April 23, 2001
(ALBUQUERQUE) – Three women have filed suit against the Albuquerque Police Dept. claiming that they were permanently scarred by the same K-9 dog.
The city has already settled one suit involving Officer Andrew LeHocky and his Belgian Malinois, Bart. The same lawyer, Sam Bregman, is representing two of the new claimants.
Bregman said that in these attacks Bart mauled women who were unarmed and no threat to LeHocky or any other officers. One woman was inside an apartment during a drug raid, another was a passenger in a car pulled over by police and the third was in a schoolyard where another teenager fired a gun in the air.
The suit claims that the city has failed to follow through on pledges to improve its training of K-9 officers and dogs. LeHocky, who, with his dog, was named the department’s Officer of the Year in 1999, has transferred out of the K-9 unit.