GREENE COUNTY — No criminal charges will be filed against Martinsville Police Officer Michelle Weaver after she shot and killed her K9 dog, Sunny, back in mid June.
The incident — while immediately reported to her supervisors — was made public six weeks later, ultimately leading MPD Chief Rick Lang to hand the case over to the Indiana State Police as a criminal investigation.
After a three-week investigation last month, ISP First Sgt. Brad Stille handed off his findings to Greene County Prosecutor Jarrod Holtsclaw, since the incident occurred at Weaver’s home in Greene County.
After reviewing the case, Holtsclaw decided no charges would be filed.
“I found officer Weaver, in my opinion, didn’t commit any crimes,” Holtsclaw said by phone Tuesday morning.
He said she had been put in a “difficult position” after she lost her previous K9, Kimber, in March.
“(Weaver) was tasked with finding a replacement that had to be free, and she located one,” Holtsclaw said.
But Sunny, the replacement dog, soon exhibited aggressive behavior that raised concerns, according to Holtsclaw, who said it “attacked and bit (Weaver’s) son, attacked and bit her, and then the final straw, it attacked and was fighting another dog she was caring for in her home.”
Based on the previous pattern, it had already been “determined the dog needed to be put down,” according to Holtsclaw.
“The breakdown here is, there was no place for this dog to go at the police department,” Holtsclaw said. “So they asked her to take care of it in her home for a number of weeks.
“She also tried to find someone else to take the animal,” he added, “and no one else would take it.”
Instead, she kept the dog isolated in her bedroom, “separate from the rest of her family and the rest of the pets,” Holtsclaw said.
The day of the incident, according to the investigation, the dog inadvertently got free and attacked another dog in her care, leading Weaver to kill the dog with a rifle and bury it on the family property.
“I believe what she did was reasonable and justified,” Holtsclaw said Tuesday.
He added that while the dog was intended to serve as a law enforcement K9 unit, it did not receive the required training to achieve that status.
“Due to issues with his behavior, it never got that training,” Holtsclaw said. “But that was the intent.”
While the criminal case is officially closed, Lang said Tuesday that an internal investigation is still ongoing.
“The internal investigation is still incomplete, and at this time, we’ll not have comment on that,” he said. “Obviously, what we’re investigating is not the criminal aspect, but policy and procedural.”
Lang said he had not yet seen ISP’s investigative report on the incident.
“I try to stay out of it until what I need to address comes to my desk,” he said.
In the meantime, officer Weaver is still on paid administrative leave, pending the outcome of the internal investigation. And whether she stays on with MPD or not remains to be seen.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” Lang said.
