FortBendNow.com

A bloodhound trainer’s role in a 2006 murder investigation in Victoria has enmeshed Fort Bend County in a lawsuit.

The suit stems from the death of Sally Blackwell, a 53-year-old Texas Child Protective Services worker who was abducted from her Victoria home and murdered on March 15, 2006.

A 25-year-old Victoria man, Jeffrey Grinsinger, pleaded guilty to kidnapping and killing the woman.

But not before former Victoria County Sheriff’s Capt. Michael Buchanek and former Sheriff Michael Ratcliff were identified as persons of interest in the case.

In June, Victoria attorney Rex Easley Jr. filed a complaint in U.S. District Court seeking unspecified damages against the Victoria County Sheriff’s Department, current Sheriff Michael O’Connor, the City of Victoria and several individual law enforcement officials, alleging that Buchanek’s constitutional rights had been violated.

Also named as a defendant in the suit was Fort Bend County Sheriff’s deputy Keith Pikett, a well-known bloodhound trainer. Pikett could not be reached for commentt on Monday.

Easley said Monday he filed the lawsuit on behalf of Buchanek in part “because of the actions involving those damned dogs of Pikett’s” shortly after Blackwell’s murder.

The woman’s body was found about 6 miles from the home where she was abducted, Easley said, and investigators first brought in bloodhounds from a nearby prison, “and they couldn’t catch a scent.”

Easley said he believes the Victoria County Sheriff’s Department then hired Pikett, who brought his bloodhounds to the murder scene.

Easley said an affidavit used in obtaining a search warrant of Buchanek’s house stated that Pikett’s dogs followed the scent Buchanek had emitted while supposedly riding in a car over 5.5 miles of roadway from the murder scene to his home.

“The cops swore to it. Their working theory was that (Buchanek) put her body in the trunk of his car” Easley said. But, he added, “I don’t even think the dogs were leading the way.”

Easley said he believes Pikett conspired with Victoria County law enforcement officials and “led the dogs” to Buchanek’s house.

Affidavits used to obtain search warrants of Buchanek’s house “excluded exculpatory evidence by failing to state that the dogs allegedly tracked to the victim’s house and were re-scented and placed at different locations in the nighborhood before they allegedly trailed to the plaintiff’s house,” the suit states.

“Based on improbable cause and factual assertions in the search and seizure warrant affidavits, the defendants began a course of harassment, distress and terror” upon Buchanek, the suit states. “Defendants seized and evicted plaintiff from his home, seized and damaged his personal property including his motor vehicle, and placed Plaintiff under surveillance.”

Fort Bend County itself was originally named as a defendant in the suit, but has recently been dropped.

However, Fort Bend County Attorney Roy Cordes Jr. said Monday that the county is continuing to provide Pikett’s legal defense in the suit.

Cordes is scheduled to provide Fort Bend County Commissioners Court members with an update on the case during a closed session following Tuesday’s court meeting.