THE EPIDEMIC OF MENTALLY UNSTABLE COPS IN AMERICA CONTINUES
By David Collins
Officer Jeffrey Bolger pleads
not guilty
BALTIMORE —A trial date is set
for a Baltimore City police officer accused of slitting a dog's throat, killing
it in June.
A Baltimore City police officer
is charged with aggravated animal cruelty for cutting the throat of a dog,
police officials announce.
Officer Jeffrey Bolger, 49,
pleaded not guilty during an arraignment Thursday, seeking a jury trial. A
trial date was set for Nov. 7. The judge will rule later on a defense motion to
dismiss the case.
Bolger is charged with
aggravated animal cruelty, animal mutilation and misconduct in office in the
alleged killing of a 7-year-old shar-pei, Nala. According to charging
documents, officers responded to the Canton area on June 14 regarding a
pregnant woman who was bitten by Nala, who was off her leash.
According to charging
documents, Bolger slit the dog's throat while Officer Thomas Schmidt held it.
Schmidt faces three criminal counts of aggravated animal cruelty, animal abuse
and misconduct in office.
New information emerged during
arraignment as attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the charges, disputing
witness accounts that Bolger set out to gut the dog. Court documents say the
shar-pei fought for more than an hour to escape and that Bolger considered
using his service revolver to euthanize the dog.
"It would have endangered
the lives of those individuals because of a potential of a ricochet
bullet," defense attorney Steve Levin said.
Defense attorneys said reports
of Bolger yelling "I'm going to gut this dog" are untrue. Attorneys
said, "Bolger stated in a frustrated manner that he was going to have to
cut the dog."
"It is very convenient
that now that's a story they are going to go with and that's a word that rhymes
with gut," said Nala's owner, Sarah Gossard, who called the motion to
dismiss ridiculous.
"We filed a motion to
dismiss based on the fact the state's attorney brought charges without showing
there was sufficient probable cause," Levin said.
Court papers say Bolger used
his knife in the least painful way to euthanize the dog and that he acted
according to the law. Attorneys said Bolger used his knife in a fashion that
placed the public in the least amount of danger.
"The Baltimore City Police
Department did not provide these officers with the proper equipment, and in a
frustrated manner, Agent Bolger determined he would have to use his
knife," Levin said.
"(I want them) to lose
their jobs because I wouldn't want this to happen to someone else, and I would
love to see them do jail time," Gossard said. "Both of these officers
have dogs. It's disgusting to me. I think their dogs should be taken away from
them."
