Police Dog Called to Testify in Court

It’s not every day a police dog is subpoenaed to testify in court, and rarer yet, we'd guess, for a judge to actually approve such a thing, but that’s what happened in Florida last week. A Charlotte County Sheriff's Department K-9, named Azor, was brought into Judge Peter Bell’s courtroom when his presence was requested by a man fighting a traffic ticket. The defendant, Rodney McGee, subpoenaed the dog as a defense witness after he was stopped in February for failure to use a turn signal. Azor's handler, suspecting McGee might have had drugs in the car, brought the dog along to give the car a sniff or two. No drugs were detected, and McGee was sent on his way with a traffic ticket. McGee said he wanted the dog brought to his hearing so he could test its sniffing skills. "I was hoping they would let me plant marijuana in the courthouse to see if he could find drugs," McGee said. What relevance that has to his alleged failure to use his turn signal isn't clear.