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Arab Americans Blast Decision Not to Charge Dog Owner in Woman's Mauling
Local Arab-American and Muslim leaders are blasting the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office for not bringing criminal charges against a Hamtramck police officer whose dog is accused of mauling a 78-year-old Muslim woman three months ago.
During a news conference Wednesday, Qaflah Samaha displayed a 12-inch metal rod that holds her right arm together and the space on her right hand where the dog, a Cane Corso, bit off the finger.
With her 29-year-old son, Wadah Fadel, translating in English, the woman asked, “Where is the law?”
She said she had to be hospitalized for two weeks right after the attack and a total of three months for treatment of injuries from the attack.
“I almost died,” Samaha said.
The incident occurred April 21 in the alley of the 3800 block of Dorothy. Samaha said she was walking when the dog jumped a 6-foot-high fence and attacked her.
The woman also showed scars from where the dog bit her on the left forearm near the elbow. She asked why the dog were not killed and why the owner was not charged for having the dog.
Samaha’s attorney, Nabih Ayad, criticized Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy for her office’s decision not to prosecute the owner of the dog, Michael Stout. He called the decision “bizarre” and said the owner should be charged with harboring vicious animals.
Ayad said justice is applied in a “disparate” fashion when cases involve Arab Americans. He said the outcome is the latest in a series of decisions that “marginalize the interests of the Arab-American community.”
“This community is very upset,” Ayad said during the news conference. He said a civil lawsuit will be filed in the matter and that he planned to send Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette a letter Wednesday asking him to investigate the case. “It’s a slap in the face.”
Rashid Baydoun, the executive director of the Arab-American Civil Rights League, said, “Indeed it is a sad day to know charges were not brought in a heinous attack.”
Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for Worthy, said the prosecutor’s office conducted an independent investigation and that a warrant was denied on June 27 because there was not enough evidence to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt.
“The investigation revealed that the dog was inside Officer Stout’s backyard at the time of the incident,” Miller said in a statement. Miller added that the prosecutor’s office was not able to prove “that the victim had not trespassed on to the property, and that she had not provoked the dog leading up to the attack.”
But Ayad said that was “absolutely, absolutely” not true. He said the owner grabbed the dog back inside his yard after it attacked Samaha. He said the owner of the dog has not spoken to the family since the attack.
“There has been no apology,” Ayad said. “He has not come out to say, ‘I’m sorry.'”
Orlandar Brand-Williams
The Detroit News