Keeping a police dog alive was Derrick Durall’s assigned job. The City of Dexter bought the kennels, and the city bought the food. On February 18, 2024, his K-9 partner Apollo was found dead in one of those kennels at 41.6 pounds — and this week, the sentence for it finally landed: 15 days in jail.
Durall, a K-9 handler with the Dexter Police Department in southeast Missouri, pleaded guilty August 24 to two misdemeanor animal neglect counts in Dunklin County, where his case landed on a change of venue. The two felony animal abuse charges — each carrying up to four years under Missouri law — were dropped as part of the plea. The court suspended a one-year jail term, placed Durall on two years of supervised probation, ordered 15 days served in the Dunklin County Jail, and entered an $8,900 restitution judgment for the City of Dexter.
What the record shows
Durall had handled Dexter’s K-9 program since December 2020 and earned his handler certification in May 2023. Apollo, a Belgian Malinois born in April 2022, joined the department in April 2023. He and Knox, a retired German Shepherd, lived at Durall’s home in Stoddard County in department-provided kennels, on department-provided food.
In September 2023, a veterinary exam logged Apollo at 67.2 pounds and described a dog in good health. Five months later, he was dead at 41.6 pounds — a loss of nearly 40 percent of his body weight. A necropsy performed the next day attributed the death to starvation and dehydration.
Knox told the other half of the story. His most recent vet visit on record had been October 2022. A new exam after Apollo’s death found severe heartworms, severely worn teeth, and a weight loss of about ten pounds, with the retired dog described as generally unkempt.
Durall told investigators he fed both dogs twice a day and said he had not noticed Apollo’s decline.
Felonies, then fifteen days
The Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control investigated and passed its reports to the Stoddard County prosecutor, who charged Durall in April 2024 with two Class E felony counts of animal abuse and two misdemeanor neglect counts. A separate misdemeanor charge against Durall was pending in Stoddard County at the time.
The case then spent roughly two and a half years in the system. On August 24, 2026, it ended not with a trial but with a plea: felonies gone, two misdemeanors admitted, one year suspended, two years of probation — and 15 days in a county jail cell as the entire custody component.
The department’s answer
Dexter had not waited on the courts. On April 1, 2024 — six weeks after Apollo was found dead — the city’s Board of Aldermen voted to terminate Durall. Chief Hank Trout said the department determined Durall had violated its policies and “was responsible for the death of Apollo and the neglect of retired K9 Knox.”
What happens next
The criminal case is closed: the judgment stands, the 15 days are to be served, and the restitution is owed to the same city that bought the dogs their food. This post will be updated if new filings or enforcement details surface in the case.
A felony file became a misdemeanor plea, and two and a half years became fifteen days — what does that arithmetic teach the next handler holding the bowl?
Sources
KFVS12 (Aug 29, 2026) · Southeast Missourian (Aug 31, 2026) · KBSI FOX23 · KFVS12 (Apr 2024) · Dexter Statesman · Standard-Democrat · DAR News
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