LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — A Fayette County jury has awarded Sarah Bogusewski more than $5.3 million after she was mauled by dogs near her home in Lexington's Southern Heights neighborhood in March 2022.
Bogusewski suffered 30 bite wounds in the attack after the dogs escaped from a home owned by Easy Knock Incorporated, a real estate company. The jury found Easy Knock 99% responsible for the incident following a recent civil trial.
"I feel completely vindicated that a jury of my peers saw what we saw. That this company knew multiple times and still took no action," Bogusewski said.
The attack was captured on disturbing Ring camera video from a house across the street. Bogusewski is still in therapy and says she continues to suffer from PTSD from the incident.
"It's changed me because there are things I don't do anymore that I used to enjoy doing that now scare me," she said.
Court documents show the jury awarded Bogusewski more than $320,000 in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. The jury found that Easy Knock, which bought the home from James Pelfrey and leased it back to him, violated its duty as a landlord to take reasonable steps to prevent the attack.
The jury determined that Easy Knock either knew of or should have known of the dogs' vicious tendencies. Evidence presented in court showed Easy Knock was notified of previous dog attacks but never evicted Pelfrey.
"When I found out that there were multiple attacks before me, and then when I found out that this company knew and simply did nothing -- talked about it internally and still did nothing -- it was just egregious negligence," Bogusewski said.
The dogs' owners, James Pelfrey and Elijah Stubblefield, were found negligent and 1% responsible. The jury determined Pelfrey and Stubblefield failed to maintain the area in a safe manner.
Lexington Fayette County Animal Care and Control has cited Pelfrey seven times, with five of those citations for his dogs allegedly biting people or their pets. Pelfrey has never faced any legal consequences and was found mentally incompetent.
Bogusewski's lawyers say the blame should be on Easy Knock.
"If you're a big real estate company from out-of-state, and you're this type of company that's doing a sale like this type of scheme, and you're looking for houses with high equity and tenants with low credit scores -- that came directly out of their mouth, they look for tenants with low credit scores -- that business model is not welcome here in Kentucky," said attorney Noel Caldwell.
