Trial begins in Vancouver police dog's death

Ronald Chenette faces a possible three-strikes life term in the fatal shooting
Thursday, November 13, 2008 HOLLEY GILBERT
Special to The Oregonian

VANCOUVER -- Defense attorney Jeff Barrar was clear: The October 2007 shooting death of Dakota, a Vancouver police dog, was a tragedy, but it was not a crime.

Barrar's remark came during opening statements in the Clark County Superior Court trial of Ronald James Chenette. If convicted of killing Dakota with a gun, Chenette could go to prison for life under the state's three-strikes law. He has two strike convictions: second-degree murder in 1991 and second-degree assault in 2000.

Chenette is charged with harming a police dog and unlawful possession of a firearm in the shooting of Dakota, a 5-year-old German shepherd.

To be convicted, the state must prove that Chenette "maliciously killed a dog he knew or reasonably should have known was a police dog," Barrar told the five-man, seven-woman jury.

Chenette, he said, is a paranoid schizophrenic who becomes confused and argumentative when he is not taking his medication. The day of the shooting, he was not taking medication and had been drinking with a neighbor at his parents' home, where the two were playing with the neighbor's gun, Barrar said.

Chenette's father will testify he heard the neighbor pretend to shoot a police officer, then his son say he wanted to shoot one, too, Barrar said. After the remark, the neighbor returned briefly to his home, where, unknown to Chenette, the man called 9-1-1 to warn police of Chenette's comment, he said.

As the pair walked along the Lewis and Clark Railroad tracks, a resident of a nearby trailer park grabbed Chenette and tossed a rock at him, and several deputies arrived in a truck that ran on the tracks and was not marked as a police vehicle, Barrar said. Scared and confused, Chenette ran into the woods east of the park.

Later, in a gully near the center of the woods, Chenette was bitten by Dakota. The dog was doing what he was trained to do: bite a person's arm and hold on until his handler releases him or he is killed, Barrar said.
Dakota's handler was too far away to see the dog, he said. Dakota was not wearing a harness or collar to identify him as a police dog. Chenette could not know that Dakota was "anything but a dog from the neighborhood," Barrar said.

But Deputy Prosecutor Scott Jackson said Chenette saw officers as he waved a .357-caliber revolver over his head and ignored orders to get down on the ground, then fled into the woods.

An officer used a public address system to tell Chenette police had arrived and to try to call him out of hiding, Jackson said. Twice Chenette tried to escape toward the west but turned back into the woods when he saw police. After the second time, officers warned they would release a dog, and Dakota was sent in to find Chenette, he said.

Moments later, at 5:10 p.m., officers heard a shot. Dakota did not respond to calls. About 20 minutes later, a Clark County Sheriff's Office dog, Akbar, found Chenette, and he was taken into custody, Jackson said.
When Chenette heard officers concerns for Dakota, he laughed, Jackson said.

The next day, when Chenette appeared in court and a deputy prosecutor outlined the incident for a judge, Chenette remarked that he should have shot the second dog as well.