Emily McKinney and Joe D. Johnson (Russell County Detention Center)
A 27-year-old mother in Kentucky and her 30-year-old boyfriend were arrested last week after they allegedly lied to authorities, claiming that a fictitious stray dog was responsible for mauling the woman’s 10-month-old child when it was in fact a dog the couple owned together.
Emily McKinney and Joe D. Johnson were both taken into custody on Friday and charged with one count each of endangering the welfare of a minor and false reporting that generates an emergency response, authorities announced. McKinney was also charged with a single count of felony first-degree criminal abuse of a child under the age of 12.
Johnson and McKinney are both from Russell Springs, Kentucky, which is about 88 miles southwest of Lexington, Kentucky.
According to a news release from the Kentucky State Police, troopers with Post 15 on Friday, March 15, 2024, responded to a call in Russell Springs about possible criminal child abuse that had taken place earlier in the week. The release said that the call came from an individual in Green County, Kentucky, who was concerned about the safety of his children.
Investigators say they discovered that a 10-month-old child on March 12, 2024, was brought to the Russell County Hospital with injuries suffered from a dog attack. Due to the severity of the wounds, the infant was transported to the University of Kentucky Hospital via helicopter for “treatment of serious injuries.”
Police say that the boy’s mother and her boyfriend — later identified as McKinney and Johnson — told personnel at the hospital as well as officers with the Russell Springs Police Department that the child’s injuries were “sustained after being attacked by an unknown stray dog.”
Russell Springs police officers responded to the area where the couple said the child had been attack and attempted to locate the stray dog, but “their efforts were unsuccessful,” the release states.
Investigators with the state police on March 15 went to the couple’s residence located on Bluebird Drive to speak with them about what happened to the child.
“As the investigation progressed, Troopers determined the dog that had attacked the child actually belonged to Ms. McKinney and Mr. Johnson and was not a stray,” the release states. “Mr. Johnson had concealed the location of the couple’s dog after the incident causing local first responders to use resources searching for a stray dog that did not exist.”
McKinney and Johnson were arrested and booked into the Russell County Detention Center where they both remained as of Monday afternoon, jail records show. Both of their bonds were set at $10,000.
It was not immediately clear when the couple were scheduled to appear in court.