Man who injured Naperville police dog sentenced
BY BILL BIRD wbird@stmedianetwork.com December 16, 2011 7:00PM
Updated: December 16, 2011 7:32PM
A Plainfield man has been ordered to perform community service work for taunting and harming a Naperville Police Department dog last summer on a street in the city’s downtown area.
Douglas S. Carncross, 26, was convicted in DuPage County Circuit Court of a misdemeanor charge of teasing, striking or tampering with a police or service animal, according to court records.
Judge Brian J. Diamond ordered Carncross to serve 10 days in the DuPage County Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program, or SWAP, records indicated. Diamond also placed Carncross on a year of conditional discharge and assessed fines and legal fees totaling $255, records showed.
Two companion charges of resisting or obstructing a police officer and criminal trespass to vehicles were dismissed during Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, according to records.
Carncross was arrested about 1:45 a.m. Aug. 21 after taunting and then slamming a police squad car door on the snout of Sabek, a male German shepherd and member of the department’s K-9 unit.
Police Sgt. John Westlove in August said Sabek and his handler were providing backup for other officers investigating a disturbance that morning at a night club near Jefferson Avenue and Washington Street.
The K-9 unit officer then began walking back to his vehicle, where Sabek sat in the back seat. Westlove said the officer found Carncross “taunting the dog by sticking his face close to the window” and yelling and making faces at him.
Westlove said Sabek responded by barking, snarling and lunging at Carncross with such force that the car began shaking. Carncross then tried to open the squad’s unlocked rear door, and as Sabek began coming out of the car, Carncross slammed the door on his face, Westlove said.
Sabek bled from the gums above his teeth but was not seriously hurt. Westlove said his handler provided first aid before he and another officer chased Carncross down and arrested him.
Carncross in 2007 was convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol in Downers Grove. Westlove said Carncross did not appear to have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of his encounter with Sabek.
