(Not with yer boyfriend's shitzu, anyhoo...)
Posted on 07/09/2010 6:33:50 PM PDT by csvset
Abby Toll, who bound and taped an 11-pound puppy to the side of a fridge in her boyfriend's Boulder apartment last year, nearly came face to face with her victim Friday during a hearing in which a judge punished the former University of Colorado student with a 30-day jail sentence and three years of probation.
A prosecutor in the case asked Boulder County District Judge Maria Berkenkotter if the curious and energetic shiba inu Toll targeted with hair ties and packing tape could make an appearance in court while his tormentor was sentenced.
The judge denied the request, saying only service animals are allowed in court. But she took Toll to task for carrying out what she described as a “senseless and cruel” series of actions against the helpless animal, known then as Rex.
Berkenkotter described to the court how Toll painstakingly bound Rex's snout, feet and tail with packing tape and hair ties, before adhering the animal to the fridge with more tape.
“He almost certainly must have struggled,” the judge intoned several times.
She ordered that Toll be taken immediately into custody. Handcuffed, Toll was led out of the courtroom by sheriff's deputies as her mother and brother looked on, bringing to an end a bizarre case that attracted worldwide media attention and spawned a collection of Web sites condemning Toll.
Berkenkotter also ordered Toll to perform 200 hours of community service, pay $771 in restitution, and have no contact with animals while she is on probation – an order that prompted Toll to peer frantically over at her mother. Toll and her mother live with a dog in their Chicago home.
The judge credited Toll with two days credit for time already served in jail.
Just before she was escorted from the courtroom, Toll tearfully said she was “deeply sorry for what happened to Rex last year.”
“I am so ashamed,” she said. “There is no doubt that a horrible, bizarre thing happened in that apartment that night.”
She called herself an “animal lover” and said she kept Rex, who was adopted by a Castle Rock couple and renamed Yoshi, in her thoughts every day.
Toll was arrested on April 14, 2009 after police received a call of a domestic dispute at a Boulder apartment building. Inside the unit, they found an 8-month-old puppy struggling in a “tomb of tape” that had been stuck to the side of a refrigerator.
Toll admitted binding and attaching the dog to the fridge, saying she did it to get back at her boyfriend, Bryan Beck, for paying more attention to his dog than to her, according to police. She also accused Rex of biting her and acting aggressively toward her.
She was charged with felony animal cruelty. A jury found her guilty after a two-day trial in April, during which her previous attorney called no witnesses to the stand.
Prosecutor David Cheval said Toll, who faced up to 18 months in prison for the Class 6 felony conviction, should serve 90 days behind bars.
“We would like Ms. Toll to see what it's like to be confined like Yoshi, with no way to escape,” he said Friday.
Toll's lawyer, Joshua Maximon, asked for electronic home monitoring for his client and said she was the victim of a difficult childhood and a violent relationship with Beck, during which he once punched Toll in the face.
“She is a good person,” Maximon said. “This night didn't capture her in the way people know her.”
Toll's mother, Sherry, told the court that her daughter had grown up with pets and loved them dearly.
“Her history with animals is extraordinary,” she said. “Her real true love are dogs.”
Maximon told the court that Toll had struggled through her parents' bitter divorce when she was 8 years old and her father's death from cancer when she was 14.
He said she was sick and exhausted from treatment for a staph infection the morning Rex was taped to the fridge and that all she wanted to do was leave her boyfriend's apartment following a fight they had.
Beck didn't let her leave when she made several attempts to do so, Maximon said.
“He grabs her and rips her jacket as she is trying to get out of the window,” the lawyer said.
Beck was the one who actually bound the dog, Maximon said, and that his client simply stuck the animal up on the fridge. She lied to police about her role in the incident to protect her boyfriend, he said.
Cheval shot back that Toll's allegations about Beck were unfair and amounted to “character assassination” because Beck wasn't in court to defend himself.
Beck pleaded guilty last summer to misdemeanor attempted animal cruelty in the case and was given a one-year deferred sentence. Click on any photo to see full gallery
“He didn't do this. She did, and a jury found her guilty,” Cheval said. “She continues to make excuses, she continues to not take responsibility.”
The judge agreed.
“The court is concerned that Ms. Toll doesn't completely grasp the impact of her actions,” Berkenkotter said. “Ms. Toll showed no concern for Rex.”
But Berkenkotter noted that Toll had no criminal history and that family members and friends had written letters on her behalf saying her behavior last year was “out of character.”
Lisa Pearson, the other prosecutor on the case and the Boulder County District Attorney Office's animal cruelty liaison, said she was pleased that the judge decided to force Toll to spend some time behind bars.
“I think because of the methodical nature of what she did – spending time getting all the tools that she used for the torture – I think that's what really raises this to the level where jail is appropriate,” she said.
Shannnon Park, who with his wife now owns Yoshi, said the dog had nightmares for the first couple of weeks after coming off the fridge. He said Yoshi is fearful around people and other dogs he doesn't know and has had to have sessions with an animal behaviorist.
