Officer Scott Taylor Fired after being Investigated for Beating Police Dog

Scott Taylor, the University of Nevada, Reno police officer who has been under investigation for claims of police abuse and for allegedly beating his assigned police dog, no longer works at UNR, spokeswoman Jane Tors said today.

“He is no longer an employee,” she said. “He was notified of this (Wednesday).”

Tors said she is prohibited from discussing whether Taylor was fired or why he no longer works at UNR because, by law, it is a confidential personnel matter.

Neither Taylor or his attorney could be reached for comment.

When contacted Wednesday about reports Taylor had been fired, Tors said the university had taken action that dealt with Taylor and that the action was based on “an internal matter and not the dog, which would still be within the purview of the Attorney General’s office.”

UNR Police Chief Adam Garcia had put Taylor on paid leave last month pending an internal investigation after a complaint of police abuse was made against him Feb. 3.

“It was a complaint against his inappropriate conduct with a citizen while on duty,” Garcia had said.

In an earlier complaint filed in January with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, PETA said Taylor had been accused of beating his K-9 patrol dog, a male German shepherd name Niko, to the point that the dog defecated on the floor at the university’s police station.

Garcia turned that investigation over to the Attorney General’s office.

Michael Langton, Taylor’s attorney, has stated that his client maintains he is innocent.

Langton said Taylor had explained that the dog defecated on the floor at the UNR police station not out of fear, but because the animal was ill, and that Taylor took him to a veterinarian after the incident.

Garcia said that after PETA contacted him Jan. 29 about the complaint, he had Niko taken away from Taylor and brought to a Reno veterinarian to be examined and kept, pending the outcome of the Attorney General’s investigation.

University officials have said that the initial assessment by the veterinarian who examined Niko found “no overt signs of abuse or trauma.”

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http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/mar/12/officer-accused-of-beating-dog-no-longer-at-unr/