John T. Dunn, 35, of 9007 S.R. 14, was issued a summons Sept. 1 to appear in Portage County Municipal Court in Ravenna on charges of failure to properly confine a vicious dog and two counts of failure to require dogs to wear current tags, two first-degree misdemeanors and two minor misdemeanors.
Dunn is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 29 for an initial hearing on the new charges, according to court records. If convicted, he faces up to 180 days in jail and $1,000 in fines.
Portage County Dog Warden Dave McIntyre said the two pit bulls, Brutus and Sable, were running loose in the parking lot of the Streetsboro Kmart, 9059 S.R. 14 on Aug. 27.
According to court records, a resident picked them up and brought them to the county kennel in Shalersville.
Neither dog was wearing its current license tags. McIntyre said Dunn later showed up at the Portage County kennel to retrieve his dogs.
“He claimed them and we cited him again,” he said.
Why haven't they been euthanized?? Get it together, Ohio.
A spokesperson for Dunn’s attorney of record, Stephen Smith, said his office will be withdrawing from the case.
Dunn was indicted Aug. 25 by a Portage County grand jury on six charges, including two felonies, for allegedly allowing his dogs to run loose on July 15.
On that day, the pit bulls allegedly fatally mauled a 2-year-old cocker spaniel named Lucky in the 4700 block of Greenwood Road in Rootstown.
Lucky and his owner Marie Hustead were in her front yard when the pit bulls attacked, she said. He was fatally injured and later euthanized. Hustead, 70, received more than 20 stitches in her hands and arms after trying to save her pet.
Dunn is charged in that case with two counts of failure to confine a dangerous or vicious dog, both fourth-degree felonies; failure to obtain liability insurance for a dangerous or vicious dog, both first-degree misdemeanors, and failure to register a dog, both minor misdemeanors.
An arraignment on those charges is set for 11 a.m. Monday in Portage County Common Pleas Judge Laurie Pittman’s courtroom in Ravenna.
Owners of dog breeds deemed dangerous or vicious by state law are required to keep them chained up, penned in or muzzled, to register the dogs with authorities and keep an insurance policy carrying $100,000 liability coverage in the event the dogs injure or killed someone.
(Record Publishing - Sept 9, 2011)
Earlier:
