A plan to punish police K-9 killers is one small step from becoming real.
In the end, the bill that once threatened to saddle such criminals with a murder charge will have duller teeth than original headlines suggested. The minimum punishment for intentionally killing a police animal -- be they dog, horse or any other species -- will be an extra six months in prison.
The potential fine is also going to increase from $10,000 to $50,000.
The bill is named "Tanja's Law" after a 2-year-old Dutch shepherd who died from a gunshot wound in June while serving the Walker County Sheriff's Office. That crime carries a punishment of 1-5 years in prison right now.
Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, who introduced the bill, originally proposed charging killers in such cases with second-degree murder and locking them up for 10-30 years.
Georgia Sen. Jeff Mullis, R-Chickamauga, talks during an interview.Because the legal definition of murder means taking the life of another person, some scholars scoffed at the proposed law. A University of Georgia professor said it was "unbelievably weird." A Georgia State professor called it "wacky."
The Senate stripped the bill down last month. On March 18, facing the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee, Mullis assured the legislators that the version of the bill they were looking at was tame. This one wouldn't draw the ire of academia.
"You've probably gotten some calls or emails about 'I'm putting the life of a K-9 before the life of a human being; I'm putting the life of a K-9 before the life of an unborn child,'" he said. "That's just completely ridiculous. There's some crazy people out there."
The Georgia House of Representatives approved the bill Tuesday, 155-5. Local Reps. John Deffenbaugh, Steve Tarvin and Tom Weldon voted for it. The Senate will now reconsider the House version of the bill, which looks almost the same as the one the Senate approved last month.
The House-approved version offers four degrees of punishment for scenarios ranging from accidentally harming a law enforcement animal to killing it on purpose. The most severe sentence is between 18 months and five years in prison.
The bill also allows law enforcement to pursue restitution. Police officials can demand that the criminal pays the animal's veterinarian bills or covers the expense of buying a new animal, which right now can cost the agency $10,000.
The bill also instructs the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to perform an autopsy on the animal if it died in the line of duty.
On March 18, Mullis brought Tanja's K-9 handler, Deputy Donnie Brown, to the Capitol to meet with representatives on the issue. Brown told them about what happened last June.
Outside 58-year-old Steven Lee Waldemar's Lookout Mountain trailer, deputies shouted toward him, told him he was wanted on charges of aggravated sexual battery. They told him to walk outside. He didn't.
The deputies say they threw pepper spray into his trailer. He stayed inside. The deputies shouted at him again. They said they were coming inside.
"It's like we're just waiting to be sniped, per se," Brown told a House committee last week. "He was right there, waiting on us."
A deputy opened the door, and Brown and Tanja ran inside. Brown said Waldemar fired a shotgun at the dog, killing her.
"If it wasn't for Tanja," Brown said, "Walker County Sheriff's Office, I would guarantee you, would have buried three officers that day."
"You being one of them," Mullis said.
"Me being one of them. I was shot and injured from the same blast as my K-9 got killed from."
Contact Staff Writer Tyler Jett at tjett@timesfreepress.comor 423-757-6476.