Ex-K-9 Commander Fights for Innocence at Parole Hearing

0:00It's March 25th. Welcome in. This is Durham News Today, where local news meets AI. I'm Corey with the story. A former canine commander named Paul Kovicic faces his first parole hearing on Thursday. The 76-year-old is serving a life sentence for murdering his wife back in 1982, though her body was never found. Convicted in 2009, he insists he's innocent and plans to use the hearing to fight for a full reversal, not just early release. The case centered on claims that Kovicic had violent tendencies, highlighted by the death of his police dog, Fuzz, just weeks before his wife, Janet, vanished. Investigators dug up the dog's remains years later. To argue, he stomped it to death, painting him as capable of harming his spouse. Kovicic told reporters he'd rather the courts declare him innocent outright. His legal team points to issues in the trouble marriage, and his calm response to her disappearance as over-hyped by prosecutors during the long trial. Newly uncovered emails from an FBI agent using a personal account reveal efforts to portray

1:02Kovicicic as the bad guy before forensic tests on the dog. These messages bypassed the official channels and weren't shared with the defense, raising questions about hidden evidence. While the former agent downplays it, and the prosecutor calls it troubling, but not game-changing, Kovicicic's push keeps the decades-old mystery alive. As the board weighs his future.