SALT LAKE CITY — Jury selection begins Monday in the aggravated assault trial for Salt Lake City police K-9 handler Nickolas Pearce.
Pearce is accused of using — to quote the statute — “unlawful force or violence” when he ordered his dog, Tuco, to attack Jeffrey Ryans on April 24, 2020. Ryans was showing his hands and had one knee on the ground when Pearce gave Tuco the command to “hit.”
Video of the arrest was reported around the country, with headlines noting Pearce ordered the dog to bite a Black man. The case has already changed Salt Lake City — K-9s are no longer used to apprehend suspects.
Pearce faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. The trial will be at the state courthouse in West Jordan and is scheduled to last all week.
In Utah, it’s rare for any peace officer to be charged with a crime for something he or she did in the line of duty. Even among that set, this case is singular. FOX 13 could find no record of a Utah K-9 handler ever being charged with assault for ordering a dog to bite.
The prosecution argument
In the charging document, the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office contends Ryans was compliant, telling officers how to enter the backyard and showing his hands.
“Ryans did not express any intentions or engage in actions reflecting he was going to resist the officers,” prosecutors wrote.
Ryans has testified that since the bite, he has had multiple surgeries on his left leg and gone through physical therapy. Under Utah law, the extent of injury can be a factor in determining whether an aggravated assault has been committed.
The defense
Police were responding to an early morning report of a domestic disturbance at a home in a cul-de-sac near 800 W. 1300 South. In a 911 call, a child in the home told police Ryans struck her mother. Ryans can be heard yelling and cursing on the 911 call. A protective order said Ryans was not supposed to be in the home.
Pearce and Tuco found Ryans against a fence in the backyard. In a previous hearing and pre-trial filings, the defense has argued — and two other police officers who were there that morning have testified — that Ryans wasn’t obeying commands to get on the ground fast enough and that Ryans was still a possible threat.
The defense has also pointed to other factors, including that it was dark and Pearce had seconds to make a decision. The defense will also point to Ryans’ criminal convictions. He’s currently serving a jail sentence after being convicted in federal court of an unlawful gun purchase.
One of the proposed instructions 3rd District Court Judge William Kendall likely will give the jury says, “Any person is justified in using any force… which he reasonably believes to be necessary to effect an arrest or to defend himself or another from bodily harm while making an arrest.”
The jurors also likely will be instructed, according to a written proposal in the court record, that they only can convict if they determine, “The defense of Force in Arrest does NOT apply.”
Michael S. Gould, a former New York City K-9 handler who now works as an expert witness, watched the Pearce and Ryans video at the request of FOX 13. He called the video “damning,” but said the context the defense will present will be a challenge for prosecutors.
“If they're relying solely on the video,” Gould said, “which is horrendous or graphic, they're going to have a hard time proving beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Almost no one wants to be at this trial
Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown fought a subpoena to testify. The judge has sided with the district attorney’s office, who may call Brown to testify about police department policies.
Salt Lake City’s police union has criticized the prosecution, and officers have traveled to the courthouse to applaud Pearce as he arrived for hearings. Two other officers at the scene that night are on the prosecution witness list, but in a 2022 preliminary hearing, they testified that Ryans was not getting on the ground fast enough and having his hands chest-high left him in a position to strike Pearce.
“In my mind,” testified Officer Cody Orgill, “several commands he had been given throughout the course of the whole thing and he hadn’t complied with getting on the ground.”
Each side has at least one policing or K-9 expert on its witness list. Ryans is scheduled to testify, too.
Pearce is on the defense witness list, though it’s unclear whether he really intends to testify.
Pearce’s job is on the line, too
Pearce has remained employed at the Salt Lake City Police Department. Under state law, a felony conviction would end his law enforcement career. Even if he’s acquitted, there’s a chance the city will fire him.
According to a document the city gave FOX 13 pursuant to a public records request, Salt Lake City has not yet completed its internal affairs investigation into Pearce because of the pending trial — a delay that perplexed one former detective FOX 13 interviewed last year. Salt Lake City’s Civilian Review Board in 2020 ruled that Tuco’s bite of Ryans was excessive force.
Brown is not bound by that decision, and the pending criminal case against Pearce was a reason cited by city attorneys in arguing that Brown shouldn’t testify at the Pearce trial.
If Pearce is found not guilty, Brown will have the final say in whether Pearce remains employed with the city.
It’s unclear whether Brown will consider a separate episode for which Pearce was also charged with assault. In that case, Pearce lifted Tuco to bite a suspect in a car.
That criminal charge was dismissed when the victim refused to testify.
Meanwhile, Ryans has a federal civil lawsuit pending against Salt Lake City.