Editor’s note: Following is the statement Allison Drewry, owner of a dog who allegedly bit a child at Russell Park last month, asked a family friend to read at the Sept. 12 Jefferson city council meeting. The friend, Jim North, rose to speak during the Open Forum portion of the meeting. Although many residents have been allowed to go much longer than the 3-5 minutes specified in the meeting agenda, mayor Matt Gordon cut North off after 2 minutes 55 seconds.
Good evening,
I’ve asked our close family friend and one of my very favorite people, Jim North, to read my statement tonight. I am not available, as we have had to relocate due to Police Chief Mark Clouse’s decision that my dog Lily had to leave the Jefferson city limits. There are also other, more significant reasons why I am not here tonight, which I will get to.
As you are aware, on the morning of Friday, August 18th, I was taking several gallon jugs of water out to the fenced-in portion of my yard while my dogs were playing in the confines of that area. I had my hands too full and I was not careful enough when opening the gate.
My dog Lily is 2 years old and she loves to run more than anything. When I opened the gate, she saw her chance, and shot right past me to do her favorite thing. I know that this was right around 11:00am Central Time, because it was 12:00pm Eastern Time. My company is in Boston, where I lived for 20 years, and I now work remotely. I’d looked at the clock and decided to go outside and sit with the dogs in the yard, since it was noon Eastern Time, and my schedule and life almost fully revolve around that time zone.
I watched Lily run straight South up Vine Street on our side of the street, which is the West side. It took me only seconds to grab my car keys from right inside the door of my home, get in my car that was also only feet away, and drive straight up the street one block to get her — Lily hopped in the car and we came home and resumed our day.
I was back outside with the dogs later that afternoon, when Officer Bohden Bigler came to my home, leaned over the side of my front porch into the fenced in area, and asked to speak with me. Outside in my yard he asked if I had a brown dog, to which I replied yes. He stated that a child had been bitten by a brown dog in Russell Park that day — he did not indicate the time of the incident or provide any details. After the last city council meeting on August 22nd, when I first introduced this incident, I received the police activity report which showed that this child was bitten at 12:39pm. Again, Lily got out at 11:00am. For several minutes.
During the last city council meeting on August 22nd, after I finished speaking, Chief Clouse asked that I talk with him about the situation the next day, in a positive tone that I naively thought indicated that he was willing to help. He was not. I went to the Jefferson LEC the very next morning, on August 23rd, and I took the police activity report with me to show the large difference in time, which confirmed that Lily was not involved. He looked at the report, which showed the child was bitten at 12:39pm, and looked up at me and said, “I’m going to need to look into this, that time is probably a typo.” A typo? It was not a typo.
Additionally, this same police activity report included that the corroborating witness in this incident, who is Gina Harrington, stated that “the dog had approached her in a vicious manner, then ran to the NORTH.” It is a moot point, since Lily got out at 11:00am, but she ran straight SOUTH, as she knows where my parents live, at the end of South Vine Street.
At my home on the morning of August 18th, when Officer Bigler asked if I had a brown dog, I was honest and said that she had gotten away from me that morning, but that I’d watched her run straight up the street, and I immediately picked her up. I stated that there was no possible way that she would have had time to run to Russell Park and bite anyone, when I’d had my eyes off of her for mere seconds, and that she also did not bite. She has never bitten anyone.
On the morning of August 23rd, when I later spoke with Chief Clouse a second time at City Hall, in the office of Scott Peterson, he told me that he had reviewed the body cam footage of his officer, and that morning I’d said the word “just” — that my dog had “just” gotten out. Semantics. The semantics game is one of the excuses that Chief Clouse used to stand in front of the shoddy work of his officer and explain why he came to the conclusions that he did. I was not aware at the time that I needed to think about and choose my words carefully. Lily “just got out that day”; “just got out that morning”; “just got out a couple of hours ago.” That’s merely what I was alluding to.
At my home on August 18th, Officer Bigler asked to see Lily, and I told him that he could not. Lily is a rescue dog who has experienced trauma, and she is very fearful of strangers. For this reason, I do not ever introduce or subject her to anyone who is not a close friend or family member. Lily has never bitten. She is reactive. She is not aggressive. Reactiveness and aggressiveness in dogs are two entirely different things. Reactiveness is fear based. Lily lived on the streets of Saltillo, Mexico, from the time she was a tiny puppy, until she was rescued months later. She is scared of strangers, and she acts protectively of herself and her family, because she does not trust. She does not want strangers near her — she would never run up to a person, bite them, and run away. She wants strangers to get back and stay away from her, and she barks loudly and reactively to get them to do just that.
