While the Detroit Police acknowledge that the case was “horrifying”, it appears that the owner of the dogs who mauled 50-year-old Steve Constantine on Detroit’s Eastside on October 2nd will not be facing criminal charges.
According to Sgt. Michael Woody of the Detroit Police, 61-year-old Derrick Felton will receive several citations for the incident, but that it appears there was no malicious intent on Felton’s part, and that he wasn’t even home at the time of the attack.
Constantine was hospitalized for his injuries, which included losing most of one arm, and also being badly bitten on the head and limbs. His roommate, Ron Gulledge, says that he was “mangled” in the wake of the attack. “You are responsible for your actions. You are responsible for your dogs, no ifs, ands or buts!” , Gulledge said.
But while police say that the dog mauling incident was an accident and that Felton didn’t intend for it to happen, it turns out that neighbors have complained to police on a number of occasions in the past about Felton’s dogs running loose in the neighborhood.
Police say that the dogs most likely escaped through the side door of Felton’s home, which they claim is filled with clutter. According to Woody, Felton was certainly negligent, and he is doubtless a hoarder, but those two things don’t warrant criminal charges. “This isn’t a man who opened his door up (so his dogs would) attack a naked man in his yard. There’s more to it than that,” he says.
Remaining dogs were also apparently tested for rabies
All in all, police say that twelve dogs participated in the attack, one of whom officers had to shoot at the scene in order to assist Constantine. The remaining eleven dogs, and four puppies found inside Felton’s home, were all removed by the police and later euthanized. They were also apparently tested for rabies, although authorities have declined to release the results of those tests.
Felton was arrested at his home a few days ago, and held at the Wayne County Jail, however court documents show that the arrest was for an unrelated warrant, issued for failure to pay child support. Felton’s release was ordered by an attorney for the Friend of the Court during a subsequent video hearing.
According to Gulledge, only a portion remains of Constantine’s upper left arm, his left leg contains multiple metal support rods, and a large portion of his body is heavily bandaged. He says that Constantine still has both his feet and his right hand, but he wasn’t able to see if all of his fingers and toes are still present. He is also currently being tube-fed and is not able to speak.