Attorneys: State faces uphill battle in dog-shooting case(MD)

While local animal lovers clamored and petitioned last week for county prosecutors to file additional charges against a federal police officer who shot and killed an off-leash Siberian husky earlier this month, seven criminal defense attorneys and former prosecutors openly questioned if the state would be able to secure convictions on the two misdemeanor animal cruelty and weapon charges already filed.

"I certainly wouldn't want my dog shot, but if the man felt threatened ... (prosecutors) are going to have a real tough time proving anything beyond a reasonable doubt," said defense attorney Gill Cochran.

And even if Sgt. Keith Elgin Shepherd, 32, of Severn, is convicted on both counts, it is doubtful he would actually go to jail, they said after reviewing unredacted copies of the initial police report regarding the Aug. 2 shooting of Bear-Bear inside a fenced-in portion of the privately owned Quail Run community dog park in Severn.

They noted he has no known criminal record, is an Iraq war veteran, and has maintained from the beginning he fired in defense of himself, his wife, Wendy, and his German shepherd, Asia. Regardless of

whether a judge buys his story later this year during a bench trial in Annapolis District Court, the self-defense argument should serve as mitigation at sentencing, the attorneys said Friday during a series of interviews with The Capital.

"The odds of him going to jail are extremely slim. I would be very surprised if he went to jail for a single day," said Jennifer Alexander, a former assistant state's attorney in Anne Arundel County who prosecuted several animal cruelty - not to mention murder - cases during her five years with the office.

"I think at worst he will get a probation before judgment," said veteran defense attorney T. Joseph Touhey, echoing a sentiment shared by the other lawyers.

A probation before judgment would require Shepherd to serve no jail time, let him eventually wipe clean his criminal record, and possibly allow him to continue to serve as a civilian police officer with the U.S. Army at Fort Myer, Va.

David Putzi, an attorney for Shepherd, said Friday he hoped his fellow defense attorneys were right after hearing a summary of their comments.

Charlotte Weinstein, an attorney for Bear-Bear's owners, did not return calls for comment, and Kristin Fleckenstein, a spokeswoman for the State's Attorney's Office, declined to comment.

Several supporters of Bear-Bear said Friday they knew it would not be easy for prosecutors to convict Shepherd of inflicting unnecessary pain and suffering to an animal and discharging a firearm within 100 yards of an occupied structure, but they were not ready to throw in the towel. Many said Shepherd deserved no less than the maximum - nine months in jail.

"What they say is not necessarily what is going to happen," said Debbie Siglin, one of more than 12,000 members of the "Justice for Bear-Bear" group on Facebook.

"My opinion is that it will come down to what a judge or jury believes is the proper consequence for the shooter's actions against an innocent animal," said Becky Prodoehl, who started an online petition last week asking State's Attorney Frank R. Weathersbee to file additional charges against Shepherd - including reckless endangerment, disturbing the peace and malicious destruction of property. More than 190 people had signed it as of Friday night.

To encourage the courts to show Shepherd no lenience, Prodoehl and other animal lovers plan to keep up their online activism and hold more rallies like the one that drew about 20 people Monday to the county's Circuit Courthouse in Annapolis.

"I want to see some sort of justice," said Rachel Smith, creator of the Facebook group.

Christopher Flor, one of the defense attorneys interviewed by The Capital, argued "justice" shouldn't necessarily equate to "punishment."

"Let us all return to a definition of 'justice' as being defined as 'fairness.' Fairness for an Iraq war veteran who enjoys the Constitutional presumption of innocence. Fairness for the family of Bear-Bear who are no doubt grieving an awful loss. Fairness for all of animal owners that we can work together to prevent a tragedy such as this in the future instead of vilifying Officer Shepherd," he said in an e-mail. The shooting

According to police, Shepherd and his wife took Asia to the park on a leash at about 6:30 p.m. and were greeted by Bear-Bear, a husky owned by Ryan and Rachel Rettaliata.

