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A certain high-profile dog case
in San
Francisco has been estimated to have cost taxpayers over $700,000 (USD),
but you're probably sick of hearing about it. Instead, we'd like to
bring your attention to some other notable canine court proceedings that may not
have made the front pages this month. As
courts and legislators sort out how to recognize animals under human law, certain individuals become worthy of historic mention... #1: Good Judge
MANCHESTER, N.H.
(USA) — Judge Gillian Abramson sent shockwaves
with her stern sentencing of a man convicted of staging brutal dog fights
in New Hampshire. On Aug. 28, Judge Abramson
addressed the defendant Christopher DeVito, 37, in Hillsboro North County
Court, telling him: "You are possibly the most publicly reviled
defendant I have ever seen in my days on the bench ... you inflicted such
pain and torture on helpless animals for fun and profit."
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#3: (Comic
Relief) Bad Judge
from the New York Times
front page Friday, May 7, 1937 |
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Judge
Sentences Himself By Signing Papers Unread
MOSCOW,
May 6 — A judge on one of the most important benches of the
Moscow District Court who has the bad habit of signing unread any document
placed before him has just sentenced himself to jail.
The
court clerks, deciding he needed a lesson in "Bolshevik
vigilance," presented to him a sheaf of papers including one reading
"To the chief of Butyrky prison: Under Magistrate Abramson is sent to
you for further detention." Judge Abramson signed all the
papers and picked up his newspaper again.
The
clerks, of course, extracted the sentence and were passing it around
laughingly when the judge found out about it. He destroyed it in a
rage, declaring such jokes tended to undermine Soviet justice.
The
New York Times - Page One
ISBN: 1-57866-135-8
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On 23 counts of Exhibition of Fighting Animals, Judge Abramson
sentenced DeVito to 2-to-5 years in state prison on the first charge
and 2-to-4 years in prison on the remaining 22 charges. Due to
the severity of the offenses, the judge warranted a state prison
sentence, rather than a county jail sentence.
Hillary Twining, spokesperson for the Humane
Society of the United States, said the state prison sentence
will send a message to those involved in dog fighting that the
penalties are not light.
She commented: "Because dog fighting yields such large
profits for participants, the minor penalties associated with
misdemeanor convictions are not a sufficient deterrent. Dog
fighters merely absorb these fines as part of the cost of doing
business.
"Prison sentences send a critical message to those engaged
in this blood sport that dog fighting is taken seriously by the
legal system and will not be tolerated."
Related Link:
New
Hampshire Superior Court Justices
#2: Bad Judge TORRINGTON,
Wyo. (USA) — Judge
Keith Kautz, of the 8th Judicial District in Torrington, set
free a man who stole, tortured, paralyzed, cut off the legs and
burned the body of a 35-pound Basset Hound named "Dexter". Travis
Wilson, 22, was convicted on July 20, 2001 of misdemeanor animal
abuse and sentenced a month later to four-to-seven years in prison
(see The Scoop Aug. 31, 2001 "Convicted
Dog Killer..."). But early this month, his
sentence was suspended. Evidently, in
Judge Kautz's court, seven years adds up to about 193 days.
Adjust your clocks, everyone. The Torrington
Telegram reported on Sep. 9 that Judge Kautz suspended
Wilson's sentence and placed him on supervised probation for four
years. Wilson will live in a “half-way” house where he
will engage in mandatory counseling and be able to acquire full-time
employment. Editor's
note: Friends and dog-lovers, unfortunately the efforts of
thousands can be undermined by just one. Last
year, as many as 2,000 outraged e-mails, letters and phone calls
(from as far away as Europe and Australia) helped justice prevail as
best it could, only to be quietly undone this month by a man with a
gavel. We certainly share your frustration. Related
Link:
Wyoming
State District Court Judges
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#4: Good Judge
ASHBURNHAM, Mass. (USA) — The
headlines screamed about another dog mauling in Massachusetts. The
victim, a 2-year-old girl, required 53 stitches, and the victim's mother
insisted that the dog be put to death. Case closed?
Not quite. It wasn't until Animal Control Officer
Margaret
Bennett conducted a thorough and unbiased investigation that the truth
came out.
The girl's parents had taken
her to her grandparents' house on Sep. 11, according to Tuesday's report. The grandparents, Karen
McDermott and Thomas Valerie, had gone out of town leaving their Siberian
Husky in the family's care.
Then the unexpected attack occurred. Medical teams, police and
animal control were called to the scene, and the girl was transported by
ambulance to Leominster Hospital, where she was stabilized. The
animal control officer said, "the baby's mother asked me to go pick
up the dog and put it to sleep."
But extenuating circumstances were discovered. "From what I
gathered," reported Officer Bennett, "the baby slipped into
another room and was pushing and pulling on the dog while it was
eating."
Officer Bennett says that canines should be left alone with their food. In addition, since the dog's guardians
weren't home, the onus of responsibility fell on the parents to make sure
that the child was supervised around the dog, she states.
Town officials concur, and the pooch has been granted a reprieve from
the death sentence.
Says Officer Bennett, "This is an awful, horrible thing, but it's
not the dog's fault."
Related Link:
Ashburnham
Town Officials & Phone #s
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