Personal injury lawyer says he’ll file suit for $250K if thwarted
K9 Ace snapped at his handler’s son and Vic Feazell wants to settle with insurance lawyers who represent the Sheriff’s Office
Waco – When Sheriff Parnell McNamara returned from an extended trip of nearly a month to Switzerland, where he and his wife had been attending his step-daughter’s wedding, he found a thick sheaf of papers on his desk, wrapped in a pink ribbon, tied in a bow.
It was the record of a very strange, very intensive investigation into the circumstances of a very expensive series of faux pas. All this ultimately led to the destruction of a highly trained drug detection dog, Ace, a Belgian Malinois originally acquired at a cost of $15,000.
Division chiefs in the Sheriff’s Office had signed off on their findings concerning how a Lieutenant in the training division and a dog handler fired cap pistols in Ace’s face, slammed their hands on the sides of the SUV in which he rode, and made him leap to high and precarious perches from which on at least one occasion, he fell and in a panic, bit a fellow officer who was trying to type a report.
It was a totally grab-ass-tic scene, not very professional, a spree of hoo-raw in which a very finely tuned animal was baited and subjected to confusing behavior.
It made him mean as he could be.
McNamara ignored the investigation and took steps to move the alleged abusers of Ace from their positions on the day shift to a night patrol job – lateral transfers that involved adjustments in pay grade and different titles for both men.
It’s an ugly story, but it got worse when Ace’s new handler went to church one evening and left Ace in his kennel at his mother and father’s home. His ex-wife and son came to visit and while no one was watching, the kid let Ace out of his kennel to play with him. It’s something his dad had forbidden, but – well, you know, kids.
Little Adrian Bustillos opened the door and let Ace out, but in their frolics, Ace became aggravated and “snapped” at Adrian. A canine tooth opened up a gash on the boy’s forehead.
That’s when Penny, his mother, retained ex-DA Vic Feazell.
We of The Legendary found out that correspondence between a plaintiff’s lawyer and a local government’s attorney who is acting as an administrator and not as a lawyer, is not necessarily covered by attorney-client privilege. And, so, here is a condensed report on the files we were allowed to obtain by an opinion of Assistant Attorney General Cristian Rosas-Grillet.
Vic Feazell wrote: “Needless to say, I was disappointd with your counter offer of only $10,000. I had a knee jerk reaction hen I saw it and responded that I would file suite this week, but I have known Parnell McNamara for at least 30 years and consider him somewhat of a friend. It is my desire to keep negotiations open in an effort to avoid suing McLenan County and the Sheriff over an incident that the press will eat up.
“This case is not about liability; it is about how much a jury will award.”
“Certification experts at US K9 in Kaplan, Louisiana, refused to train the dog because of his aggressiveness and recommended that he be put down.”
Feazell went on to reference news reports which quoted McNamara saying he will take steps to ensure the safety of the children of the handler, “’including keeping them away form the dog.’ This has not happened. The children are still exposed to the dog…This dog is powerful and weighs around 70 pounds. He is dangerous…”
Official records show that officers “acted with negligence” in Ace’s training, Feazell notes. Those records were originally obtained by The Legendary in a Public Information Act request.
He bit both offiers and bystanders alike following the torturous training he was given at the Sheriff’s Office.
“This is certainly not the kind of dog that should be allowed around children. It’s like leaving a loaded gun on the floor for children to play with,” Feazell wrote to Susann Honaker. “ A jury will not like this and will send a message to McLennan County that “enough is enough.”
Feazell then demanded $65,000 in settlement and noted in his latest case of dog bite – an incident which occurred in McLennan County – two dogs attacked a man who came to the rescue of his smaller dog, and though they did not puncture his skin, “…they ripped his jeans off of him.”
He noted that “We settled that case for $220,000 after the defense had spent a substatial amount of money filing motions, taking depositions, and doing other discovery…The more we have to work on one of these cases, the better it gets.”
And then Feazell slapped down the double spinner rock in his hand.
“Mr. Bustillos and Sheriff McNamara could be found guilty of a criminal offense by making it possible for this dog to injure another human being after it had already injured Deputy Wolfe…I think a jury will believe that McLennan County has shown a conscious disregard for the safety of these children and for the general public.”
After his opponent in the lawsuit replied that $10,000 is “more than fair,” considering the damages, Feazell demanded $60,000 and said he would file suit seeking the maximum legally allowable $250,000 in combined damages as a result of the previous “low-ball offers.”
And then he threw in a photo of Adrian’s little brother’s neck, which somehow got tangled up in the powerful dog’s leash when he lunged ahead. The boy’s neck was bruised an ugly shade.
What happened to Ace?
We don’t know. The paper trail on him ran out when for no consideration McLennan County agreed to turn him back over to US K9 at Kaplan, Louisiana without recourse.
Expenses. Vet bills.
We have already heard the opinion of US K9’s executives on Ace’s future. One can only wonder, and mind one’s own business. Until you see a puppy wrestling with his litter mates, or scampering across the lawn, chasing a butterfly.
It brings to mind an old fable about a man who awakened to find he walking down an unfamiliar road with his dog trotting by his side. It came to him that his dog had died 20 years before and could not possibly, in reality, be with him.
And then he came to a magnificent gate with inlay of mother of pearl and golden accents that led to a fabulously landscaped park. There was a man in a white robe with a golden book, sitting at a desk.
He asked him, “Could I come in and get a drink of water?”
“Why, certainly,” said the man at the desk. “Help yourself.”
“Could my dog come in, too? He’s thirsty.”
“We don’t allow pets,” the man said, gazing at him with a neutral affect. Clearly, it was his choice, whether to stay, or go.
He chose to keep on walking and soon came to a decrepit barbed-wire gate on an unkempt pasture, where he could see a well on a hill. An unkempt character sitting in the shade whittling called a friendly greeting.
Asked if he would let him get a drink from the well, the man said, sure, why not.
“That’s why it’s there,” he said.
How about his dog?
“We have a special bowl for pets.”
And then he asked him, “What place is this?” The man said, “Why, this is Heaven.”
Then what place was that with the fancy gate and the exquisitely trimmed lawn?
“Oh, that’s hell,” the man said.
What about the no pets policy?
“That’s just a trick. The devil wants to know if you would leave your best friend behind.”