A Wyoming police officer plead not guilty to a charge of animal cruelty after allegations that a police dog died after being left alone in a hot patrol car for hours.
The officer, Zachary Miller, is charged with an animal cruelty charge in connection with the death of his K9 partner, Nyx, after he left Nyx in his police patrol car for more than six hours.
Nyx was trained to detect drugs, and had been with the Mills police department since 2006.
According to the affidavit filed in the Natrona County Circuit Court, the dog was left in the car while the patrol car was parked outside the police department. The car was running, but the windows were rolled up, and the air conditioner was not on.
The affidavit says that Miller arrived at the police department at 5:30 a.m. on July 9. He then left with another officer to respond to a call and the two returned to the police department with Nyx at 6 a.m.
Then Miller went into the police department and did not come out to the car until about 12:20 p.m. during which the outside temperature had gone from 53 to 86 degrees.
"It's not normal to leave a car running that long," said Bryon Preciado, Mills police chief. "I'm not justifying it. He shouldn't have been here that long."
Miller pleaded not guilty, but if he is convicted, he faces the maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $750 fine.
Miller is currently not on active duty, and he was suspended with pay for a week after Nyx died, but he returned to work after an internal department investigation.
Preciado said Miller will be disciplined through the department. He also said there is currently no policy regarding a time frame for leaving police dogs in patrol cars.
Miller previously had never faced disciplinary action, Preciado said. He was awarded "Officer of the Year" by the department in 2013.
Miller had been Nyx's handler for two years, during which he lived with Miller's family and went with the family on vacations.
The department currently has no other police dogs because Nyx was the department's first and only dog. The K9 program has been suspended and the current policies are being reviewed. Changes will be made. For example, Preciado said heat alarms will be installed in the K9 patrol car before the department takes on another dog. The alarm will have a key fob that will alert the handler if their patrol car reaches temperatures that are too hot or too cold.
"I think there's a lot of things we can learn from Nyx's death," Preciado said.
