Monday, May 30, 2011

Aurora Man trying to get Animal Abuse Charges Dropped

AURORA, IL -- An Aurora man with a history of animal abuse is seeking to have charges that he beat his dog with a chair leg dropped.

What a six foot tall, 350 pound monster looks like


The attorney for Phillip Rinn filed a motion to quash Friday in Kane County court, where Rinn is facing felony charges of animal cruelty for the alleged beating of his German shepherd mix dog last November.

The motion says Kane County sheriff’s officers illegally searched Rinn’s house and found evidence used to charge him. Rinn, 42, was coerced into consenting to the search, and had told the officers that he had not struck the dog, but had only yelled at it, according to the motion.

His defense agues that, in their opinion, police obtained the evidence illegally. They are trying to convince the judge of this so that it cannot be used in the prosecution.

However, a previous prosecution motion said a witness peered into Rinn’s windows and saw him swinging a club-like object in a downward fashion over and over again, and that whenever Rinn swung the object down, the witness heard the sound of a dog loudly crying.

When police entered the residence, they found the dog with injuries to its mouth and a facial fracture, and nearby they found a broom handle and a splintered chair leg that appeared to have blood on it, according to the document.

The dog was turned over to the country animal control department, which later found a foster home for it.

Rinn is facing felony charges in the incident because he was convicted in the 1990s for killing his pet dog by dragging it behind his car. He is free on bond as he awaits trial, but is not allowed to own any dog as a condition of his bond.

(Chicago Breaking News - May 28, 2011)

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