Coalition calls on Justice Department to investigate 2020 LPD K9 mauling case

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Footage of a May 2020 arrest of Richard Bailey Jr., pulled from three Lafayette police officers’ body cameras, was synced and released by LPD Chief Pat Flannelly after a special prosecutor was assigned to investigate claims of excessive force. (Photo: Screenshot, LPD)

A coalition of Greater Lafayette social justice groups this week called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate a May 2020 arrest of a man who was bitten in the neck by a police dog while being held down by Lafayette Police Department officers.

The letter – including the signatures from nine Greater Lafayette groups along with state Rep. Chris Campbell, a West Lafayette Democrat – comes after a series of special prosecutors assigned to review the arrest of Richard L. Bailey Jr. found the LPD officers on the scene did nothing that warranted criminal charges.

The incident left Bailey with damage to his neck and trachea and left him in a coma in an Indianapolis hospital for more than a week.

The letter said it was “essential” for federal authorities to do their own investigation for potential civil rights violations when a police officer released the dog from a patrol vehicle and sicced it on Bailey, a Black man, in an apartment complex parking lot.

“Without such action, we believe that Indiana residents served by the Lafayette Police Department will be at increased risk of similar violations of their civil rights in the future,” the Greater Lafayette Committee for Criminal Justice Reform’s letter, dated Feb. 26, reads.