No felony charges will be filed against a Department of Public Safety officer who left his K-9 in a patrol vehicle for more than an hour in mid-July causing the drug sniffing dog to be euthanized.
Tucson Police Department conducted the criminal investigation of Officer Korey Lankow, who left his K-9 Jeg in a squad car at DPS headquarters, 6401 S. Tucson Blvd., while switching vehicles.
Lankow was en route to a crash when he realized Jeg was left in the other car and turned back around to retrieve him.
TPD presented the case to the Pima County Attorney’s Office which declined to purse any felony charges against Lankow, said Sgt. Maria Hawke, a TPD spokeswoman.
The case was presented to the Tucson City Attorney’s Office this week to determine if misdemeanor charges will be filed against Lankow, Hawke said.
Tucson City Prosecutor Baird Greene received the case from the county attorney's office Aug. 9.
"I expect a decision to be made fairly soon," Greene said. "The officer came over on Monday to present evidence to us."
Hawke said it is standard procedure for TPD to present cases to the city attorney if the county attorney declines to prosecute.
Lankow has returned to work and continues to patrol the highway looking for drugs, guns and illegal currency, said Officer Carrick Cook, a DPS spokesman.
Though Lankow is not currently working with a K-9 he is still a K-9 handler, Cook said.
DPS is still conducting an internal investigation into the case which is expected to last through the end of the year.
“The tricky part with... our investigation is we have to look at policies, procedures, training and equipment and evaluate all of those aspects based on what happened with the circumstances,” Cook said. “What they’ll end up doing is making recommendations to the department to prevent this from happening in the future.”
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