City Prosecutor Jennifer Adams-Williams has tendered her resignation in Indianola following last week’s verdict in a municipal case involving a vicious dog biting incident in March.
Homeowner Laderean White had been charged with multiple dog offenses after citizen Jim Robertson was attacked on March 5 by multiple vicious dogs near White’s home in the Highland Drive area.
Four weeks after his April trial, Municipal Court Judge Vallrie Dorsey dismissed all charges against White and returned his four dogs, which had been housed at the Hough Dement Animal Shelter since the week of the incident.
During the trial, Adams-Williams called multiple witnesses, including Robertson and animal control officers.
An eyewitness, Ellis Brown, who discharged a firearm to scatter the dogs from Robertson’s leg that day, was in the audience during the trial. He was not called to testify.
“The witnesses weren’t even called. It was a joke trial,” Ward 1 Alderman Gary Fratesi said during this past Monday night’s meeting of the mayor and board of aldermen.
Featherstone announced at the meeting that Adams-Williams had sent a letter of resignation to the city.
“We definitely need to…take a good look at what happened,” Featherstone said.
Much of Monday night’s discussion centered around potential legal action the city possibly could take against White moving forward.
“The threat, in my opinion, is still there. We need to do something about that,” Featherstone said, later adding, “We have since gone back to the house over the weekend. There were sightings of the same dogs, and they were not on a leash. However, when animal control arrives at the house, the owner takes his dogs inside the house.”
Indianola Police Chief Ronald Sampson told the board that there would be a process for taking legal action if the dogs are spotted outside and unleashed and then taken indoors before police or animal control arrive.
He said that the city would need to go to Judge Dorsey and potentially swear out a warrant to go and retrieve any dogs that may place the owners in violation of the city’s dog ordinances.
The board also floated the notion of appealing Dorsey’s ruling to a higher court.
Municipal Court Clerk Teresa Nolden defended Dorsey and the process when it came to White’s case.
“She went by the law,” Nolden said, “If it wasn’t proven, it wasn’t proven.”
Nolden cautioned the board about crossing the line into “policing the judge.”
Ward 3 Alderman Ruben Woods was vocal in his opposition to Dorsey’s ruling.
“One of the dogs was supposed to have had blood on him. If that’s not evidence…One did have some blood,” Woods said.
In her ruling, Judge Dorsey acknowledged what she referred to as “scant testimony” about the alleged blood and said, “that alone is insufficient.”
Dorsey also noted in her verdict that the city failed to present “credible evidence” that White’s dogs are pit bulls.
White produced registration papers for his dogs during the trial that indicated that they are American Bullies.
Animal Control Officer Jamie Davis testified during the trial that White’s dogs are an “XL” breed of American Bullies, and that breed is considered to be a pit bull.
Nolden repeated that, “she followed the law.”
Woods said, “I disagree.”
Ward 2 Alderman Darrell Simpson said that vicious dogs pose a public safety risk to everyone, including children.
“I want everybody to put one thing on their minds right now. This was a grown man. Had this been a 10-year-old child, would we even be having this conversation right now?…By the grace of God, it was not a 10-year-old child,” Simpson said.
City Attorney Derek Hopson told the board that there could be recourse in circuit court or chancery court if the city wanted to pursue civil relief in the matter.
Simpson motioned to follow the attorney’s advice and have him pursue civil action against White on behalf of the city.
That motion seemed to pass unanimously, although it is unclear how Ward 4 Alderman Marvin Elder voted.
He said that he would go along with whatever Hopson suggested, but he never said yes or no on the vote.
Following the board’s executive session on Monday night, the aldermen did not make a motion to accept Adams-Williams’s resignation.
