A retired Oregon State Police wildlife trooper has been indicted by a Lincoln County grand jury on six charges of animal abuse four months after he allegedly shot two of his neighbor’s German shepherds that had wandered onto his property on Bay Road near Toledo.
Greg A. Torland, 65, of Toledo was secretly indicted by a grand jury April 9, the charges made public Monday and is scheduled to be arraigned in circuit court April 29. He is free on $50,000 bond.
Torland is accused of two counts of first-degree aggravated animal abuse and four counts of first-degree animal abuse. The indictments accused him of “unlawfully and maliciously” shooting and killing the German shepherds on Jan. 6.
The indictments say three of the charges are from the act of killing eight-month-old Liberty; the other three for killing 18-moth-old Hemi.
Because of the secret indictments, a Lincoln County Sheriff’s investigation into the incident is not yet part of the public court record. But the owner of the dogs, Ace Garrison of Toledo, has used Facebook messages and a GoFundMe campaign to bring attention to the incident – and eventually an investigation by the sheriff’s and district attorney’s offices.
Garrison said that his dogs got out of their enclosure Jan. 6 while he was at work.
Initially told there would be no criminal investigation, Garrison buried his dogs on his property only to have them exhumed later as part of the investigation.
The grand jury heard from four witnesses April 9 – Garrison, sheriff’s deputy Soren Cullivan, Gabriel Gagner, a neighbor who witnessed the incident, and veterinarian Maia Titcomb. Jacob Kamins, an assistant Oregon Department of Justice attorney specializing in animal cruelty cases, was brought in to handle the grand jury proceedings and prosecution.
A Portland television station, KATU, reported in January that the sheriff’s office told it that a homeowner called to report two German shepherds on their property. At the time, deputies told KATU that an animal services deputy was not able to respond and that the homeowner eventually shot the dogs out of what they said was self-defense.
KATU talked to Gagner, the neighbor, who disputed that account.
