CALIFORNIA -- A Cathedral City man was arrested on child endangerment charges Thursday after his daughter was bit by a relative's pit bull, which the family hid from police, officials said.
Jonathan Diaz' 3-year-old daughter was bit Tuesday at his brother's home in the 33-400 block of Rancho Vista Drive, Cathedral City police Lt. Chuck Robinson said.
She received 150 stitches to the left side of her face.
“It's a pretty substantial disfiguring-type of injury, depending on how that all heals up,” Robinson said.
Family members told police the child was attacked by a stray dog and gave a vague description to investigators.
“There was a lot of purposeful misinformation that law enforcement received,” Riverside County Department of Animal Services spokesman John Welsh said.
“You have a family that seemingly put this dog over this girl's safety.”
Police got a tip that the 3-year-old dog, Sky, was hidden at a Palm Desert home and took it into custody.
They also learned Sky attacked the girl a previous time at the brother's home. within the past two months.
“When you got a big dog and a small kid in a small confined apartment, it's not safe,” Welsh said.
He added Sky was “aggressive” and “unlicensed and unaltered.”
Police are still investigating the incident and haven't identified the brother as a suspect.
An animal control officer sent the dog to a lab for a rabies test, after which it was to be euthanized, the animal services department said in a news release.
Diaz, 26, was arrested at his home in the 37-200 block of Bankside Drive, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.
There was a felony warrant for his arrest and he is being held on drug-related charges in lieu of $25,000 bail at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.
Diaz is scheduled to appear in Riverside County Superior Court at Larson Justice Center in Indio on Tuesday.
(LA Times Blog - March 9, 2012)
