Two Sterling Heights Police officers have been charged after they used unnecessary force and ordered a K-9 to bite a suspect during an arrest, the attorney general announced Tuesday.
James Sribniak, 31, and Jack Currie, 29, were criminally charged in the 39th District Court with one count of Misconduct in Office, a 5-year felony, and Felonious Assault, a 4-year felony, according to a news release.
On February 25th of this year, Officers Sribniak and Currie participated in a vehicular and foot pursuit of a Roseville domestic violence suspect, who fled an earlier traffic stop.
Following the pursuit, while the suspect was on the ground, surrounded by officers, and after having received two taser deployments, Officer Currie urged Officer Sribniak to deploy his K9 to bite the suspect.
Officer Sribniak, controlling the K9, ordered the dog to bite the suspect, which he did, upon the suspect’s posterior right hip, prosecutors said in a news release.
“K9 assistance can be a valuable tool for law enforcement but must be deployed with good judgment,” said AG Nessel. “K9 Officers are rigorously trained in the proper use of police dogs and should be held to the highest standards of conduct. We should be able to trust them to not deploy a dog as an unnecessary and unlawful punitive measure to brutally attack a human being. In this incident, deploying a K9 on a suspect already on the ground and well-surrounded by officers is not only horrific but illegal. My office remains committed to thoroughly investigating and prosecuting police misconduct.”
