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Lakeland city commissioners agreed to pay $125,000 to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by a woman who was bit and injured by a police dog at her apartment during a search for a suspect who fled a traffic stop a block away.
“The City Commission voted this morning to settle the federal civil rights case of Kim Saddlers vs. City of Lakeland, Benjamin Blommel, and Chad Landry for $125,000,” City Attorney Palmer Davis said Monday in a written statement. “Ms. Saddlers was bitten at her apartment complex by a police K-9 in March 2019 while officers were searching for a suspect in an unrelated crime.”
He continued: “Saddlers sued the city and former officers Blommel and Landry for false arrest, excessive force, and negligence. The settlement resolves all claims against each defendant.”
Commissioners met privately before Monday’s regularly scheduled City Commission meeting to discuss and vote on settlement.
The March 2019 Incident
Documents
According to court filings, on March 11, 2019, Kim Saddlers and her long-time partner Lorenzo Isaac, both 51, were home in the Lakeland apartment they shared with their sons, Iquan and Kevonte, and the couple’s then-3-month-old grandchild.
It was shortly after midnight, and Saddlers was on the couch changing the infant’s diaper. Lorenzo was asleep in the couple’s bedroom. Iquan was just outside the apartment talking with a neighbor.
Officers Blommel and Landry along with a K-9 police dog, a Belgian Malinois named Nox, responded to a third officer’s call that night to pursue a suspect who had fled on foot from a traffic stop on a neighboring street. The initial officer said he last saw the suspect fleeing near the southern end of the apartment complex.
The suspect had “no connection to plaintiff, her apartment, or family members,” according to court records.
Upon entering the common area of the apartment complex, Officer Landry is said to have announced, “Lakeland Police Department canine unit. If you can hear my voice, make your presence known or the canine unit will find and bite you,” according to court documents.
When the officers encountered Iquan and the neighbor, they shouted for them to get inside. Rattled by the shouts and the dog’s bark, Iquan rushed inside, knocking over a table and lamp in the small apartment, according to accounts in the court order. This stumble set off a chain reaction of events.
The overturning of the furniture woke the infant, who began to cry. The commotion then woke Lorenzo, who came out to investigate, opening the door of the apartment. According to the initial complaint, he was then greeted by profanity-laced shouts from the officers who, according to the court order, mistook him for his son.
When Lorenzo didn’t immediately comply with an order to close the door, Officer Blommel entered the room, attempting to arrest him for “non-violent obstruction of an officer.” The struggle between the two men resulted in Lorenzo being tased. Officer Landry was posted at the door with Nox on a lead in the room.
According to Saddlers’ testimony, she tripped over furniture while carrying her grandchild and fell near the doorway. A neighbor picked up the infant as Nox bit Saddlers’ arm. She and family members testified that Landry did not order the dog to release her, although accounts differ on the bite’s duration and how Nox eventually let go.
The dog’s bite left a 10-inch large gash on Saddlers’ arm.
Saddlers, Lorenzo, and two other family members were placed under arrest by the officers. Saddlers was taken to the hospital, where the gash required 30 stitches that then had to be replaced due to an allergic reaction.
The Aftermath
Saddlers was charged with battery on a law enforcement officer. While the charges were ultimately dismissed on Nov. 2, 2021, the original complaint notes that she and her family were evicted from the apartment for “criminal activity” subsequent to their arrests.
Saddlers filed the lawsuit against the officers and the city of Lakeland on Sept. 13, 2022.
In September 2025, U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell allowed Saddlers’ false-arrest claims against both former officers to proceed, along with her claims of battery, negligence, and false arrest against the city. The judge also allowed an excessive-force claim against Landry concerning the prolonged dog bite to proceed.
However, the judge dismissed the excessive-force claim against Blommel as he was not in control of the K-9 and ruled in Landry’s favor concerning the initial use of the dog and bite. The remaining claims were unresolved before the city approved the settlement.
LkldNow reached out to Saddlers’ attorney for comment on the settlement agreement but has not heard back at the time of publication.
Officer Chad Landry was fired from the Lakeland Police Department in November 2019, following a DUI while driving a department SUV in the Panhandle.
Officer Blommel resigned from the Lakeland Police Department in May 2021 in good standing, according to an LPD spokesperson.
K-9 Nox retired from the police department in late 2019 and passed away in March 2025, according to a Facebook post by LPD.
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