Deputy cleared in dog-bite case

Jurors didn’t buy the allegations of a man who accused a controversial Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy of allowing a police dog to attack him for an unreasonable length of time.

They found that Deputy Gerald “Jerry” Wengert did not use excessive force when his police dog partner at the time, Diesel, bit and held down a suspect during a November 2014 arrest in Tamarac. Jurors found Wengert’s actions were reasonable for a law enforcement officer and handler of the highly trained dog.

The jury in the civil lawsuit deliberated for four hours and 15 minutes before reaching their verdict on Thursday in federal court in Miami.

Wengert, a veteran deputy who was featured with one of his former police dog partners in the reality TV show “Unleashed: K-9 Broward County,” still face other allegations of excessive force and one wrongful death in several unrelated cases. Jurors in the civil case were not told about the other complaints.

Reginald Chatman, 25, who is serving a state prison sentence for convictions related to the Nov. 10, 2014 incident, said he suffered leg injuries when Wengert’s dog, Diesel, bit him while he was hiding from deputies.

Chatman testified that he was coming down from a high after taking drugs when the incident unfolded. He said he thought he had smoked either a mix of cocaine and Ecstasy with marijuana or marijuana and flakka, a stimulant.

The case started out with a very minor offense but escalated.

Chatman and a friend admitted they stole $30 worth of cookies and milk from a CVS store at Commercial Boulevard and State Road 7. When deputies questioned them, Chatman ran off, pushing one of the deputies and causing him to bump into the other deputy.

Sheriff’s officials treated the incident as a felony battery on a law enforcement officer by a fleeing suspect who might have been armed. They dispatched several deputies and four police canine teams to the area and launched a helicopter to help with the search.

Wengert testified that he, and Diesel, did what they were trained to do and that the dog has never disobeyed an order to release a suspect. The dog found Chatman hiding in a bush, bit his leg and held him until Chatman was handcuffed and Wengert told Diesel to release his bite.

“I would not change anything that I did that night,” Wengert testified.

Wengert’s attorney attacked Chatman’s testimony, reminding jurors that Chatman gave different accounts of what happened in the years since the incident. Chatman testified at various points in the investigation that Diesel bit him for about 2 ½ minutes, seven or eight minutes, 20 minutes, or for 40 minutes, attorney Richard Woulfe said.

Witnesses, including a nurse who treated Chatman at a local hospital, classified the injury as “a minor dog bite.”

There are three civil lawsuits pending against Wengert in federal court — all alleging excessive force. One involves a wrongful death civil suit for an onduty fatal shooting by Wengert in 2014. A Broward County grand jury ruled the shooting was a justified use of lethal force.

Broward state prosecutors are still conducting two criminal investigations of Wengert. One concerns his actions in the Chatman case. The other concerns allegations that Wengert and another deputy antagonized a police dog into attacking two men, suspected of painting graffiti, after they surrendered in January 2014.