A district attorney in Oregon will review a case involving an uncooperative jail inmate who was bitten by a sheriff’s patrol dog after disturbing body camera footage of the attack was released.
Columbia County Sheriff Jeff Dickerson told The Oregonian that his department’s review of the August incident at the Columbia County Jail found that the use of force was justified and doesn’t believe that any laws were broken, but said a “legal entity review” of the case is warranted.
“We don’t want this to be seen as being done in a vacuum,” Dickerson told the newspaper. “Everything we do is an open book.”
The inmate, Christopher Bartlett, 47, was bitten by a 3-year-old Belgian Malinois named Lars after he became uncooperative when deputies tried to move him to another cell in a high-security unit on Aug. 1. After being warned by a deputy, the dog was released into Bartlett’s cell, biting him on the left arm just above his elbow.
“Stop resisting,” Deputy Ryan Dews yells repeatedly as the dog is seen on body cam footage running into the cell. “Stop resisting! Relax!”
The dog then violently shakes Bartlett’s arm as he cowers inside a cell with at least two deputies, the footage shows.
Dickerson admitted that the footage looks “horrendous” but insisted it was the “most humane” way to handle a violent inmate who refused to comply with orders. Dews later warned Bartlett that he “would get bit again” if he continues to be uncooperative.
“You throw stuff, you threaten us, you get bit,” Dews said, according to the footage.
The incident was the first time Lars had been ordered to attack an inmate and is believed to be the only time an inmate has been bitten by a K-9 at the jail, Dickerson told The Oregonian, adding that in most instances just the sight of patrol dogs gets inmates to comply.
Bartlett wasn’t seriously injured and has since been transferred to another jail, but officials from the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon want to reach him after the “inhumane” attack.
“This practice has largely and rightly been discontinued in visible settings,” the group’s legal director, Mat dos Santos, told the newspaper.
Bartlett’s sister told KGW that she found the footage to be “horrifying” and said her brother suffers from undiagnosed form of mental illness.
“They should take different steps,” the woman, identified only as Shawna, told the station. “They should maybe use mace or there were three officers that day … the three of them couldn’t apprehend him or keep him under control?”
The family is now considering a lawsuit, Bartlett’s sister said.
Bartlett had been booked into the jail a total of 43 times since 2001, primarily for probation violations, according to a review of jail records by The Oregonian.
“As it turns out, it probably wasn’t the wisest decision for us to put him in [the temporary holding unit],” Dickerson told the newspaper. “But that’s all with the benefit of hindsight.”
Bartlett also did not file a complaint after the incident and deputies did not “relish having to resort to force,” Dickerson told The Columbia County Spotlight.
“We do what we can to minimize the length and intensity of these confrontations to protect the staff AND the inmates from severe injury,” Dickerson wrote the newspaper in an email.