Shepherd told police everything seemed fine at first, but then Bear-Bear started to jump on Asia and become aggressive. He said the dog tried to bite at Asia's neck and attempted to bite Shepherd when he put his hand down to break them up.

Shepherd claimed he yelled for Stephen Kurinij - a relative of the Rettaliatas who brought Bear-Bear to the park - to control the husky, but that Kurinij did not react and seemed "out of it."

Shepherd said he feared for the safety of himself, his wife and his dog so he pulled out his off-duty, personal weapon and shot Bear-Bear once in the right rear hip.

Kurinij - who has a "mild form" of Tourette's syndrome that Bear-Bear's attorney claims does not affect his ability to think, work or react to things - told police a different story. He said Bear-Bear and Asia were getting along before the shooting, but that the officer's wife seemed to get scared when Asia started to pull on the leash.

No other people were in the park at the time of the shooting and Asia suffered no visible wounds, police said.

After the shooting, Bear-Bear, who was adopted from a husky rescue facility, was taken to an animal hospital in Annapolis where he was euthanized later that night. Several problems

The defense attorneys - almost all of whom said Friday they loved dogs and felt bad about Bear-Bear's death - noted several problems with the state's case against Shepherd.

"I don't think it will be open and shut whatsoever," said John Robinson III, a former prosecutor.

He and other area attorneys argued a trier of fact - whether it be a judge or a jury - will have a hard time reconciling why Shepherd would want to shoot the dog if he didn't think he had to do so.

"The judge is going to put a lot of weight on his state of mind at the time of the shooting. That is where the state's biggest weakness is," Alexander said.

"This is not a typical animal-cruelty case. I doubt Mr. Shepherd started the trip to the dog park with cruelty on his mind," attorney Steven Sindler said.

Joseph Lamore, another former prosecutor, also argued the relative size of a husky compared to other breeds will hamper the state's case.

"It was not a toy poodle. It at least had the potential, with its size and strength, to injure another animal," he said.

Lamore added that Shepherd appeared to show some restraint when he shot Bear-Bear, firing only one shot and not "unloading his gun" into the animal.

"It's going to be a very difficult case based on the initial police report," he said.

A review of several sentences handed down over the past five years by county judges in various high-profile animal-cruelty cases support the general opinions put forward by the attorneys.

Only three of the past 13 defendants convicted of animal cruelty or involvement in a dog fight were sentenced to more than three months in jail, and those three cases all involved more serious, felony charges. Two of the three cases involved men stomping small pets to death in front of their owners and the third involved a woman leaving dogs to starve to death in cages at her old home after moving in with a new boyfriend.

A judge also wasn't very hard on the last man to shoot a dog inside a park. A Crownsville man took a pit bull in February 2009 to Patuxent Ponds Park in Odenton, walked it into the woods and shot it in the head. Prosecutors said Philip Balboni no longer wanted to pet sit the animal, which belonged to a family friend who was recovering from surgery.

Balboni, 26, pleaded guilty to one count of felony animal cruelty in the animal's death, but Circuit Court Judge Paul A. Hackner sentenced him to only 60 days in jail. 'Utterly disgusting'

The opinions voiced last week by the attorneys also were supported by state sentencing guidelines. While they don't apply in cases in District Court - only to cases that originate in Circuit Court - the guidelines recommend a person with no criminal record convicted of misdemeanor animal cruelty receive a sentence between probation and one month in jail. A first-time offender convicted of felony animal cruelty should receive a sentence between probation and three months.

Smith, creator of the Facebook group, called the guidelines "utterly disgusting."

"We are talking about the destruction of life," she said, arguing for the state legislature to increase the potential maximum sentence for misdemeanor animal cruelty from 90 days to three years.

"This is an election year. People who care about animal rights are paying attention. We want to see something done."

Sounds very much like a "he said", "she said" case, with only the owners there, and they give considerably different testimony. I was involved in an incident where the other dogs owner was a complete wimp and would not control his animal, even though it was attempting to fight with my dog which was on a leash as required by law. I finally was able to get the other owner out of his funk and have him control his dog, but it was not easy.

