Gone but Not Forgotten : Owner Files Claim in Slaying of Dog by Deputies

Neighbors say the sheriff’s deputies shot in cold blood. The officers say they were protecting themselves in the line of duty.

What’s known for sure is that Frank Alequin’s dog is dead.

“They killed my dog for no reason whatsoever,” the 29-year-old Thousand Oaks truck driver said.

This week, Alequin filed a claim against Ventura County, seeking compensation for the death of his 18-month-old chow, Duke.

Duke was killed after Ventura County sheriff’s deputies, acting on a tip that Alequin was selling drugs, stopped him and his girlfriend June 8 and served them with a search warrant for their Brossard Drive house.

The couple gave the deputies their house keys and warned them that there were three dogs on the premises, according to police reports.

While Alequin and his girlfriend were detained, about 10 deputies proceeded to their house and opened the exterior front door. Then, behind a screen door, they noticed Duke, who was “snapping and growling,” according to the report.

“The dog would not move and there was no other way to enter the residence,” the report said. An officer tried to subdue the animal with an electronic prod but failed.

“The dog would back up, but it continued to growl,” said Detective Oscar Bermudez, the officer with the electronic control device.

“For officer’s safety reason and in order to serve the search warrant it was decided . . . to shoot the dog,” the report said.

Duke was killed in the living room by one shotgun blast to the face, according to the sheriff’s report.

But neighbors gave a different account of the shooting.

Marcie Fierro, 19, who said she witnessed the shooting, said the officers “never attempted to use” the animal-control device. According to Fierro, the deputies put down the device before they approached the door. When they did approach, “one had the keys and the other was already aiming. . . . They meant to kill it.”

A neighbor, Lee Mosser, corroborated Fierro’s version and said Duke was never violent.

“I’ve known that dog since it was a puppy,” said Mosser, a 31-year-old bar manager who lives across the street. “I just can’t believe they said he was attacking. The dog has never even fought with my dog.”

Randy Suarez, another neighbor, described Duke as “a big, mellow dog” that often licked children.

The officers said they searched Alequin’s home and found a small amount of methamphetamine in a bedroom and three small marijuana plants in the back yard. Two other chows in the back yard did not disturb the officers.

Alequin was arrested. He posted bail while awaiting arraignment on misdemeanor drug-possession charges. If convicted, he faces a year in County Jail on each charge.

By the time Alequin was allowed to return home, Duke’s body had been removed. Alequin’s attorney, Dennis Kucera, tried to obtain the animal’s body as evidence, but county animal-control officials said it had already been sent to a rendering factory. Alequin called the animal’s disappearance a “convenient screw-up.”

The Sheriff’s Department does not have a specific policy governing such situations, Lt. Dave Tennessen said Wednesday. He said deputies who feel threatened can take whatever steps they believe are necessary.

But Kucera said the shooting was intentional and unwarranted. In his claim, Alequin seeks $1,000 in compensation for the dog, and an unspecified amount for the emotional distress.

The average chow weighs 50 to 60 pounds and stands 20 inches tall, said Kathy Jenks, county director of animal regulation.

She said they usually have a tranquil nature, but “a chow coming at you is nothing you would want to stick around for.” Jenks listed chows as one of the top three breeds involved in “aggressive attacks” in Ventura County, along with Rottweilers and Akitas, a Japanese breed.

But the American Kennel Club’s Breed Standards manual describes the chow as a “loyal and sincere dog . . . adapted to tranquil people.”

“They’ll bite if you corner them, but they aren’t the type to be at the fence being really super-aggressive,” said Cathy Pittman, owner and head trainer of Praise Training in Thousand Oaks. “They don’t have a tendency to bite.”

Whether Duke was aggressive may be the deciding factor in Alequin’s claim, Kucera said. Under the law, such claims must be filed before a public agency can be sued.

“I just want justice done for my animal,” Alequin said. “He was my friend.”