Florida mom was arrested after a police K-9 allegedly bit her during a suspect search. Then her filed a lawsuit

The City of Lakeland has agreed to pay a $125,000 settlement to resolve a federal civil rights lawsuit in Florida stemming from a chaotic 2019 incident in which police officers mistakenly targeted an uninvolved Black family inside their own home.

The encounter quickly escalated, eventually leading to a police K-9 attacking a mother who was holding her three-month-old grandchild.

According to local reports, the settlement, finalized on Sept. 28, ends a years-long legal battle involving Kim Saddlers. Saddlers sued the city and the officers involved in 2022, accusing them of excessive force, operational negligence, and false arrest.

A routine search turned unjustly violent

The incident began in March 2019 when Lakeland Police Department officers were pursuing a man suspected of driving a stolen vehicle. The search led Officer Chad Landry and his Belgian Malinois K-9, Nox, to a local apartment complex. Landry announced that a police dog was present and warned that the animal would bite anyone who failed to surrender.

Nox tracked a scent toward an apartment where Iquan Isaac was speaking with a neighbor. Officers ordered them inside, and as Isaac hurried into his family’s apartment, he accidentally knocked over a lamp and a table.

The noise woke his father, Lorenzo, who opened the front door to find out what was happening.

Officers immediately ordered Lorenzo to go back inside or face arrest. When he did not comply quickly enough, Officer Benjamin Blommel attempted to arrest him for nonviolent obstruction. The situation became physical, and officers used a Taser on Lorenzo before handcuffing him.

As the struggle continued near the doorway, Kim Saddlers approached while holding her three-month-old grandchild. She tripped over the furniture that had been knocked over by her son moments earlier.

That was when K-9 Nox attacked her, biting into her arm.

Court records show that officers did not immediately order the dog to release its grip. The bite left Saddlers with a 10-inch wound that required 30 stitches. She also suffered an allergic reaction to the medical treatment she received.

Iquan and his brother, Kevonte, tried to intervene and pull the officers away from their parents. The entire family was eventually arrested.

The sons were charged with interfering with a police canine and battery on law enforcement, while Saddlers was charged with battery on an officer.

Saddlers’ criminal charges were dismissed in 2021. Polk County records show that the three men were convicted of their respective charges and received jail sentences and probation.

Saddlers later filed her federal civil lawsuit. A judge dismissed an excessive force claim against Blommel because he was not the direct handler of Nox. However, the city ultimately agreed to settle the remaining claims involving alleged operational negligence rather than take the case through a lengthy trial.

The original suspect might still be at large

City Attorney Palmer Davis confirmed that the $125,000 settlement resolves the outstanding legal claims against the city and the officers.

The officers involved are no longer with the department. Landry was dismissed later in 2019 following a DUI arrest, while Blommel resigned in good standing in 2021.

Nox retired from the police department in late 2019 and died in 2025.

The original suspect who prompted the police pursuit has never been publicly confirmed as having been arrested.