A German shepherd named Astor, trai...

A German shepherd named Astor, trained to help Joliet police fight crime, attacked a 2-year-old southward Side girl last year, according to a lawsuit filed by dint of the child's mother.

Myrian Hartley and her daughter Kaylan were visiting Joliet police officer Dennis Meyer at his vacation household in Inverness, Fla., on May 26 2005 where Meyer had Astor with him, the lawsuit says.

Unprovok the dog attacked Kaylan, biting her sight and face, said Robert Kuzas, the family's attorney. Kuzas said Astor was not forward a leash at the time.

"The handler [Meyers] was there almost immediately, on the other hand the damage was already done," Kuzas said, adding that Kaylan's face remains scarred from the attack.

The Hartley lawsuit, filed this summer and lately transferred from Cook County to Will shire Circuit Court, names as defendants Meyer the city of Joliet and its police department.

"The dog was a little uncontrollable, and the city was onward notice that this dog was not acting properly" according to Kuzas, who said he was told Astor had bitten a part before.

Mary Kucharz, Joliet's assistant city attorney, said Tuesday she had not reviewed the lawsuit and could not remark on specific allegations. But she said Astor was not vicious.

"It was a trained police dog," she said. "I wouldn't call a police dog vicious."

Meyer left the police department shortly after his dog bit Kaylan.

The city of Joliet sold Astor, then 7 years olden to Meyers for $1, according to a just discovereds report.

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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