Terrell Lance claims damage to his living room resulted from a Green River Police Officer barricading his dogs inside his residence while he was away.
A Green River resident alleges the city police department violated his civil rights when they responded to a barking dog complaint at his house.
Green River resident Terrell Lance went out of town this past weekend. He kept his two dogs at home, with plenty of food and water in the house for them and a dog door to go in and out of the house to urinate and defecate outside, in the backyard.
Saturday, at 10 p.m. an officer was called to the Lance residence for a barking dog complaint, by an anonymous caller. The officer stated on the notice left at the house that the small brindle dog was barking constantly for one hour, and the dogs were placed inside the residence and the dog door was blocked.
The officer barricaded the dog door with a cooler and a barbecue grill sitting on the residence owner's back porch.
Lance said the officer didn't attempt to contact him, nor was a phone call made to notify the him about the complaint before entering the property.
Lance's two dogs were barricaded inside the house for 30 hours.
When the Lances returned home at 2 a.m., Monday morning, the house was a mess; urination stains and feces covered the floor, which will need replaced, the $1,200 couch was chewed and stuffing ripped apart, the T.V. remote mutilated, a disheveled mess was strewn about the house.
Lance presented his story to the city council Tuesday evening.
"I want the public here and council to be aware that these things do happen," Lance said. "Number one, I feel like my civil rights were violated badly. I never gave them permission to go onto my property. I don't feel like a barking dog complaint, a nuisance complaint is justification for violating somebody's civil rights. Second of all, I do not believe that a public nuisance complaint is ground for endangering animals or cruelty to animals and in this case both occurred."
Lance spoke with the Green River city administrator and the chief of police, others in the police department and the city. Lance said they have been wonderful about followup.
Lance posed several questions to the council concerning the incident.
"The questions I want you guys to ask in the future, if you would please, first of all, does a public nuisance complaint justify violating a person's civil rights? And does that justify recklessly endangering animals that belong to somebody else? Or does it justify going onto somebody else's property and using their property to further damage other parts of their property on the parts of the Green River Police Department?"
There were no questions from the council.
"I'm sorry Terrell," Green River Mayor Pete Rust said. "As you're aware, this is an ongoing situation and as you mentioned the staff is working on it and we will continue to do that, do it as expeditiously as possible. I expect some of those questions will be answered in the process."
There is no definite answer as to what kind of compensation Lance will receive, when, or how much, or if he will receive any compensation at all.
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