Two New Orleans Police Officers Charged in K-9 Partners’ Deaths

Two officers in the New Orleans Police Department have been charged in the May 2009 deaths of their K-9 partners.

In the first case, Officer Jason Lewis, 33, was charged with aggravated cruelty to animals for an incident in which he left his K-9 partner, Primo, a 6-year-old Belgian Malinois, unattended in a hot police vehicle, according to NOLA.com.

In the second case, Sgt. Randy Lewis, 45, was charged with malfeasance in office, or official misconduct, for allowing his dog Phantom to fall down an elevator shaft and leaving the body. Randy Lewis is a former supervisor and trainer in the New Orleans Police Department’s K-9 Unit.

The officers in these separate cases are not related.

A photo of Jason Lewis’s police vehicle created a considerable stir when published last summer. The photo depicts the car’s shredded front seats reduced to mere chunks of yellow foam, the result of Primo’s attempt to escape. A public memorial was in held in July in honor of the deceased dog outside the police department’s headquarters.

“The Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals put the DA’s office in contact with a forensic veterinarian who determined that Primo did not die from a pre-existing condition,” reports NOLA.com.

Primo’s body temperature was reportedly 109.8 degrees when he collapsed at a veterinary clinic; a dog’s normal temperature is about 102 degrees. He was later transferred to the Southeast Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Clinic in Metairie, where he died after suffering three seizures. A necropsy report from LSU concluded that Primo likely died from shock due to heat stroke.

“It’s horrible that (an) animal lost its life, it’s a black-eye for the police department,” said Metropolitan Crime Commission President Rafael Goyeneche.

Townsend Myers, the attorney representing Jason Lewis, stated that police-issued vehicles are designed so that animals can be left unsupervised for long periods.

“The fact that this animal was left in a vehicle by itself is not indicative of any negligence,” said Myers, adding the Lewis “cared deeply” for Primo, who lived with the officer’s family when not on duty. The attorney further emphasizes that the grand jury heard evidence in the case but did not issue an indictment.

In this case, the grand jury did not return with an indictment, nor did it return with a “no true bill,” which would have recommended no charges be filed. It was not made public what the grand jury ruled.

Myers did not specify how police vehicles are equipped to house an unattended dog for long stretches. Nor did he say how long Primo was left in the car, if he was given potty breaks, if the air conditioning was running or if the windows were rolled down. It is generally known that a dog left in an unattended car can easily overheat, even when left for short periods, on mildly warm days or even with the windows cracked.

After an internal investigation, Jason Lewis was given a 10-day suspension for the May 27 incident. NOPD did not find him guilty of any wrongdoing.

In the other case, Randy Lewis was working an off-duty, private security detail on the evening of May 21 at the abandoned Charity Hospital building in downtown New Orleans when Phantom fell down an open elevator shaft.

Furthermore, Lewis left Phantom’s body at the bottom of the shaft until morning. Anthony Radosti, vice president of the Crime Commission, said that police dogs are officers’ partners.

“Unfortunately, they don’t realize that he is a brother officer for all practical purposes,” he said to NOLA.com. “To leave him at the bottom of the pit strikes at the heart.”

Lewis then lied about the incident in a police report and stated that he and Phantom were on duty and working on a training exercise.

Eric Hessler, Randy Lewis’s attorney, said that an “error” was made on the police report when his client left out the fact that he was working a paid, off-duty detail. This is not, Hessler said, a crime. He also stated that Lewis’s decision to leave the dog’s body behind was based on safety. He said the shaft was flooded and it was safer for officers to retrieve Phantom in the morning.

Last summer, after investigations by the Louisiana SPCA and the Humane Society of Louisiana, the Metropolitan Crime Commission pushed the district attorney’s office to begin criminal investigations of both incidents, reported WWLTV.com.

“We knew from early on that something was not right, that those were not routine deaths. We asked the police to work with the district attorney to bring those men to justice,” said Ana Zorilla, head of the Louisiana SPCA, to WDSU.com.

Both officers were placed on desk duty after their respective charges; neither officer has worked in the K-9 Unit since both dogs died, a department spokesman said.

“Both of these cases are significant above and beyond the fact that, tragically, an animal lost its life,” said Goyeneche. “I think that these cases, both of them, indicated and speak to the police department’s inability to adequately police itself.”

Jeff Dorson, president of the Humane Society said it was a “red letter day” for animal rights advocates and the community, WWLTV reports. “It just looks like they created this endless maze of what really happened, wouldn’t really tell us what happened, wouldn’t really disclose how long the animals suffered and really didn’t take any responsibility for it.”

Zorilla was also relieved. “Primo suffered a horrific fate in that car, and I am glad we were able to support the DA in their investigation,” she said in a statement. “The time has come to hold our police officers to a higher standard.”

PHOTOS: NOLA.com, Fox8Live.com, JulieDermansky.blogspot.com