Injuries force police dog to retire

New dog to replace Koda, who was hurt on the job

By Mara Stine

The Gresham Outlook, Aug 8, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (3 Reader comments)

Ben Brink / The Oregonian

Koda, a Gresham police dog, was badly hurt while on duty. He is retiring from active police work due to his injuries.

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Koda, the heroic Gresham police dog that suffered an injured leg after falling off a cliff while nabbing a fugitive sex offender, must retire.

Injuries to his front leg required a bone graft as well as fusing two bones in his canine wrist. Although the veterinarian surgeon says Koda will recover, it will take six to seven months, and he most likely won’t be able to perform the rigorous duties of a police dog, said Sgt. Mike LeDuc, who supervises the K-9 unit’s three human officers and their police dog partners.

“It’s an emotional loss,” LeDuc said. Not only did Koda work and live with his human partner, Officer Shawn Debler, the entire department became attached to the dog.

Add to that the nature of his retirement – it’s not like he just got too old to safely do the job – and the loss is all the more painful.

Koda, a 4-year-old Czechoslovakian shepherd, was searching for John Clark Milam, 47, on July 12, when Koda found the suspect hiding in the thick woods along the Sandy River. Milam reportedly beat the dog’s head and tumbled over a cliff with Koda still on him.

For hours, Debler thought his canine partner was dead. But police found Milam hiding on a steep cliffside and later discovered Koda – alive but injured – on a small ledge above the suspect.

A Multnomah County grand jury has indicted Milam on a charge of felony interfering with a police animal for the assault on Koda, plus felony assault charges out of Beaverton for alleged criminal mistreatment of his elderly father, who lives in a care home.

He also is being held without bail at the Multnonah County Detention Center awaiting extradition on a warrant for violating his burglary parole in California, where he has a criminal history of incest with a minor and first-degree sex abuse.

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