Original Story: Freep.com
In her dreams, Maria Gialdi’s still sees the dogs that attacked her nearly six months ago.
“I’m just traumatized,” she said. “It was so violent.” A Warren Dog Bite Lawyer said this is often the case of dramatic animal attacks.
The 54-year-old Rochester woman was going to a house in Pontiac to work as a translator on the evening of Feb. 5. She had gotten out of her car and shut the door when two German shepherds attacked, painfully biting her, Gialdi recalled.
She required more than 50 stitches but survived the attack, unlike the jogger mauled to death in rural Metamora Township in Lapeer County last week.
“I think I know what that guy suffered,” Gialdi said. “He had a horrible death.”
The owners of the two Cane Corso dogs that killed 46-year-old Craig Sytsma of Livonia have been charged with second-degree murder.
Lapeer County prosecutors could not be reached Friday to say how they made the decision on charges, but dogs owned by Sebastiano Quagliata, 45, and his wife, Valbona Lucaj, 44, had been involved in at least two prior biting incidents, in May 2012 and November 2013.
“Had this been a first time, it probably would not have been charged as a murder,” said Richard Krisciunas, a University of Detroit Mercy law professor and a former Wayne County assistant prosecutor. “But because of the multiple occurrences, where other people have been bit ... the theory is that the defendants should have done more, and they knew that they should have done more and acted recklessly.”
He said if they had escaped before, then the dogs weren’t locked up sufficiently. A St. Clair Shores Dog Bite Lawyer said dogs often are repeat offenders.
“You’ve consciously created this high-degree risk of death,” Krisciunas said.
Former Livingston County Prosecutor David Morse agreed that the two prior attacks would be a “considerable factor” in weighing the second-degree murder charge.
“It would seem that prior attacks by dogs would put you on notice that that sort of outcome was possible and that you have legal duty to do something to prevent that from happening,” he told the Free Press.
In 2007, Morse made the decision to charge a Livingston County woman with two felony counts of having a dangerous animal causing death and a misdemeanor charge of allowing dogs to stray after four of her bulldogs escaped and fatally mauled a 56-year-old woman and a 91-year-old man.
Diane Cockrell’s dogs were euthanized and she spent more than three years in prison.
Gialdi said she thinks owners of animals that seriously injure people should be held liable and penalized.
“I think they should go to jail,” she said.
Owners of animals involved in fatal mauling have faced varying degrees of criminal charges in connection with the attacks that led to the deaths of humans.
Many cases garnered national attention including the death of Diane Whipple, a lacrosse coach who was mauled by dogs in the hallway of her San Francisco apartment building in 2001.
Marjorie Knoller, one of the dogs’ owners, was convicted of second-degree murder in the case. The California Supreme Court ruled that she acted with a conscious disregard for human life when her dog escaped and killed Whipple. A Utica Dog Bite Lawyer agrees.
The other owner, Robert Noel, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
In 2013, 32 U.S. dog bite-related fatalities occurred in the U.S., according to the website dogsbite.org.
Showing posts with label Dog Bite Lawyer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dog Bite Lawyer. Show all posts
08 August 2014
DOG OWNERS CHARGED WITH SECOND-DEGREE MURDER IN MAULING OF LIVONIA MAN
Original Story: Freep.com
The owners of two dogs that mauled to death a jogger in rural Metamora Township are being charged with second-degree murder, the Lapeer Prosecutor’s Office announced tonight.
Sebastiano Quagliata, 45, was already in custody Thursday night and his wife, Valbona Lucaj, 44, was expected to turn herself in shortly, Prosecutor Tim Turkelson told the Free Press.
The pair will be arraigned in Lapeer District court at 9 a.m. Friday. They face up to life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder. Prosecutors also charged the couple with possessing an animal causing death.
Two Cane Corso dogs owned by the couple are blamed for attacking and killing Craig Sytsma, 46, of Livonia on July 23 as he jogged past their home on a rural Metamora Township road. Dogs owned by the couple had been involved in at least two previous, non-fatal attacks.
