A Madison County deputy has been suspended for two months without pay for leaving a police dog in his car for several hours Sept. 9, causing the animal's death from heatstroke.
Deputy Jonathon Cornelison also was reprimanded and decertified as a K-9 handler, according to a letter Sheriff Phillip Morgan sent Cornelison on Monday.
"In a department as small as ours, the loss of any asset is crippling," Morgan wrote. "The loss of the K-9 asset, which we and the community worked so hard to acquire is devastating, and cannot be tolerated."
Through donations, the county paid $7,500 for Lina, a Belgian Malinois, in 2014. The dog was 3 years old at the time of its death. The county also paid $1,995 for Cornelison's training as a K-9 handler, said Faron Ledbetter, the Madison County clerk.
Lina was the only police dog at the Madison County sheriff's office.
Morgan said his office has enough money to buy another police dog but he doesn't plan to do that at this time. The sheriff is not running for re-election so he will leave office at the end of the year.
Ledbetter said the county has received $28,324 in donations since it began collecting for a police dog Dec. 2, 2013. The fund still has $16,829 remaining. Money in the fund can be spent on expenditures related to the K-9 program.
Lina's death was investigated by the sheriff's office in neighboring Washington County.
After reviewing the investigation report, Prosecuting Attorney Matthew Durrett said Friday that he was not filing criminal charges against Cornelison.
"There is insufficient evidence of his intent to support an animal cruelty charge, so we are not filing anything on him," said Durett, who is the prosecutor for the 4th Judicial Circuit, which includes Madison and Washington counties.
Cornelison had been on paid administrative leave since the dog died.
Thursdays and Fridays are normally Cornelison's days off at the sheriff's office. But on Thursday, Sept. 8, he worked with the judicial circuit's drug task force. On Friday, Sept. 9, he assisted the Arkansas State Police with a vehicle accident involving a drug user, according to a report from Washington County detective Taylor Reed.
Cornelison loaded Lina into his patrol car and went to help the state police. After that, he drove straight home, according to the report.
"When he arrived home, he thought he had put Lina in her kennel before going inside around 9 a.m.," Reed wrote. But the dog was still in the back of the patrol car.
About an hour later, Cornelison left in his pickup and ran errands for several hours before returning home around 2:30 p.m. and found Lina dead in his patrol car. The high temperature Sept. 9 was 91 degrees, according to Reed's report.
Cornelison has worked for the sheriff's office since 2007.
Metro on 09/28/2016