A former police officer was sentenced to more than six months in jail after he pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the disappearance of his K9 Chase in April.
Marcus Dudley, 26, of South Charleston, West Virginia, reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in October to misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty and making false statements to an officer.
On Nov. 9, Kanawha County Circuit Judge Stephanie Abraham sentenced Mr. Dudley to six months and five days in the county jail, with 17 days remaining after the time he already served.
The judge ordered Mr. Dudley to pay a $2,000 fine, $6,000 in restitution to the town of Chapmanville, West Virginia, for the cost of Chase, $522 to the South Charleston Police Department, and enroll in an anger management class for animal cruelty.
In August, a Kanawha grand jury delivered six misdemeanor indictments against Mr. Dudley for his alleged role in Chase’s disappearance on April 11.
Prosecutors withdrew all but two indictments in the plea agreement.
Mr. Dudley had maintained innocence throughout the police investigation in South Charleston, stating that Chase, a 6-year-old male Belgian Malinois, had disappeared after he jumped over the fence in his yard.
Fate Still Unknown
“I am still without any understanding as to why the state did not require at least a [offer] as to the whereabouts or the disposition of K-9 Chase,” Ms. Abraham said in a written transcript of the sentencing proceeding obtained by The Epoch Times.The community and police department have been left “without answers and deserve better.”
“There were also many concerned citizens who cared about what happened to Chase, so much so that they organized and assisted in searching for him and advocated for his return far more vociferously than the state who also represented to this court that this plea [agreement] was in the people’s best interest.”
Ms. Abraham said she was “very troubled” that Mr. Dudley was a police officer with a “position of trust” in the community because “you swore to uphold the law.”
“We as community members must always be able to trust our law enforcement officials, and when somebody breaks that trust, as you did, they must be held accountable in order to validate our support.”
The judge noted that Mr. Dudley had not shown “any remorse” over the disappearance of Chase.
Instead, “you wasted the time, the effort, and the resources of multiple agencies by your admission of deceiving them and outright lying to them.”
“I have doubts as to whether justice has been done in this case.”
Ms. Abraham read aloud a victim impact statement from Chapmanville Police Chief Al Browning.
Mr. Dudley refused twice during the proceeding the opportunity to make a statement on his behalf before sentencing.
Chase’s disappearance sparked a wave of community support and the “Justice for K9 Officer Chase” on Facebook, demanding answers for what happened to Chase.
Greg Powers, an administrator for the Facebook page “Justice for K9 Officer Chase,” described Mr. Dudley’s punishment as “pathetic.”
“However, with the charges and laws, [it] looks like the judge tried to max out each count,” Mr. Powers said, adding that the “fight is far from over.”
“While we may never find Chase or what happened to him, we are going to do our damnedest to make sure it doesn’t happen again. That is the least we can do to honor Chase and his service.”
Mr. Powers said he would continue investigating until Chase has been found dead or alive.
