{"id":81183,"date":"2026-09-21T18:18:25","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T22:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=81183"},"modified":"2026-09-21T18:18:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T22:18:32","slug":"lakeland-pays-125k-to-settle-police-k-9-bite-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/09\/21\/lakeland-pays-125k-to-settle-police-k-9-bite-lawsuit\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland Pays $125K to Settle Police K-9 Bite Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The City of Lakeland<\/strong> agreed to pay a $125,000 settlement<\/strong> to resolve a lawsuit involving a Lakeland Police Department K-9 bite incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plaintiff:<\/strong> Kim Saddlers
Defendants:<\/strong> City of Lakeland, former officers Chad Landry and Benjamin Blommel<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Case Context & Legal Summary<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  • The Incident:<\/strong> Lawsuits against municipal police departments following K-9 deployments typically allege excessive force or accidental release under state tort laws and federal civil rights statutes (such as 42 U.S. Code \u00a7 1983).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Liability & Damages:<\/strong> Under Florida law, dog owners\u2014including municipalities\u2014face strict liability for bite-related injuries, though sovereign immunity limits caps on governmental liability unless the legislature acts directly. $125,000 is a standard settlement range for mid-to-severe dog bite cases involving significant medical expenses, soft-tissue damage, or scarring.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Resolution:<\/strong> Settling the claim allows the City of Lakeland to cover the plaintiff’s medical costs, legal fees, and damages while avoiding prolonged litigation and potential jury trials.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The City of Lakeland agreed to pay a $125,000 settlement to resolve a lawsuit involving a Lakeland Police Department K-9 bite incident. Plaintiff: Kim SaddlersDefendants: City of Lakeland, former officers… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDlcL2ltYWdlcy0yLTgud2VicD9maXQ9Njc4JTJDNDUyJnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiTGFrZWxhbmQgUGF5cyAkMTI1SyB0byBTZXR0bGUgUG9saWNlIEstOSBCaXRlIExhd3N1aXQiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.1m9rZlhvrN8PWmWzrcW0ljw52Xqt5A-2sxufvGHZ7lgMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA5XC9pbWFnZXMtMi04LndlYnAiLCJ0eHQiOiJMYWtlbGFuZCBQYXlzICQxMjVLIHRvIFNldHRsZSBQb2xpY2UgSy05IEJpdGUgTGF3c3VpdCIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.hIQy6drW_DsjAvweyOd13kHdvhxPcRYJpzBYdPm--YsMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[237,17368,15651,17366,17370,15186,17367,17369],"class_list":["post-81183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-lakeland","tag-excessive-force","tag-florida-law","tag-k-9-bite","tag-kim-saddlers","tag-lakeland-police-department","tag-lawsuit-settlement","tag-sovereign-immunity"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81188,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81183\/revisions\/81188"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}