Officer Who Slit Restrained Dog's Throat To Get $45,000 In Back Pay

A former Baltimore police officer who slit a restrained dog’s throat is to receive $45,000 in back pay from the city.

Jeffrey Bolger was acquitted of animal cruelty charges last year after his defense team argued that he was trying to prevent the animal from suffering, WBAL-TV reported at the time.

Under his police union contract, he’s now entitled to the wages that he missed while his department placed him on a 10-month period of unpaid leave following the incident, The Baltimore Sun reported. The department forced him to retire early in March 2015.

The paper noted that the city's Board of Estimates was expected to approve the deal on Wednesday.

Bolger was initially arrested in 2014 after killing a 7-year-old Shar Pei named Nala who had escaped from her yard. Bolger and other officers responded to a call after Nala nipped at the hand of Sandy Fleischer, a woman who was trying to read the tags on her collar, leaving superficial wounds. Fleischer told media at the time that the dog was not aggressive, and seemed to have bitten her out of fear and disorientation.

After officers restrained Nala with a dog pole, Bolger took out a knife and sliced her throat. Bolger’s defense argued that Nala’s struggling caused her to strangle herself on the dog pole, and Bolger only slit her throat in order to “end [her] suffering” in case she was still alive.

A veterinarian who examined the body wrote that Nala died from bleeding out, but a judge ruled that she felt the vet was “biased” in her report, and that it’s possible the dog died from being choked to death by the pole.

Nala’s owner, Sarah Gossard, didn’t even learn her dog had been killed until days later. She’s described Nala on Facebook as “gentle, beautiful and so loved.”