Owner Released On Bail After Dogs' October Attack On 4-Year-Old, 1 Dog Still On The Loose

ELLICOTT CITY, MD — The owner of three dogs that police said attacked a 4-year-old girl in October had her bail approved Friday by a Howard County judge.

Jewel Brooks, 33, had been in jail since her indictment Dec. 2. The judge approved $5,000 bail in addition to ordering pretrial supervision, according to WBAL. Brooks was ordered not to have any dogs, but Brooks said in court that she had just spent $2,000 to have her new dog trained.

Patch previously reported that Brooks' three dogs escaped her Ellicott City home and an unknown number of dogs bit the 4-year-old girl. Two were pit bulls and a third was a lab. The girl was taken to Johns Hopkins for treatment, and continues therapy to recover. Animal control captured two of the dogs but months later, still hasn't found the third dog.

The little girl's mother spoke with WBAL and said, "I thought she was going to be gone; it was that bad. So, it's very emotional to talk about. ... It was very brutal, very scary, traumatizing. That's all I can (say), that's the only words I have for it."

Prosecutors said in court that it took several adults to pull the dogs off of the girl. Brooks said in court that she also was injured while trying to save the little girl.

"She's struggling, but she's healing well. We try to stay in the best spirits about everything and just trying to heal from what happened," the little girl's mother said. "There's a lot of things going through my mind. I mean, when you have to be involved with something like that, and it's your own child, it's, you know, you would do anything for them."

Brooks also accused the judge of "blatant breed prejudice," WBAL reported. Brooks said her dogs had never harmed anyone before the incident with the little girl, but court records said all three dogs were previously deemed dangerous by officials after attacking other pets and two other people.