The grand jury returned no indictments Thursday against Arthur Dersham, 25, of rural Erie related to the death of Erie High School freshman Lydia Chaplin, who was mauled by Dersham's four dogs on a rural roadway before she died of hypothermia Jan. 27.
Instead, the panel returned a multi-count indictment charging Dersham with nine counts of possession of a firearm without the requisite firearm owner's identification card.
Sheriff's officials said a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was expected to turn himself in, but had not done so Friday night.
The firearms were discovered during the investigation, but did not play a role in Lydia's death.
Each count in the indictment is a Class 4 felony, which carries a possible punishment of up to three years in prison.
The charges rejected by the grand jury "both require an individual who committed those offenses to have acted ‘recklessly' and to have consciously disregarded a substantial risk that the circumstances would result in what happened," Whiteside County State's Attorney Gary Spencer said in a news release about the decision.
"During the sheriff's investigation of this offense, some neighbors had reported incidents involving Dersham's dogs," Spencer said. "None claimed to have reported the incidents to either the owner or the authorities."
The girl's mother and stepfather, Becky and Tony Lopez, and her father, Hung Vo, could not be reached Friday by the QUAD-CITY TIMES for comment.
The state's attorney and Whiteside County Sheriff Roger "Skip" Schipper said they plan to work with state legislators to push for stronger animal-control laws, which would provide criminal penalties for owners of animals that attack without provocation.
Authorities said the current law wasn't applicable to prosecute Dersham.
The Illinois Animal Control Act provides felony penalties for the owner of a dog that has been previously declared dangerous or vicious, but that does not apply in this case.
Dersham's three pit bulls and one mixed-breed dog involved in Lydia's mauling were deemed vicious after the attack.
The dogs, seized shortly after Lydia's death, recently were euthanized by the Whiteside County Animal Control Department.
Newton Township in rural Whiteside County, where the dogs were running loose when the mauling happened, has a leash law. With no prior complaints about the dogs running at large, Dersham never was warned about keeping his animals under control.
The ordinance violation is a civil offense that would be prosecuted by the township attorney.
Illinois Rep. Jerry Mitchell, R-Rock Falls, introduced a bill soon after the girl's death called "Lydia's Law," which would have given local authorities the power to ban certain breeds of dogs from their jurisdictions. The bill failed in House committee.
Rep. Mike Boland, D-East Moline, is writing a new proposal for legislation that would "focus on these irresponsible owners that let dogs, like those that killed Lydia, run loose," he said.
If someone is hospitalized after an animal attack, the owner would be fined $10,000, under the proposal.
"Unless people complain first, then a lot of times it's very hard to prosecute or take other measures," Boland said. "My bill would actually make it on the first offense."
Boland also is co-sponsoring a House bill called "Anna's Bill," which calls for the state to help pay for the neutering and spaying of stray animals and those that belong to low-income owners.
"What we found in research is that when they're not spayed or neutered, that helps to make them more vicious," he said.
(WQAD - March 4, 2005)
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