Mystic - The victim of a pit bull attack at the Marriott Residence Inn last January has filed a lawsuit against the dog's owner and the group that owns the hotel.

According to documents filed in New London Superior Court, the victim, Jo-Lynne Grillo, has sued the dog's owner, Eileen Kotyk, who was staying at the Residence Inn, as well as VII-HII-Whitehall Avenue LLC, which is part of the Waterford Hotel Group.

The suit state states that Grillo, who was visiting Kotyk, was attacked by the dog named Bullet in the hallway outside her room.

She was repeatedly bitten, and suffered lacerations, puncture wounds, abrasions and bruising to her head, face, right arm, right hand, right hip, right leg, back, chest and left arm, according to the suit. It states she lost "a severe amount of blood" and was taken by ambulance to Lawrence + Memorial Hospital in New London. Because of the severity of her injuries she was transferred to Yale-New Haven Hospital, where she underwent surgery.

The suit states that Grillo underwent hand therapy and still suffers from nightmares and post-traumatic stress syndrome. It maintains that she will continue to suffer physical pain and emotional trauma and that her injuries are permanent in nature, restricting her participation in activities. It charges that the attack will probably impair her earning capacity in the future, when she will likely face further medical expenses. Her attorney, Daniel Horgan of New London, said she has been able to return to her job as a nurse at L+M.

On the afternoon of Jan. 12, police responded to a call that a woman had been attacked by a dog that was now loose in the hallways of the Route 27 hotel. A Stonington police officer was forced to shoot the large dog after he suffered minor bites to his hand and arm when he tried to help Kotyk get control of the dog after the attack.

Police said Grillo was attacked by the dog inside a second-floor hallway. The officer was then able to corral the dog in a stairwell away from other guests until Christina Donovan, a Groton Town Police animal control officer, arrived. She was able to guide the dog to the Stonington animal control truck with the use of a noose at the end of a long pole.

At the time the dog, which had blood dripping from its shoulder and abdomen after being struck with a .45 caliber bullet, whimpered as it refused to walk up the ramp into the truck. As police and Old Mystic firefighters tried to coax the dog into the van, one officer stood a few feet way, his gun drawn.

They were finally able to get the dog into the Groton animal control truck by putting a blue blanket over it and lifting it up and into a cage in the truck. The dog was taken for veterinary treatment but later died.

The 128-room hotel, which was not evacuated during the incident, allows guests to have pets in their rooms.

"The motel is a pet friendly place that derives financial benefit from allowing people with dogs to stay while in Mystic," Horgan wrote in an email on Tuesday. "The problem is they do not have a reasonable screening process when allowing the dogs/animals. Many other pet friendly hotels do not allow certain breeds of dogs such as Pit-Bulls. In this instance, the Hotel did not have a designated area for dogs to exercise; did not have safeguards such as partial barriers on the doors to the room to help safeguard against dogs getting loose."

The suit charges that the hotel allowed the dog on the premises "when it was reasonably foreseeable that an injury such as this would probably occur given the pit bull breed's reputation for unprovoked attacks."

In addition, the suit charges that the hotel allowed the dog to remain on the premises when it had shown aggression to maintenance and housekeeping personnel as well as other guests before the attack on Grillo. It also charges the hotel "knew or should have known that Eileen Kotyk could not physically control the dog."

The suit states a "reasonable inquiry" into the pit bull's background would have led to the discovery that the dog was aggressive and the injury to Grillo was "reasonably foreseeable."

It also charges that the hotel failed to intervene or call 911 in a timely manner, which would have allowed police to get to the hotel sooner and lessened the severity of Grillo's injuries.

A spokeswoman for the Waterford Hotel Group, which owns the hotel, declined comment Tuesday, saying the firm is unable to comment on legal matters.

j.wojtas@theday.com

Twitter: @joewojtas