But he said he felt the sentence was fair and he hoped Toll would learn something from the incident.
“It's depressing to see a young woman make such a dramatic and sad choice in her life that will affect her profoundly,” Park said.
whos got the pic of the kid taped to the wall with duct tape, with his stuffed animal for a time out?
See my post #13....i don’t want this woman owning a gun...If you think this criminality is nothing that big a deal..wait a year or so and watch what this witch does to her children or her next boyfriend.
Sad fact? You really have YOUR priorities in the worng place!
this has nothing to do with Boulder..it has everything to do with that this woman is very very disturbed and you just want to ignore that cause ‘its Boulder”...
see my post #13.
“this stupid shit’ is theprecursor to abuse and killing of people!
Educate yourself on this...but you won’t..cause you rather go on a rant about abortion and femminism rather than consdiering you are equating apples and oranges.
whoever said just because we sentence a totally disturbed sadist who will no doubt do similar things to children next go around...doesn’t mean we can not also be upset about abortion!
guess you don’t know much about dogs either.
Or you are just playing games trying to be clever.
(Not with yer boyfriend's shitzu, anyhoo...)
You are typical here on these animal abuse posts.!
how stupid is this non sequitor you guys keep posting...
THERE IS NO REASON YOU CAN NOT SENTENCE A SADISTIC PSYCHO ( WHO WILL NEXT HURT CHILDREN, NOT DOGS) TO A MEASLY 30 DAYS AND STILL BE AGAINST ABORTION.
its people like you who DON’T GET IT! It’s not just about “its a just a dog.” Its about her!
But wait, why don’t you just respond to my post with
“ YEAH, BUT WHAT ABOUT ABORTION!@ YOU MUST NOT BE AGAINST ABORTION! EVERYTHING IS ABOUT ABORTION !”
Perhaps we disagree with the predictive value of the ‘soft sciences’. I am underwhelmed with the hypothesis of ‘gateway crimes’, and my opinion of the curative capabilities of said ‘soft sciences’ is equally low.
Whether either of us want her to own a gun is Constitutionally irrelevant, immaterial, and not germane.
The Founders believed she had those rights as a gift from God. You are correct in that I find Boulder both amusingly communist and loathsome in its excesses. But, I must remind you that if you can take her Constitutional Rights, next you may want mine.
“George, King George, is that you? ;-)
I find the acceptance of the equating an animal to a human to be both deeply antithetical to America’s culture and history, and to Judeo-Christian theology/law. Worse yet, such sophistries all too often used by socialists as an excuse to diminish our rights.
As for the Boulder Dementia Syndrome (BDS), and pure, unadultrated psycho-babble, consider this specimen’s quote: “Shannnon Park, who with his wife now owns Yoshi, said the dog had nightmares for the first couple of weeks after coming off the fridge. He said Yoshi is fearful around people and other dogs he doesn’t know and has had to have sessions with an animal behaviorist”.
But he said he felt the sentence was fair and he hoped Toll would learn something from the incident.
“It’s depressing to see a young woman make such a dramatic and sad choice in her life that will affect her profoundly,” Park said.
Note the ickle Liberal now owns someone else’s property, and pontificates about it. Pure BDS, and a full blown case, too.
You all sure do not want to know what I think her sentence should have been...I would be banned for life from this site.
“Toll, who faced up to 18 months in prison for the Class 6 felony conviction,”,,,
~~~
Seems like she’ll never legally own a gun,,,
FWIW,,,I would have thrown the book at the bitch...
She is an idiot and the dog is very cute. Not sure how someone could do something so mean. Give her 90 days.
I would also sentence her to a long spanking and I would volunteer to carry out the sentence.
I know everything about dogs. Well, everything compared to clowns like you.
Should she get the death penalty for ‘offing her unborn kid’?
Amen to your post.
Excellent question.
Certainly more time than taping a dog to a wall.
Excellent question.
Certainly more time than taping a dog to a wall.
It's obvious you've never had a hot-psycho. No matter how hot you think she is, someone else has a restraining order against her.
This one prefers taping dogs to boiling bunnies.
Well, you know inside each liberal whack idea is always a small kernal of truth they pull out of proportion.
We need to treat animals well - it is a sign of human decency. The pet and PETA thing is idiotic.
As far as making this woman unable to own a firearm, I’d think about that one. This woman took out her anger (irrational? I mean, he paid more attention to the dog than her?) out on an innocent, unrelated third party.
Not only did the poor dog have to be terrified, but duct taping fur has to have been painful, and getting it off worse.
Is this the kind of person that should have the ability to use lethal force? I’m not sure she is in control of her anger.
I don’t side with the animals because I consider them “people”. I side with the animals because I think if you have no consideration for the feelings of a pet, I’m not sure how you are mentally around people.
You didn’t even read the article, did you.
Why??????????
I did read it. I’m not so sure about some of the content, however.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.