
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 31, 1995                   TAG: 9505310073
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CHARGE CERTIFIED IN ATTACK BY PIT BULL

A judge found probable cause Tuesday to believe that Jerome Bernard Smith injured a Roanoke man by ordering a pit bull terrier into "attack mode."

But General District Judge Vincent Lilley dismissed five additional charges alleging that Smith, 21, turned the dog - named Niessy - on five police officers who tried to break up the attack the night of April 30.

Smith had been charged with the malicious wounding of William Larry Jamison, who was bitten in the leg by the dog, and the attempted malicious wounding of five vice officers.

The malicious-wounding charge was certified to a grand jury; prosecutors have not decided whether they will refile the charges related to the officers.

According to testimony, the officers were driving on the 2900 block of Centre Avenue Northwest when they saw Jamison being attacked by the dog. Smith was holding the dog's leash and running beside it as it chased and bit Jamison, police testified.

After police stopped and confronted Smith, he released the dog after being told not to. Two officers then opened fire. The wounded dog was found the next day and had to be killed.

In asking that the charges be dismissed, Assistant Public Defender Eric Frith argued that Smith never ordered the dog to attack Johnson or the officers. But prosecutor Gerald Teaster countered that the dog "was definitely in the attack mode. This wasn't just a runaway dog."

by CNB