It’s unusual, but not unprecedented for a dog owner to be charged with murder in a fatal attack. When two large Perro de Presa Canario dogs attacked and killed lacrosse player and coach Diane Whipple in the hallway of her San Francisco apartment building in 2001, one of the dogs’ owners was convicted of second-degree murder and the other was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
In 2008, a Livingston County woman was convicted on two 15-year felony counts of keeping dangerous animals causing death and sentenced to 3½ years in prison after her American bulldogs mauled to death a neighbor man and a woman who was jogging along the road in rural Iosco Township.
Sytsma, a father of three, had gotten off work in nearby Oxford, in northern Oakland County, and gone for an early evening jog when he was attacked. He died of his injuries at a nearby hospital.
Police and court records show that in the the past two years the couple’s dogs have attacked and bit walkers and terrorized the neighborhood.
The couple never showed up for a court hearing last year after the wife was issued two civil infraction tickets when their dogs charged an older man and bit him in the leg. Ultimately, they paid $280 in fines, and the case was closed.
In May 2012, one of Lucaj’s dogs charged April Smith, 25, tearing open her leg in three spots, as she walked down the road. In that case, animal control officials did not issue tickets, nor were the owners fined. Instead, they were ordered to keep the dog quarantined for 10 days. Smith filed a lawsuit against the dog owners and was awarded a $20,000 judgment.
Neighbors told the Free Press that the dogs roamed the neighborhood, growled at people in their own yards, and sometimes went into garages. Complaints to animal control officials went unanswered.
Meanwhile, federal officials say Lucaj, of Albania, and Quagliata, from Italy, are in the U.S. illegally. The couple has been fighting deportation for years.
The owners of two dogs that mauled to death a jogger in rural Metamora Township are being charged with second-degree murder, the Lapeer Prosecutor’s Office announced tonight.
Sebastiano Quagliata, 45, was already in custody Thursday night and his wife, Valbona Lucaj, 44, was expected to turn herself in shortly, Prosecutor Tim Turkelson told the Free Press.
The pair will be arraigned in Lapeer District court at 9 a.m. Friday. They face up to life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder. Prosecutors also charged the couple with possessing an animal causing death.
Two Cane Corso dogs owned by the couple are blamed for attacking and killing Craig Sytsma, 46, of Livonia on July 23 as he jogged past their home on a rural Metamora Township road. Dogs owned by the couple had been involved in at least two previous, non-fatal attacks.
It’s unusual, but not unprecedented for a dog owner to be charged with murder in a fatal attack. When two large Perro de Presa Canario dogs attacked and killed lacrosse player and coach Diane Whipple in the hallway of her San Francisco apartment building in 2001, one of the dogs’ owners was convicted of second-degree murder and the other was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
In 2008, a Livingston County woman was convicted on two 15-year felony counts of keeping dangerous animals causing death and sentenced to 3½ years in prison after her American bulldogs mauled to death a neighbor man and a woman who was jogging along the road in rural Iosco Township.
Sytsma, a father of three, had gotten off work in nearby Oxford, in northern Oakland County, and gone for an early evening jog when he was attacked. He died of his injuries at a nearby hospital.
Police and court records show that in the the past two years the couple’s dogs have attacked and bit walkers and terrorized the neighborhood.
The couple never showed up for a court hearing last year after the wife was issued two civil infraction tickets when their dogs charged an older man and bit him in the leg. Ultimately, they paid $280 in fines, and the case was closed.
In May 2012, one of Lucaj’s dogs charged April Smith, 25, tearing open her leg in three spots, as she walked down the road. In that case, animal control officials did not issue tickets, nor were the owners fined. Instead, they were ordered to keep the dog quarantined for 10 days. Smith filed a lawsuit against the dog owners and was awarded a $20,000 judgment.
Neighbors told the Free Press that the dogs roamed the neighborhood, growled at people in their own yards, and sometimes went into garages. Complaints to animal control officials went unanswered.
Meanwhile, federal officials say Lucaj, of Albania, and Quagliata, from Italy, are in the U.S. illegally. The couple has been fighting deportation for years.
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