A former Richland Parish sheriff’s deputy has pleaded guilty to charges arising from the death of his police dog.
Fifth District Attorney Mack Lancaster said John Cummings pleaded guilty to one count of cruelty to animals and one count of criminal mischief by filing a false police report Tuesday in Fifth District Court.
As part of the plea agreement, Cummings was sentenced to six months on each count to run consecutively with the sentences to be suspended. He was also sentenced to one year’s supervised probation on each count with those sentences to run consecutively as well.
Cummins was also fined $1,000 plus court costs for the count of cruelty to animals and $500 plus court costs for the charge of criminal mischief.
In addition, Cummins paid $8,410 at the time of sentencing as restitution to the sheriff’s office for Cummings originally reported finding police dog Duke’s kennel tampered with and Duke missing from the kennel, around 1:30 p.m. May 31. At the time, he told deputies he began to search his yard and located Duke inside of his patrol unit, near death due to heat exposure. Richland Parish Sheriff’s Office’s K9 Duke died at the Caldwell Animal Clinic at 9 a.m. June 1. Duke had been taken to Caldwell Animal Clinic by his handler on May 31.
After further investigations, the sheriff’s office accepted Cummings resignation and turned the information they had gathered over to the District Attorney’s Office where Lancaster proceeded with the case.
Duke had been assigned to Cummings for approximately seven months. Duke had been a member of Richland Parish Sheriff’s Office since December 2014.