The pit bull’s owner, Corey Balser, 22, was charged Wednesday with two Class A misdemeanors for failing to restrain his dog, resulting in a bodily injury, police said.
Class A misdemeanors are punishable by up to a year in jail and as much as a $5,000 fine.
Police said the latest attack occurred while Loretta Sims, 67, was walking her 4-year-old husky, Kato, about 3 a.m. Tuesday on Pipers Glen Drive, where Balser lives with his girlfriend and where the pit bull, Chewy, had been staying.
“We were almost home” — just one house away — “when these two dogs ran up behind us and started attacking,” Sims said.
“I was really scared. I was just praying I could make it to the house.
“I was pulling at Kato, and Chewy grabbed my hand and pulled me to the ground. That’s when Kato really started biting him, so I could get up. He wanted me to get up.
“The owner ran out, but he couldn’t do anything with the dogs. He finally got a (lawn) statue and hit (Chewy) with it and put the dogs in the car, and they took off.
“They didn’t stop and trying to help us or anything.”
Sims suffered injuries to her hands; at a hospital, she received eight stitches on a finger and several more on a palm. Kato suffered several puncture wounds, mostly on his legs, and will wear a cone for about two weeks. Sims said the other pit bull, Pippy, did not attack her but did attack Kato.
For the time being, Sims said she and Kato will spend time in their fenced-in backyard instead of on neighborhood walks.
“I thought I had to fight for my life and my dog,” Sims said.
Lt. Scott McCoy of the Lafayette Police Department said Chewy and Pippy escaped from Balser’s residence at 3236 Pipers Glen Drive just before the attack on Sims and her dog.
Police interviewed a woman at 3236 Pipers Glen Drive who confirmed that Balser took two dogs named Pippy and Chewy and left, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
It was Chewy’s second attack on a person in three weeks and third since 2012, according to police.
On Nov. 12 Keith Balser was attacked in the street in the 3200 block of Pipers Glen Drive, sending him to the hospital with serious arm injuries.
After that attack, police said, Corey Balser was belligerent and at first refused to let police take Pippy. Chewy was unable to be located.
McCoy said Balser had signed a dangerous animal agreement stemming from a 2012 attack; a Tippecanoe County community corrections officer was bitten by a large dog that jumped through Balser’s torn porch door screen and lunged at him. The dog was later identified as Chewy.
“The owner has to maintain and control the dog,” McCoy said of the stipulations of the agreement. “They can’t be running at large, and they can’t attack other animals or humans.”
At the time of the 2012 attack, Balser was serving part of 10-year sentence for three felonies he admitted to in 2008: conspiracy to commit burglary, auto theft and theft. In October, a petition was filed to revoke his probation. A hearing on that petition is set for Dec. 12, according to court records.
McCoy said after Tuesday’s attack, Chewy was found at the home of a friend of Balser. The dog was taken to Almost Home animal shelter and euthanized.
McCoy said he is unsure when Chewy made his way back to Balser’s home in the three weeks since the Nov. 12 attack. Chewy was listed as missing as recently as Friday.
Pippy was cleared in the Nov. 12 attack investigation, McCoy said. But since she engaged in the second assault, she now is under a dangerous animal agreement and could be euthanized if she participates in another attack.
Keith Balser, 52, of Lafayette is still recovering from severe arm wounds.
(JC Online - Dec 4, 2013)
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