Deputy faces civil trial in police dog-bite case
A Broward Sheriff’s deputy, accused multiple times of brutality, will be back in court Monday to face a civil suit that accuses him of letting his police dog attack a suspect for up to 20 minutes.
Deputy Gerald Wengert, known as Jerry, became well known when he and one of his dogs were featured on the TV reality show “Unleashed: K-9 Broward County.”
Attorneys for Reginald Chatman are seeking $135,000 in compensation and damages for dog-bite injuries to his left hip, knee and leg during a 2014 arrest in Tamarac. Wengert denies any wrongdoing. Chatman admits he was high on cocaine and Ecstasy when he stole about $30 worth of items from a CVS and then pushed deputies and ran off when they tried to question him.
Wengert and his police dog at the time, Diesel, were called to the scene and found Chatman hiding in a bush.
The three-day jury trial, which starts Monday in federal court in Miami, is focused on one very narrow issue: the length of time that Wengert allowed the highly trained dog to bite and latch on to Chatman’s leg.
Chatman says he made it clear that he was surrendering to law enforcement as soon as Diesel bit him.
“[Wengert used] excessive force when he maliciously and sadistically released his K-9 unit [dog] on Chatman and allowed the K-9 unit to