DES MOINES – A North Iowa man who fought a Mitchell county deputy and ended up injuring the police dog helping the officer had his conviction upheld after appeal.
Gary Eggers, age 60, appealed following his conviction and sentence for the crime of injury or interference with a police service dog, a serious misdemeanor. He contended in appeal that a pretrial agreement between the parties was breached, violating his right to due process and resulting in an unfair trial. He also argued the verdict is not supported by substantial evidence. Finally, he maintained he received ineffective assistance of counsel.
The case arose from an incident on March 28, 2014, when a sheriff’s deputy from the Mitchell County Sheriff’s Office went to Gary Eggers’ home to serve Eggers with an arrest warrant and to take Eggers into custody. When Eggers saw the deputy, he initially drove his vehicle down his driveway as though to leave the property, before reversing course away from the deputy, who had parked at the end of Eggers’ driveway, back toward his house. The deputy—seeking to intimidate Eggers—took his service dog, Winnie, out of the car, and the two began running toward the house. Eggers exited his vehicle and walked to the house.
Eggers, the deputy, and the dog arrived at the house’s front door nearly simultaneously. A struggle ensued, with Eggers inside the house and the deputy and his dog outside trying to force their way into the house. During this struggle, Winnie’s rear paw got stuck in the door jamb of Eggers’ door, causing her to yelp once. The door was opened and closed twice. When the deputy informed Eggers the dog’s paw was stuck in the door, Eggers opened the door to allow the dog to be freed and then shut the door again.
Winnie sustained cuts to the padding of her paw as a result. She was taken to a veterinarian for treatment, where she received stitches. She was off duty for two weeks to recover.
Eggers was charged under Iowa Code section 717B.9. Subsection (1) of that section provides “[a] person who knowingly, and willfully or maliciously torments, strikes, administers a nonpoisonous desensitizing substance to, or otherwise interferes with a police service dog, without inflicting serious injury on the dog, commits a serious misdemeanor.” Subsection (2) creates a class “D” felony for a person who, inter alia, “knowingly, and willfully or maliciously . . . tortures” or “injures, so as to disfigure or disable, a police service dog.”
Eggers was charged with both crimes.
The Iowa Court of Appeals ruled that there was no pretrial agreement between the parties, and therefore no breach. The court also said that substantial evidence exists to support the verdict, and no ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claims are valid.
