To the editor:

I was excited to see your June 7 headline, “Old sheriff’s cases get fresh eyes,” announcing the Scotland County Sheriff’s Department’s new Professional Standards Division.

I was happy to read that Lt. Jessica Sadovnikov is looking into open, incomplete investigative files. I sincerely hope that she will look into my case which was thoroughly investigated and completed, but the evidence ignored.

My youngest child left school early on Feb. 14, 1994 to deliver her first calf, a task at which her older sister had become quite accomplished. Afterward, their grandfather took them to a pasture across the road to see newborn baby goats. The scent of birth was irresistible to the savage dog pack that had been killing livestock and family pets throughout our rural community. They attacked in broad daylight. Having lost so many newborns to the vicious pack, we kept guns readily available. I shot into the dangerous pack wounding enough that they all left.

Unfortunately, two neighborhood dogs were running with the wild pack; wild dogs are wild to people, not domesticated dogs. Their owner called the Sherriff’s Department. Deputy Edge investigated and found no reason to charge me with any wrongdoing. Animal Control Officer Campbell investigated, then, at the owners request, canvased our community seeking complaints against me, but found none. Never arrested nor charged with a crime, I was tried in criminal court on a civil charge, and jailed because Officers Edge and Campbell’s investigations, which proved I was protecting my children, my father and his livestock from a killer dog pack, were not introduced as evidence.

Domesticated dogs can and some do return to the primitive state when they join wild packs. Investigations by two Scotland County officers proved I was protecting family and property, but the omission of that evidence sent me to jail for resisting a 12 to 14 member savage dog pack during a rabies epidemic.

I would like to see my case reopened and be retried, with the official investigations that were complete at that time, introduced as evidence this time. What good is a thorough and complete investigation if the evidence is not introduced in court?

Robert C. Currie Jr.

Laurinburg