Paul Verzosa

🚨#BREAKING: Outrage is erupting after a Missouri police officer who STARVED his own K9 partner to de*th and abused a another K-9... ...received just 15 DAYS in jail for doing so The dog, Apollo, lost nearly 40% of his body weight, his ribs and spine were poking through his skin, and he passed away from "terminal starvation and dehydration" in a kennel in the officer's backyard. His punishment? FIFTEEN DAYS in jail. His name is Derrick Durall. He was the K9 handler for the Dexter Police Department in Missouri. His partner was Apollo, a Belgian Malinois the department bought in April 2023. In September 2023, a veterinarian examined Apollo. Her words, in the court record: a "perfectly healthy police dog." 67 pounds. Body condition: "perfect." Five months later, on February 18, 2024, Apollo was found de*d in his kennel outside Durall's house. He weighed 41 pounds. Twenty-five pounds, GONE. His muscles wasted away. His eyes sunken into his skull. The state trooper's photos show his ribs and vertebrae protruding through his skin. The necropsy: "terminal starvation and dehydration." The police department PROVIDED the dog food, for free. It was sitting right there. He just... didn't feed him. When investigators asked, Durall claimed he "had not noticed the health decline" of his own partner. A dog that lost nearly 40% of its body weight, in his own backyard. It gets worse. There was a SECOND dog. Retired K9 Knox lived in the kennel next to Apollo. When they found him, he had severe heartworms, teeth worn down, and he had lost 10 pounds and had not seen a vet in over a YEAR. Investigators said he smelled so bad the stench wouldn't come off after washing him FIVE times. Now here's where I need you to pay attention, because this is the accountability part. Prosecutors charged him with TWO FELONIES for animal abuse, alleging the suffering was "torture, consciously inflicted." A jury trial was set for this summer. And then, last week, it all evaporated. He was allowed to plead guilty to two MISDEMEANORS. T he felonies vanished and a judge sentenced him to one year in jail... and then SUSPENDED it. Fifteen days. Two years probation. $8,900 to the city. That's it. It gets worse. Missouri has a law called Max's Law. If YOU, a regular citizen, knowingly m*rder a police K9, it's a Class D felony with up to SEVEN YEARS in prison. Attack a police dog and you could do seven years. Starve one to de*th in your backyard while wearing the badge... fifteen days. Apollo couldn't open the food bag. He couldn't turn on a faucet. He couldn't call a vet. He was completely dependent on the one man sworn to take care of him. And that man let him waste away to 41 pounds and starve in the cold. Pure evil.