NEW MEXICO -- KOB Eyewitness News 4 has learned what new evidence prompted the district attorney to file felony charges against the owners of dogs that mauled a TorC woman to death on Easter Sunday.
Margaret Salcedo was mauled to death as she walked near the home of John and Angelica Hardiman.
Police later determined the dogs were owned by the Hardimans – but district attorney Clint Wellborn said he didn’t have enough evidence to charge the couple under the state’s Dangerous Dog Law.
That law requires authorities to prove that the owners of the dogs know they are vicious.
On Tuesday, Wellborn said he’d gotten new evidence that allowed him to charge the Hardimans with five felonies in connection with Salcedo’s death.
Affidavits filed in the couple’s arrest show that new evidence against them was revealed during supervised visits with CYFD Child Protective Services workers.
“It was determined that the evidence was not protected” under confidentiality laws, the arrest warrant affidavit said.
The documents we obtained show that during a number of supervised visits with Angelica Hardiman involving a minor child of Hardimans, CYFD workers heard or saw evidence that the dogs were dangerous - and the Hardimans knew it.
During one supervised visit, a CYFD worker told police that Angelica Hardiman brought three pit bull puppies along with her.
Hardiman told the worker that “she and her husband, John Hardiman, were going to train the puppies to be attack dogs and that they were going to sell them as guard dogs.”
In another incident, a dog Angelica Hardiman brought along to a supervised visit “lunged toward (a CYFD worker), growing and snapping at her.”
CYFD workers later asked Hardiman not to bring her dogs along on supervised visits with her child.
According to the documents, Hardiman referred to the dog that had acted aggressively - a brindle pit bull - as “Diesel.”
Evidence taken by police showed that “Diesel” was one of the four dogs that police saw attacking Salcedo that day.
“Diesel” was shot and killed by police in the midst of the attack. The other dogs involved were later surrendered and destroyed.
Another time, in front of CYFD workers, Hardiman explained to her child that she had to put one of her dogs down because it hurt another dog.
“She said that Mrs. Hardiman told (the child) that the mother dog crushed all the bones in the other dog’s head,” a CYFD worker said in the affidavit.
That dog is believed to be the mother of the four dogs that killed Salcedo.
During another supervised visit, the minor child told CYFD workers directly that her mother, Hardiman, “would put a collar on (her dogs) and hang them up with only their back feet touching the ground.”
She also said she would “swing them around by the collar.”
[This CYFD worker failed to follow procedure and contact Animal Control to investigate claims of animal cruelty. Perhaps if they'd done their jobs, Animal Control could have seized the dogs, charged the owners with animal cruelty and the dogs would not have been there to get loose that day and kill Margaret Salcedo.]
That child is currently in CYFD custody.
The Hardimans have been charged with four counts of having a dangerous dog, which is a third-degree felony.
They are also each charged with one count of conspiracy to commit a felony, which is a fourth degree felony.
(KOB - Oct 21, 2011)
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