A Salt Lake County judge on Thursday ruled there was sufficient evidence to send a Salt Lake City K-9 officer to trial for an aggravated assault charge stemming from a violent 2020 arrest.
It marks the first use-of-force case under Salt Lake County D.A. Sim Gill in which a K-9 officer has been bound over for trial, Gill said Thursday evening. The trial date is set for June 2023.
Officer Nickolas Pearce was accused of siccing his police dog on Jeffrey Ryans during the April 2020 arrest. Prosecutors argued in a court filing that Officer Nickolas Pearce’s use of force through his K-9 Tuco was not only “unreasonable, but it was also entirely unnecessary.”
In body camera footage previously published by The Salt Lake Tribune, Pearce can be heard ordering his dog to attack Ryans, who is Black, while the man was on his knees with his hands in the air. Pearce can also be heard saying “good boy” to his dog as he bites Ryans, who screams in pain.
According to court documents, police were dispatched to a home in Salt Lake City after Ryans’ got into an argument with his wife. Ryans was also in violation of an active protection order by being at the residence, the documents state.
When police arrived, Pearce immediately began telling Ryans he was “going to get bit.”
Body camera footage shows that just a few seconds passed between the moment officers meet Ryans in the home’s backyard, the moment they command him to get on the ground, and the moment Pearce commands his K-9 to attack.
When the dog bites, Ryans is on one knee with his hands raised in front of him, about as high as his shoulders, the footage shows.
Prosecutors argued in court filings that Pearce’s actions did not comply with Peace Officer Standards and Training, and that they also “stood in stark contrast” to SLCPD’s use-of-force policy.
That policy states that an officer must never employ unnecessary force, and should only use force with the “greatest restraint,” and “only after discussion, negotiation and persuasion have been found to be inappropriate or ineffective.”
The policy also states that officers officer must refrain from “applying the unnecessary infliction of pain or suffering and may never engage in cruel, degrading or inhuman treatment of any person.”
“Defendant Pearce did not use any restraint — unless one believes 8 seconds of commands and promises of being ‘bit’ are measures of restraint,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing. “It represented the avoidable infliction of pain and injury on an individual who, video evidence demonstrates, was trying to comply with police commands.”
Pearce’s attorneys argued that the state did not provide evidence that Pearce’s conduct was “objectively unreasonable” in accordance with the statutory definition of aggravated assault and use of force during arrests.
District Court Judge William K. Kendall disagreed.
“The following facts make clear that the State has presented reasonably believable evidence that Defendant’s use of force or violence was objectively unreasonable: (1) the duration of the K9 attack, (2) that Mr. Ryans appeared to be ‘effectively subdued’ prior to or early in the attack, and (3) that there is little evidence — if any — that Mr. Ryans was resisting or attempting to flee,” Kendall stated in his Thursday ruling.
The prosecution also proved that Pearce’s use of K-9 force constituted use of a “dangerous weapon,” or “other means or force likely to produce death or serious bodily injury,” the judge ruled, citing the “photos of Mr. Ryans’s injuries alone.”
Ryans testified in July that he lost feeling in his leg the night of the attack.
“That unlawful use of force was likely to cause serious bodily injury or death,” prosecutors wrote. “It left Jeffery Ryans permanently scarred and shook the faith of every person in this community who put their trust in the police to serve and protect them.”
On Thursday evening, Gill commended the “great work” of the prosecution team. “We continue to believe in in our prosecution,” he said, “and we will let the process play itself out as we move along.”
Pearce initially faced two counts of aggravated assault in connection with two separate K-9 attacks. In July, Kendall dismissed one of the counts without prejudice after a witness who was expected to testify did not show up. Prosecutors could potentially refile the charge at a later date.
— Tribune staff writer Paighten Harkins contributed to this report.
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