TEXAS -- A grand jury will decide if felony charges will be pursued in an East Texas dog attack that left a woman badly injured.
Janelle Sorgee of Tennessee tells us she is still recovering from her injuries in the attack last April on Morris drive in Longview.
She says a pit bull broke loose from its chain, entered a neighboring yard, and attacked.
Gruesome wounds were inflicted by a pit bull attack on Sorgee, who was visiting her father's Longview home in April.
"She was really bleeding and it looked like she had a real bad wound, we called 9-1-1," says her father, James Sorgee.
"I had heard in the past there was a vicious dog and my dad was afraid of him," Janelle says.
A neighbor was keeping the dog for someone else, and the animal got through the fence, and went straight for Janelle.
"At that point he lunged at me; it was just all in a split second, he lunged at me. He lunged into the back of my leg," she says.
Sorgee managed to slam the back door on the dog, which then released its grip.
The dog retreated to its own yard, and police and animal control officers say when they arrived, the dog wheeled and lunged at them.
"The dog actually unlatched that gate and charged at them and they had no choice but to put the dog down," James says.
Sorgee was hospitalized with deep bite wounds that she still suffers nerve damage from today, and the homeowner had no liability insurance.
"Insurance, I may have to turn it over to my homeowners as I don't feel like there will be any compensation at all," says James.
The experience has changed everything for her.
"I'm so afraid of being attacked. The nightmares...I wake seeing this dog being shot in the head. I'm just a totally different person," Janelle says.
All evidence in the case has been turned over to the Gregg county DA's office, and it is being pursued as a felony case, causing grievous bodily injury.
Miss Sorgee continues to undergo therapy for her bite wounds.
(KLTV - July 11, 2013)