No dog on dog wounds would indicate that the Husky was not attacking the other dog with intent to do damage.

Dog play can look and sound vicious when it is not. On the other hand dog on dog wounds can happen quickly. Dogs go for the neck even in play. Just trying to see who is top dog.

This lengthy article, quoting the opinions of a number of attorneys, does not mention the key point that the rule for the dog park is to unleash your animal at the entrance. All dogs are supposed to run free. Asia was on a leash and Bear-bear was not.

Asia’s owner put his own animal in a position of weakness. An unleashed Asia would have ‘played’ with Bear-bear on an equal footing. There were no marks of teeth on either animal.

I wonder why the author neglected to add this important information?

inside a fenced-in portion of the privately owned Quail Run community dog park

I doubt Mr. Shepherd started the trip to the dog park with cruelty on his mind,"

i have no idea whether or not this guy had goos reason to shoot the dog...that said, it seems to be pretty common for cops to shoot dogs whenever and wherever thay please today...that mindset is undoubtedly a factor whenever leo is in the presence of 4 legged critters...

That is a good reason to not go to a dog park. I do not trust that all the dogs running loose at a dog park belong there. Many times owners cannot control their dogs. It sounds like Bear-Bear's owner was himself impaired and could not have controlled his dog if he'd wanted to.

I walk my dog in our neighborhood and he is never off the leash. I also carry a gun in case we come across a pit bull with "attack" on its mind; or someone walking a dog off leash that is not trained well enough to walk that way.

Regardless of "he-said-she said" my bottom line is the level of response.

I feel that Sgt. Keith Elgin Shepherd's response was in appropriate. Use of lethal force against a moving target with numerous HUMANS in the actual and potential lines of fire.

I don't think that Sgt. Keith Elgin Shepherd cleared any of those lines prior to killing the dog. If he had missed where would have the bullet stopped; in a building, in another adult, or a child?

Yes, the life and safety of your pet is important; but more important than another HUMAN'S life? I hope that Sgt. Keith Elgin Shepherd keeps his current job because I serious doubt that any other law enforcement agency would hire him after his performance at the dog park regardless of how the judicial activity ends.

“This story and your silly comments gives me one more reason to despise dog owners.”

Let me give you another reason. You go to a dog park to let your dog interact with others or at least be off leash. Sometimes the dogs will be aggressive in order to establish dominance. To a novice this may be alarming but it is over fairly quickly and resolves itself without injury to either dog. Afterwards the dogs play as if nothing happened. The first mistake the shooter made was to leave his dog on leash. Its understandable but a mistake never the less. The second mistake was reaching in between two fighting dogs. That was just stupid and a recipe for getting bit, sometimes by your own dog. It appears that after the fool is bitten, he panics and decides the dog is a deadly threat and opens fire. What we have here is normal dog behavior misinterpreted by someone who then overreacts. I dont think he sould go to jail, just pay a huge fine to the owners of the dog he needlessly killed.

“I feel that Sgt. Keith Elgin Shepherd's response was in appropriate. Use of lethal force against a moving target with numerous HUMANS in the actual and potential lines of fire.”

There were only three people involved, Shepherd, his wife, and Mr. Kurinij. Mr. Kurinij refused to control his animal, so he may well have been a ways off. Nearly all angles of shooting at a dog at close range intersect the ground very quickly. I do not think the dangers to the humans involved are as large as you have stated.

He didn’t “kill” the dog.

He shot it in the hip which must have been agonizingly painful for the time that the dog lived until it was
-euthanized- by the vet.
[were the dog’s owners too poor to afford the expensive reconstructive surgery or did he literally disintegrate the dog’s hip beyond repair?]

Not only did he react hysterically, he’s a crappy shot.

If he was so afraid for the lives of his dog/wife/the whole world, why no instant death by head shot?

Lord knows he was close enough to hit it.

*You* go, as a lowly civilian, to a -public- dog park, whip out a pistol in this gun control freak state and shoot the first dog who “scares” you and see what happens.

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