It really is too bad that most people (kids especially) have no clue about dog behavior and how to avoid getting bitten. But it is what it is and I suspect the law will see it in favor of the child’s family.
There’s more than enough stupidity by all involved to go around with this.
A girl is going to be scarred for life due to her own lack of caution, her parents’ lack of supervision and lack of teaching her how to deal with strange animals, and the dog’s owner, who chained an abused dog, let it remain there despite neighborhood kids throwing rocks at it by his own admission, and not devising some means of keeping people away from an overly-agressive dog, that is probably going to pay with his life for this.
It’s just dumb. Sad, and dumb. The girl’s parents shouldn’t get off scot-free either, they’re the ones who let a twelve year old girl roam the neighborhood unsupervised and didn’t teach her not to trespass and to leave barking, chained dogs alone.