No charges against Arkansas deputy who left K-9 officer to die in hot car

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There will be no charges filed against a Madison County deputy who forgot about his police dog in the back of his patrol car resulting in the dog’s death on September 9, reports Arkansas Online.

According to a press release on Friday by Prosecuting Attorney for the 4th Judicial District, Matthew Durrett, Deputy Jonathon Cornelison will not be charged in  the heat related death of three-year-old Belgian Malinois named Lina.

“…There is insufficient evidence of his intent to support an animal cruelty charge, so we are not filing anything on him.”

Details of the investigation and the events leading up to Lina’s death were made public on Friday stating Cornelison had been working lengthy days because of staff shortages. Records indicate on September 8, Cornelison finished a ten-hour shift at 6 a.m., took his children to daycare and school and then was called in to assist the 4th Judicial Drug Task Force that afternoon. That day he worked until 9:30 p.m. and had been awake for more than 28 hours.

The next day, September 9, was another very long day after taking his children to daycare and school. He was then called in to assist with a vehicular accident involving a known drug dealer. Lina was loaded into the deputy’s vehicle until the search was completed. Documents tracked  Cornelison’s actions almost the entire day using a different vehicle, which included police investigative business. According to the deputy, he thought Lina had been taken out of his patrol car and placed in her kennel behind the barn at his home. When Cornelison realized he had not heard Lina barking late that afternoon, he found her dead in the back seat of his police vehicle.

Madison County Sheriff Phillip Morgan had previously described Lina’s death as a “bad accident.” She was the only police dog at the Madison County Sheriff’s Office. It is not known when Cornelison will return to work or whether another dog will replace Lina.

Rest in peace Lina. (Photo via Madison County Sheriff’s Office)


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10 COMMENTS

  1. This is disgusting! “Insufficient evidence of his intent”? What more do they need, Lina is dead because of his inability to properly take care of his “partner”. Yeah “bad accident” and another inept police officer doesn’t get charged for killing their police K-9. If this is the way the department feels, they best not get another police K-9 at all, they obviously don’t know anything about the care of a dog!

    • I agree this happens almost daily, somewhere. They don’t deserve these wonderful animals. It’s scary that he takes his kids to daycare. Hope he doesn’t forget about them.

  2. Lina’s death may have been “unintentional” but nevertheless it happened under his watch.
    It seems obvious this Sheriff’s Dept. would do best without putting another loyal canine at risk. Simply put: do without.

  3. Hmm what a shock! The police should be charged with animal cruelty and abuse-how in the hell do you forget you have a dog in a car especially when you put the dog in the car and on top of that they are your partner? This society needs to make harsher laws when it comes to animal cruelty and abuse! Don’t make special rules for the police if they killed their dog then make them accountable for their crime don’t slap their wrist

  4. He killed a fellow officer. Ni more K9 patrol for this monster. Intent be damned – it takes 10 seconds to look around and see if your partner is back there. If he has any honor, he should eat his gun.

  5. That’s Madison County for you, they didn’t give a crap about the 300 dog that were saved by HSUS Madison County did nothing for the suffering dog. They totally ignored calls from people for months. Iv5e called the city ands babe been told to stop stirring up trouble and mind my own business about the dogs on crossbow who had no shelter. So this does not surprise me. If they didn’t care about 300 dogs then why should they care about one. Don’t be surprised if they hit everyone up for money to get another.

  6. This makes it pretty APPARENT that the OFFICER ‘s Don’t have an iota of LOVE or Respect for their DOG PARTNERS and their SUPERIOR”S DONT EITHER!!!! ARKANSAS DOESN”T NEED another DOG to ABUSE !!!

  7. EXCUSES EXCUSES EVERY ONE HAS THEM AND ALL STINK THIS IS BS HOW DO U FORGET YOUR PARTNER FIRE THIS JERK IT WILL SEND THE MESSAGE THIS IS NOT TOLERATED AND RESTORTION FOR COSTS TO TRAIN THEM

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