Officer Bigler then asked to see a picture of Lily, which I complied with. He said that he would take the picture of Lily to the home of the mother of the child, and he would return within 5-10 minutes.
When he returned, he asked for additional pictures of Lily. Neither the mother of the child, Jillian Anglemyer, or Gina Harrington, could identify Lily. I allowed him to take another picture of a different photo of Lily from my phone. Again he left to go show the picture to Jillian Anglemyer and Gina Harrington.
When Officer Bigler returned he asked if he could lean over the fence to take more pictures of my dogs. I replied no. He then went inside on my raised porch that overlooks the fenced in area and proceeded to take many pictures of ALL of my dogs, to an extent that I told him that I did not feel comfortable with at all, and asked him to go back outside. This time he texted pictures to Jillian Anglemyer, and a short time later, standing only a foot away from me, he had her on speaker phone. After looking at multiple pictures of Lily, she clearly stated out loud on speaker phone that she could not be sure that Lily was the dog. Officer Bigler immediately took Jillian Anglemyer off speaker phone, turned his back to me, and walked away from me toward his police car parked on the street.
Officer Bigler then came back and asked me if I had any full body pictures of Lily. I inquired about the fact that the child’s mother had said out loud that she could not be certain Lily was the dog, and I was ignored. I provided yet another photo of Lily. He took another picture of my screen with his phone and left again with the photograph. This time he returned and stated that both parties had decided that Lily was the dog.
I do not believe Officer Bigler showed Jillian Anglemyer or Gina Harrington pictures of any other brown dogs. I do know he showed them pictures of my other dogs, who are golden and black, which makes no sense at all. As I learned from an Ankeny police detective, it should be protocol for an officer to show a witness multiple pictures of other brown dogs. It’s the same reason that in a human police lineup, more than one person is included. It’s human nature and how our brains function, if shown the same picture of the same dog over and over, inevitably that person will identify that one dog.
Another critical piece of this story, that was not considered at all, is that on Wednesday, August 16th, just two days prior to this child’s encounter with a dark brown dog in Russell Park, Shirley Stapleton of Jefferson called the Jefferson Police Department early in the day to report a dark brown dog running loose around town. Later that day, around 4:00pm, she received a call back from the Jefferson Police Department, from an officer who verified that they did not locate this dog. There would be record of this. Yet there was no association made between this incident at Russell Park, and this dark brown dog running loose and seen only TWO DAYS earlier. Another glaring absence of due diligence.
Additionally, there are dogs that live directly across the street from Russell Park on Chestnut Street, that are not chained or leashed, and are expected to just stay in their yard. One of them is dark brown. Was this considered?
Why haven’t these other possibilities been considered? This entire case hangs on a thinly constructed accusation, with no concrete evidence or proof, a false identification, and the absence of considering TIME. How does the aspect of time not matter here? What kind of investigatory work is this? Isn’t the TIME an incident occurred at the top of the list in terms of significant things to look at in a police investigation? It was never asked about and it certainly did not seem to be an important factor to Chief Clouse.
Chief Clouse told me on August 23rd, that I was not given this same consideration, and I never would be, because he puts public safety above all else. He said to me that if his dog bit someone, that dog would no longer be around. Except that this was not my dog. But despite this, Chief Clouse continued to dig his heels in, and just like his officer, emphasized destroying a dog. Another attempt at intimidation? Because it was directed at me, I can say yes, that it absolutely felt like it was. Let’s all remember that this is a police chief who oversaw a police department that ran what was described as a “secret program” to shoot and kill stray cats, which the community was unaware of, and made national news.
I am typically a very assertive person and if I’d been myself, I would have asked questions that Friday morning. Admittedly, I was not composed. I felt panicked and terrified, and the situation was surreal and confusing — it did not make any logical sense that this could have happened. During that time, Officer Bigler used the word euthanasia to the point that it felt like a scare tactic, and it was enough that I finally said to him, “Do NOT bring up euthanasia again. I am NOT killing my dog.” Lily being killed was all I could think about.
Officer Bigler proceeded to tell me that Lily needed to leave the city limits immediately, right then and there. Or be euthanized, which he stated once again. I was completely stunned. I explained that I had a life and a home and a job and other dogs, I couldn’t just get in my car and leave immediately. Officer Bigler said, “What day is today…” and looked at his phone. He next said, “Today is Friday. I’ll give you until next Friday to leave the city limits, I think that’s enough time.” I asked him what my recourse was, and from there he stated that I could go before City Council, but that he wanted to “check the City Code”, and he walked back to his car that was parked on the street. He returned talking on his phone with Chief Clouse. Suddenly, the rules and process completely changed. The officer had simply made up what he’d previously told me. While he received direction in one ear from Chief Clouse, he proceeded to instruct me based on the information that he was learning in that moment, which was that Lily must be quarantined for 10 days. After that, she would be euthanized or had to leave the city limits.
