A Colorado family says they are facing roughly $300,000 in medical debt after a police K-9 escaped its own yard and mauled their two-year-old daughter during a birthday party, leaving both the child and her father with lasting injuries, according to the family and a GoFundMe fundraiser set up to cover the costs.
Nick and Bethany Dean were celebrating the birthday of their twins, Lily and Ollie, in the backyard of their home in Castle Rock, Colorado, on August 11, 2024, when a large black dog jumped the fence separating their property from their neighbor's yard and charged straight at Lily, the family said.
Castle Rock is a town in Douglas County, south of Denver, and Jefferson County, where the dog's handler worked, is part of the wider Denver metropolitan area.
The dog, named Ragnar, was a Jefferson County Sheriff's Department K-9 that lived next door with his handler, Deputy Zachary Oliver, according to the family.
Lily's father, Nick Dean, told CBS News he was on the family's upper porch when he spotted the dog and ran to protect his family and guests. "I was up here on our upper porch, and I sprinted down the stairs and essentially met the dog after the dog had attacked my daughter Lily, and he dragged her across the grass in the backyard," Nick said.
Family friend Lindsey Speer, who was at the party, told FOX31 the dog latched onto the toddler's leg and "whipped her like a rag doll."
Nick said three male party guests piled onto the dog in an attempt to stop the attack. "When I was wrestling the dog, I could hear the cracking of her femur bone," he told CBS News.
Police K-9 units, like the one Ragnar served on, are typically trained for tracking, apprehension and other law enforcement tasks, and are usually kept under close supervision by their handlers when off duty.
Injuries to Lily and her father
Lily suffered deep lacerations across her stomach and a punctured femur, according to the GoFundMe page set up by the family to help cover her medical care.
GoFundMe is an online fundraising platform commonly used by families to help cover medical costs that exceed what insurance will pay.
Nick was also injured while trying to save his daughter, sustaining wounds to his chest, neck, back and hip. The fundraiser said he continues to struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder and other lasting psychological effects two years after the attack.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental health condition that can develop after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event, and can cause lasting anxiety, flashbacks and hypervigilance.
"It's just the combination of not feeling strong enough to protect my family, and the pain," Nick said. "The chronic pain is like having an operating system going on in the background that just never shuts off, and it's tiring," he added.
Deputy cleared of charges
Prosecutors charged Deputy Oliver over the attack, but a jury cleared him after his lawyers argued his county contract protected him from criminal liability, according to the family.
Government employees, including law enforcement officers, are sometimes shielded from personal financial liability for actions carried out in the course of their official duties under certain contractual or legal protections.
Oliver has since left the sheriff's office, and Ragnar was retired from duty. The Deans said the deputy and the dog moved away from the neighborhood nine months after the attack.
County declines to cover costs
The Deans said they had hoped Jefferson County would step in to help cover their medical costs once the criminal case concluded. "When the criminal proceedings turned into nothing, we thought, well, of course, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department is going to do what's right by our family," Nick told CBS News.
A Jefferson County attorney told the family's lawyer that the county does not use taxpayer money to cover claims when it has no legal liability, the family said.
The Deans' GoFundMe campaign, launched to help pay down the roughly $300,000 in bills, had raised more than $67,000 as of Monday.
