhounds to police departments.
