Sheriff responds to accusations

Ruben Dominguez made strong accusations against the Ector County Sheriff's Office Friday as he was still questioning whether a deputy was in his right to come inside his yard, knock on his door and then shoot his rottweiler after she started chasing the deputy through his yard.

"He (deputy Bobby Hodges) saw the dog, the dog didn't seem like a threat, he decided to get down (out of his car and in the yard)," Dominguez said. "He decided he wanted to kill that dog."

Meanwhile, Sheriff Mark Donaldson gave more details to how the Monday morning shooting unfolded as he stood by deputy Hodges' actions.

Donaldson contended the gates to Dominguez's fence was left open that day, meaning anyone including the deputy had a right to approach his front door. He further said Hodges never actually had the man's phone number before the shooting, contradicting Dominguez's claim.

"They keep saying we had the number," Donaldson said.

Rather, Donaldson said Hodges got Dominguez's mother's number only after the shooting, after Hodges called the sheriff's office dispatchers and they looked it up. They called her house, got a hold of Dominguez's father and his father then gave the call to Dominguez.

"He (Hodges) didn't want to tell him over the phone, he wanted him to come out there," Donaldson said.

Dominguez said Donaldson's claim that they didn't have his number was not true.

"That Bobby Hodges is a retired Odessa police officer, he works for the sheriff's office," he said. "He knows how to work things."

The papers were served to Dominguez Wednesday morning.

Donaldson said according to Hodges' report to the sheriff's office, Suki charged to him and blocked an opening to the brick fence, which is why Hodges jumped it even though Suki then left that opening to continue chasing him through the yard. No, not outside the external fence

Dominguez's wife Tracy Carrigan also doubted that account. She said the fence was poorly constructed and anyone hoisting him or herself over it would have knocked it over.

"We wouldn't let the kids around it," she said.

As to the gates? Dominguez said the rear gate to the outside fence was left open because it was broken at the time.

This was a sticking point for Jim Atwater, a private civil process server with Atwater Enterprises in Odessa.

Although he said the law might work differently for deputy sheriffs serving papers rather than private process servers like himself, if a fence is open, dog or no dog that usually means anyone can legally go through the fence and approach the front door.

"If you drive up to that place and you want to talk to the owner of the fence and the fence is not locked and there are no signs say ‘do not trespass,' no signs of guard dogs, no ‘do not go on my property or I'll shoot you' signs... even as a private citizen you'd enter," Atwater said. "All of a sudden you'll hear this big dog coming... his eyes are turning red like rottweilers do. You're carrying a gun and you're licensed to do so. What are you going to do, get bit or kill the dog?"

Carl Weeks, the immediate past president of the Texas Process Servers Association in Austin, said it ultimately came down to whether there was a no trespassing sign visible near the gates, whether they were left open or not. A deputy sheriff would have to comply to that sign as well if serving civil papers, he said, though he was not sure if it would typically be prosecuted if he or she didn't.

Dominguez said he did not have any such signs on his property.

In that case, Weeks said, anyone could legally go through the fence's gates and knock on the front door.

"All fences have gates to exclude or prohibit entry and sometimes those fences are to keep a dog or kids in," Weeks said. "I don't think the deputy was doing anything illegal in my mind."