Dog Bite Lawyer in Denver, CO
Police recently arrested a woman from Des Moines, Iowa, who was harboring a dog that attacked a child she was watching. She was then dishonest about the incident when speaking to the child’s medical providers, reports the Des Moines Register (https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2019/06/01/dog-bite-iowa-woman-lied-pit-bull-des-moines-lee-mckay-west-badly-injured-small-boy-polk-county-jail/1311983001/).
The woman, Lee McKay West, was charged with filing a false report and felony child endangerment that resulted in a serious injury. These charges stem from a dog attack on a young boy West was caring for.
On April 25, West was watching the child for his mother, who was out of town at the time. West took the boy to an apartment she shared with someone else and a dog named “Hulk.” The dog was owned by the other person living with West.
The animal attacked the boy without provocation, leaving him with serious injuries to his left arm and right leg. West took the child to a nearby medical center for help but was not truthful with the staff or law enforcement there.
According to police, Lee told the medical providers that the boy had been bitten by a stray dog she did not know, which delayed the time it took to find the attacking dog and caused a delay in the child’s treatment. Since medical providers were told the dog was feral, the child also underwent some unnecessary medical treatments.
Currently, there is a no-contact order in place between West and the child, and authorities believe West is harboring the pit bull in question. If she is convicted on the false police report charge, she may serve up to 30 days in jail. Should she be convicted on the child endangerment felony, she faces up to ten years in jail and thousands of dollars in fines.
West was arrested recently after she was stopped for having outstanding warrants. Police at that stop used a K9 to search the car for suspected drugs. The search located drug paraphernalia, methamphetamine and marijuana. She was charged with possessing the drug paraphernalia along with two felony counts for controlled substance violations. The controlled substance charges were made a felony because West had prior drug convictions in two other Iowa counties on her record. If she is convicted on all of the new drug charges, she is facing five years in jail for each count, for a total of another 15 years.
Before this dog incident, West had amassed a long criminal record that included convictions and guilty pleas for interference with official acts, theft, drug possession, driving while barred, and escape from custody. She had served multiple sentences in jail and had been on probation many times since 1993, according to state Department of Corrections records. She was last let out of prison in 2016 and had just been discharged from parole in January of this year. She is currently being held on a $10,000 bond and is due in court later this month.
A dog can cause serious damage to a person, especially a child. If you have been attacked by a dangerous dog, speak to a dog bite lawyer in Denver, CO about what happened.
Contact Richard J. Banta, P.C. for their insight into personal injury claims and dog bite injuries.
