Fla. Deputy Bitten in Face by Great Dane while Trying to Arrest Owner
By Mark Price
Source The Charlotte Observer
A sheriff’s deputy was bitten on the face by a Great Dane when he responded to complaints of the dog menacing utilities workers, according to Florida investigators.
It happened around 10:50 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 25, while Duke Energy employees were investigating a theft of electricity in the Lake Wales area, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
The dog’s 28-year-old owner responded to their questions by siccing her two Great Danes on them, officials said.
“The deputy arrived and began speaking with (the owner), but then she called 911. As the deputy moved ... to arrest her, he was attacked by a Great Dane,” the sheriff’s office said.
“He was bitten on the arm and right next to his eye. Not the actual eyeball … but right next to it. He was very fortunate,” the sheriff’s office told McClatchy News in an email.The injured deputy was identified as Clint Wofford and he has been with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office nine years, officials said. Details of his condition were not released.
Wofford was able to summon backup and they arrived to arrest the dog owner.
The Duke Energy employees were not injured, officials said.
Polk County Animal Control also responded and found the two Great Danes were “in extremely poor health,” officials said.
Both dogs were confiscated, the sheriff’s office said.
An investigation has determined the dogs’ owner was “stealing electricity from Duke Energy after they had cut the power from her home,” officials said.
She was arrested and charged with:
- Aggravated battery on law enforcement
- Aggravated assault on law enforcement
- Two counts of aggravated assault
- Resisting a law enforcement officer with violence
- Resisting without violence
- Theft of utility services
- Petit theft
- Trespass other than structure/conveyance
- Animal cruelty
- Open septic
- Nuisance injurious to health
- Burning prohibited materials
- Waste tire disposal
- Misuse of 911
- Having an unpermitted landfill
Lake Wales is about a 60-mile drive east from Tampa.
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