Lovejoy: 'I don't understand how I allowed it to happen'

Chandler officer Tom Lovejoy and his wife, Carolynn, were interviewed by News/Talk 92.3 KTAR's Larry Gaydos Friday evening, the same day he was found not guilty in the death of his police dog, who was left in a patrol car for 13 hours last summer.

Lovejoy told Gaydos what went through his mind the moment he opened his police cruiser and found ‘Bandit' dead in the back seat.

"The biggest thing I thought was ‘how did he get in that car?' In my mind, he was in our large backyard," he said.

"I can't even describe it. I could not understand in my mind how that happened, how I allowed that to happen."

Lovejoy was charged with a count of animal cruelty and could have been jailed for up to six months if he had been convicted of the misdemeanor.

Lovejoy said it's been his strong Christian faith that helped him through this.

"When I walked in the courtroom, I was facing 6 months in jail and a $2,500 dollar fine. That's not easy for a police officer," he said. "What happened was not something that was done in an intentional, criminal mind."

The 5-year-old Belgian Malinois died of heat exposure on Aug. 11, 2007.

The prosecution claimed the 17-year police veteran was reckless in forgetting his dog in the vehicle while parked at his home the entire time.

Lovejoy's attorney claimed the police sergeant was negligent and simply forgot the canine was in his vehicle.

Lovejoy's wife said she agrees and that negligence does not constitute a crime.

"He is guilty of negligence," she said. "He was negligent to let himself get that tired and have that many things happen that it caused him to forget he put the dog in the car."

Lovejoy testified that on the morning of Aug. 11, after working an overnight off-duty shift, he parked his police vehicle in the driveway of his house and went inside.

He said he was exhausted and forgot the dog was sleeping in the back of the sport utility vehicle.

Fellow Chandler K-9 officer Ron Emary testified it's easy to get distracted.

"You get busy doing your job and you've got other things on your mind and when the dog gets quiet back there, you're busy doing other job-related functions and you just kind of temporarily forget that he's back there," he said.

Justice of the Peace Sam Goodman decided Lovejoy's fate in the one-day bench trial at San Tan Justice Court.

Goodman said Lovejoy was negligent but state prosecutors failed to prove the charge of recklessness.

Chandler police considered the case an accident and did not conduct a criminal investigation. However, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office arrested Lovejoy after an investigation and he was subsequently charged.

Lovejoy was removed from his job as head of the K-9 unit. He remains a sergeant who works in the patrol division of the department.

Lovejoy said Bandit's death is a lesson for everyone.

"I wish that I could explain it and say that it was because ‘this, that, or the other thing,'" he said. "We just have to be careful and make sure that we're paying attention to everything we do during the day and not let ourselves get to the point where we can't consciously think and take care of the things that we're responsible for," he said.

The Lovejoys told Gaydos the toughest part of the ordeal was having to deal with scrutiny from the general public who didn't know all of the circumstances and facts surrounding the dog's death.

• Slideshow: Lovejoy in KTAR studio

KPHO.com and The Associated Press contributed to this article.