Two lawsuits have been filed against a police team of dogs who are accused of failing scent tests and rigging lineups in Texas, according to an article posted yesterday by USA Today. The bloodhounds who failed belong to Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Deputy Keith Pikett, who says the hounds have worked 2,000 cases. Two of those cases have recently been found to have called attention to the wrong people, both suspects which are now cleared.

In the most recent Pikett case, defense attorney Rex Easley says Calvin Miller, 42, was cleared last month after a three-month jail stint as a suspect in robbery and sexual assault cases. He had been singled out by Pikett’s dogs in a scent lineup in Yoakum, Texas.

In a lawsuit against Pikett, Fort Bend County, the county sheriff, the city of Yoakum and a police official, Easley alleges the scent lineup was “rigged.”

Easley says Miller was released after both victims were unable to identify him in a traditional lineup, and DNA evidence excluded him as a suspect.

“It’s junk science,” says Easley, who also is representing Michael Buchanek in the second suit. He was a suspect in a 2006 murder in Victoria, Texas.

More than likely, the recent frenzy over John Preston and his dogs fueled the cases against Pikett. Prior to these lawsuits, Pikett never had issues with his dogs – or at least none he knew of.

The legal challenges are “a first for us,” says Randall Morse, an assistant county attorney who is representing Pikett.
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Pikett says the lawsuits are just attempts to win large awards. “It’s all about money,” he says.

The Preston cases simply opened the eyes of American citizens who may not have thought to question the validity of the popular investigative tool. I expect more and more cases like these to unravel.

Related posts:

1. NY Times Article on Dog-scent Lineups Yesterday the New York Times ran a good article on dog-scent lineups looking particularly at cases in Texas involving that...
2. More on Texas police dogs A couple of weeks ago we shared the story of Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Deputy Keith Pikett and his bloodhounds...
3. The FBI’s new scent technology According to an Indianapolis news station, the FBI has developed a new scent preservation technology that can “literally bottle up...
4. Time Magazine features article on Pikett’s dogs Not long ago we talked about another case of misleading police scent dogs in Texas (see the articles here and...
5. Another Man Convicted by Preston’s Dogs Gary Bennett, who has spent 25 years in prison, may be the fourth person exonerated in Brevard County based on...
6. Florida Today blows open John Preston story Yesterday, newspaper Florida Today published an involved exposé on John Preston and his ties to the Brevard County justice system....