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Attorney for dog-kicking cop receives $125,000 paycheck
Jeff Jeffrey//May 11, 2017//
A state trooper who was fired for kicking his canine partner but was later reinstated ended up earning his attorney more than $125,000.
The North Carolina Court of Appeals said the sizable paycheck, which will be paid by taxpayers, was reasonable because state officials continued to appeal a series of court rulings favoring fired Highway Patrol trooper Charles Jones, even when it was clear they would not prevail.
Then-Gov. Mike Easley ordered Jones’ firing in 2007, after a cell phone video surfaced showing Jones kicking his drug-detection dog, Ricoh, during a training exercise. Jones was reinstated in 2012 and ultimately received more than $200,000 in back pay after courts ruled his firing was improper.
The appeals court said in an April 17 opinion that Smithfield attorney Jack O’Hale should be paid $300 an hour for his work on Jones’ case, the News & Observer reports.
Sidebar would like to stress that kicking a dog is wrong. But it has to be said that representing those who do kick dogs can net a decent paycheck.
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