Corruption in Kissimmee, Florida: Police chief Lee Massie says, "It is what it is" when questioned why officer who killed his K9 partner - and lied about it - wasn't fired and/or charged with animal cruelty

FLORIDA -- The day after Kissimmee Police dog Igor died in April, the dog's handler called a fellow officer and admitted he had lied.

"I killed the dog, it's my fault," said Officer Gerardo Bellido, according to a Florida Department of Law Enforcement report. "I left the dog in the car."

FDLE and Kissimmee Police Department's Internal Affairs records reveal Bellido initially lied to his superiors on April 21, telling them the dog had been in his air-conditioned K-9 vehicle when he found it unconscious and immediately rushed it to the vet.

But Bellido admitted the next day he lied and that he actually left the dog in the back of a parked, regular patrol car for more than three hours before he realized his mistake, records show. The car was not running and had no air conditioning on a day when temperatures reached the mid-80s.

By the time Bellido took the dog to the Osceola Animal Emergency Clinic, the 4-year-old German shepherd was in "full rigor mortis" and had an internal body temperature of more than 110 degrees.

According to the internal-affairs investigation, it was determined in October that Bellido committed two violations of department policy: neglect in performance of duties and falsification of a report.

While both offenses rise to the level of possible termination, Bellido's discipline consisted of 160 hours of suspension, all taken out of his accrued vacation time. Currently, Bellido is no longer a K-9 officer but he remains on the force as a patrol officer.

Bellido, who's been with the department since 2004, has been named officer of the month four times and was named officer of the year in 2011. He was also one of seven officers awarded a unit citation in June, two months after Igor's death, for his role in a burglary arrest in March. The department's only previous finding of employee misconduct was for Bellido's use of profanity during a traffic stop in 2011.

The FLDE report investigating Bellido for possible animal cruelty was forwarded to State Attorney Jeff Ashton's office in June for review. No charges have been filed. State Attorney spokeswoman Angela Starke had no information about the report.

The District Attorney's Office received the investigative report in JUNE 2015. Why haven't they charged him with animal cruelty?! 

Bellido referred all comment about Igor's death to the police department.

"I suffered enough from everything," Bellido said Wednesday. "It's not being investigated anymore, it's all cleared and over with. ... I don't want to even talk about it, to be honest."

Bellido's attorney, Stewart Cohen, declined to comment.

Kissimmee Police Chief Lee Massie declined to comment on the details of the investigation and referred all questions about the incident to the internal affairs report.

"It was thoroughly investigated and the charges were what they were, and the discipline is what it is," Chief Lee Massie said Wednesday.

Sounds like Chief Lee Massie with the Kissimmee Police Department has a lot of compassion - NOT. And you wonder why no one trusts the police - same old complaints of cops protecting bad cops. 

Kissimmee residents, do you accept the Chief's answer
of "It is what it is" in regards to Bellido LYING and
causing the horrific death of this dog?!

In June, Igor was posthumously honored with a memorial service befitting an officer, with flags at half staff and an honor guard.

Representatives for the Central Florida Police Benevolent Association did not return calls for comment.

'Evidence of heat stroke'
Igor, one of three Kissimmee police K-9s, had been with the department for about 16 months when he was taken out for routine training on April 21.

K-9s are usually held either in a kennel or in a specially-equipped area in the back of a K-9 vehicle.

But that day, according to the reports, Bellido's K-9 vehicle had to be serviced in the city's automobile service center. So Bellido was issued a spare patrol car for the day.

After training at the police station ended around 4:30 p.m., surveillance video shows Bellido opening the back door of his spare patrol car for Igor to jump in. He then drove to the service center to pick up his K-9 vehicle.

Igor was left to cook to death in a hot patrol car

Bellido told investigators that he transferred his equipment from one car to another, but he forgot Igor in the back seat of the spare patrol car at the service center.

He then returned the keys to the spare car and drove off in his K-9 vehicle to meet up with two fellow K-9 officers for dinner at Tijuana Flats, records show.

He went back to the police station to complete paperwork, the reports said, and then he stopped by a bakery after the end of his shift at 6 p.m. The internal-affairs report stated he entered and exited his vehicle nine times during this period of time.

"[Bellido] said he did not look in the back seat during that three-hour period," the internal affairs report states. "Bellido explained that after a training day it was common for Igor to lie down and sleep the remainder of the day."

When he got home around 7:20 p.m., Bellido told investigators he "opened the back door of the K-9 vehicle ... [and] when Igor did not come out right away he called for him. Bellido looked inside the back seat of his car and around his yard but could not find Igor."

Bellido said he quickly returned to the service center, the last place he remembered seeing Igor. Shortly after 8 p.m., he looked inside the spare patrol car and found the dog, "wet and hot to the touch," the internal affairs report states. "He was overcome with grief knowing that Igor was deceased at that time."

Bellido removed Igor from the patrol car and placed the dog's body in his K-9 car, the internal affairs report states. He drove to the Osceola Animal Emergency Clinic, where the dog was pronounced dead.

But while at the clinic, both reports state, Bellido initially lied to doctors and his superiors about how Igor died. He told them he had found Igor dead in the back of his air-conditioned K-9 vehicle at his house, and he had driven it straight from home to the hospital.

Fellow K-9 Officer Joe Mata asked when Bellido had last seen or heard Igor. According to the internal-affairs report, Bellido said he "heard Igor barking at Tijuana Flats, when two girls walked past."

The Kissimmee Police love to showcase their K9 dogs in their
photos. However, when they die horrible deaths in hot cars, they
don't care... worse, they protect the cop responsible.

The reports show that Bellido only revealed the truth the next day, after Mata told him in a phone conversation that there were cameras inside the service center. Bellido then admitted to Mata that he had lied the day before and had actually forgotten the dog in the spare patrol car in the service center.

Despite what Mata told Bellido about the cameras, the FDLE report states the video system at the service center was "non-operable" that day, so no video actually exists of what happened when Bellido returned to find Igor's body.

But outdoor surveillance video does show Bellido returning to the service center, which contradicted his original story. 

Bellido returned a second time that night to wipe down the back seat of the patrol vehicle where Igor died; he used towels and hand sanitizer to clean the car, according to records.

(Officer.com / Orlando Sentinel - Jan 9, 2016)