Officer Bigler was not familiar with what the correct steps were to follow or what he needed to do, and so he made up rules and a process as he went along. I look back on him checking the day of the week on his phone, and arbitrarily picking a date and timeframe, giving me a week to leave Jefferson with Lily. What else did he make up, so that things moved quickly and he could wrap this case up within a couple of hours?
From there, Officer Bigler refused to leave my home until I went inside and got Lily and her things to take her to quarantine, which I then learned was at PAWS in Jefferson, after I had to ask where she was going.
Lily was in quarantine for a full 10 days, despite my efforts to have that baseless decision reversed. On the East Coast, the West Coast, and other areas of the Midwest — the Department of Public Health is involved when a dog bite actually occurs, and that dog is then quarantined in its own home. That is a general practice. In Jefferson, a dog must be quarantined at the local shelter, so that the City can charge $20 a day for it. In total, $200. I cared for Lily every single day, I was at PAWS from 8 am to 11 am and then 4 pm to 7 pm, I fed Lily her own food and treats, and I took Lily purified water for her to drink. $200? For what? In Boston, we call that a “cash grab.”
Again, Lily is rabies vaccinated. Jillian Anglemyer’s child who was bitten received rabies shots. What does that say about her certainty that it was Lily who bit her child? Or, is it because Jillian Anglemyer knows it was not Lily, and she wanted to ensure that her child was protected from the dog who did cause the bite.
On the afternoon of Thursday, August 24th, I received a call from Jefferson’s City Administrator, Scott Peterson. He told me that the City Attorney, David Morain, had done additional research and performed another review of state code, and that Lily could come home when her quarantine ended on Monday, August 28th. We no longer had to leave our home that coming Monday.
On Friday, August 25th, at 4:59 pm, Scott Peterson called me again. He told me that Lily could no longer come home when her quarantine ended on Monday afternoon, and she would have to leave city limits. Stunned, I asked him several times why this change had been made. He was quite vague, but eventually told me that even though the council had unanimously agreed that Lily could come home, that Chief Clouse intervened, and the decision was changed.
On Monday, August 28th, I packed our belongings, took my other dogs, and picked Lily up from quarantine at the PAWS shelter. Because my parents were visiting my brother out of state, I asked another of our closest family friends, Jim Barnett, to follow me to PAWS and out of Jefferson’s city limits, as I was not comfortable at all with how the Jefferson Police Department may treat me and Lily’s release. From there, we left Jefferson and have been living in an Airbnb since that day. We will be leaving for New England at the end of this month.
When I began tonight, I stated that I was not available to attend this meeting, because we were forced to leave the Jefferson city limits. I also stated that there are other, more significant reasons that I am not here tonight.
First and foremost, I’ve personally witnessed and experienced the overreach of Police Chief Mark Clouse. He seemingly has power over the elected decision makers, and any sort of democratic process. A highly respected, longtime community leader felt the same, and said these words to me:
“The council is going to side with the police department. The police department could be awful, awful, awful and the council still would not side with you, Allison. Mark Clouse has been around longer than any of the council members, and they will not go against him, which you’ve already experienced. The outcome is already decided.”
Had I attended tonight’s meeting, and participated in what was described to me as a “hearing” or a “mini trial”, which is not even a legal proceeding, there is absolutely nothing for me to gain. The odds are against me, because it appears to me and to others that Chief Clouse has the city council in his pocket. And even if I had won the vote, it would not serve me in any way. The damage has been done. It is not reversible. I lived in downtown Chicago, right in the South Loop, and I walked my dogs all over that neighborhood and never once felt unsafe. But I do feel unsafe in Jefferson. I will never feel comfortable or safe here, and I feel that I would continue to be targeted, along with my dogs.
I grew up in Jefferson, lived in Chicago and Boston for the past 25 years, and moved back to Jefferson to be close to and spend time with my parents, Noel and Sandra Drewry, as they age. I had plans to fully renovate my early 1900’s home here, which will now go on the market for sale. The blame that we have shouldered here is absurd. The disruption, the fear, the stress, and the trauma that it’s caused, has been very real for me, for my parents, and for Lily — with zero proof of wrongdoing. In a matter of just over three weeks, my life has been completely devastated, over an event that does not have any connection to us. I have a lot to do right now. And so what I refused to do tonight was “play court” at this small town meeting. My time and energy are far better spent on an actual legal proceeding, and the communication that I am currently having with Des Moines attorneys about filing a lawsuit against the City of Jefferson and the Jefferson Police Department.
Allison R. Drewry
