A former Highway Patrol trooper fired in 2007 for kicking a drug-sniffing dog should be reinstated with back pay, the state Court of Appeals ruled today.
The court agreed with State Personnel Commission and trial court rulings that Sgt. Charles Jones was unfairly dismissed.
Jones, a 12-year veteran of the patrol, was caught on a cell-phone videotape kicking Ricoh, a Belgian Malinois dog, during a training exercise. The dog was tied up by his leash, with only his hind legs touching the ground. Jones was shown kicking the dog at least five times, causing the animal to swing into the air.
Jack O'Hale, Jones' lawyer, argued that Ricoh was disciplined in the manner in which Jones had been trained.
"These Highway Patrol canines are not house pets," O'Hale said in a 2010 hearing in a Wake County courtroom. "They are living, breathing weapons with teeth."
O'Hale argued that Jones would have faced little punishment had not then-Gov. Mike Easley's office gotten involved in the case.
The appeals court, in today's ruling, said that the decision in Jones' case was made "not by the Patrol's disciplinary process but by an outside entity whose purpose was not a fair and equitable treatment of Sergeant Jones."
Lt. Col. Cecil Lockley, deputy commander of the patrol, testified that Easley's office "want him gone," in relation to Jones.