Police: Family lied about daughter's dog attack to protect family pit bull

OHIO -- Police are saying that a family lied about which dog attacked their young daughter.

It turns out it may have been the family dog that bit two-year-old Monroe Smith, sending her to Dayton Children's Hospital for 80 stitches to her face.

Tyler Smith, Monroe's father, said his daughter was building a snowman Monday afternoon in her grandfather's backyard when she was attacked and bitten on the face by a dog.

  

The dog "came charging, barking, and growling," at Smith and his daughter, Smith told the Journal-News. "It got closer, and I grabbed (my daughter). It was growling so I took off running, and it jumped and grabbed her face," Smith said.

But the owner of the dog accused of attacking Smith and his daughter, Pamela Willard, said it could not have been her dog.

"(Police) showed me a picture (of the girl), and it tore my stomach up," Willard said. "He couldn't have done it. That wasn't my dog... my dog has never attacked anybody."

 

 

But an addendum, filed on Monday, to the original police report states that an anonymous tipster said the family might have schemed up a story to protect their own dog.

"We received further information last night," Middletown Police Major Mark Hoffman told WHIO-TV, out of Dayton, Tuesday. "At this point, we believe it was the family dog, the victim's own dog bit her."

Police reports say that Tyler Smith's mother, Kimberly Brumett-Smith, said her son told her not to tell the truth about the incident. Brumett-Smith later told police it was her dog that actually attacked her granddaughter.

While police are looking to withdraw the charges on the other dog owner, Willard is no stranger to being cited about her own dog. She was cited on Feb. 2 for a dog running at large, court records say. That incident involved a dog allegedly trying to bite a postal worker.

The confusion surrounding Monday's attack throws into sharp relief the difficulties law enforcement and Animal Control officers can face when dealing with incidents like Monday's.

 

She sounds like Susan Smith, bawling to the camera about how this stray
dog came and attacked her baby - LIAR!

Before revelations regarding the family's alleged deception came to light, Middletown Police would not have been able to charge Willard with anything more than a loose dog citation.

"It's understandable that the parents of the victim would like to see a more serious charge, such as harboring a vicious dog," Hoffman said. "Unfortunately, a dog is not legally defined as vicious until it attacks another animal or a person."

As it turns out, in this case, Willard's dog may not have deserved any of the heat. The stress of trying to protect a family pet, after it may have attacked a family member, seems to have made this case even more complex.

(WCPO - ‎Mar 3, 2015‎)