NEW JERSEY -- A former city councilman was charged with disorderly conduct and obstruction earlier this month in connection with an incident involving a loose dog that was eventually shot by a police officer.
Luis Crespo, 54, is scheduled to appear in Mansfield Municipal Court on Thursday for a hearing on the charges, which stem from a June 5 case involving a 1-year-old German shepherd named Thor that ran off after a freak accident in which a woman’s finger was amputated after it got caught in the dog’s harness.
The dog’s owner, Thomas Lockhart, said his fiancée, Patricia Adams, was walking the dog down stairs when a ring on her pinkie got caught in its harness. The finger was cut off when the dog pulled away from her.
“It took half her finger off,” Lockhart said in an interview, adding that the dog did bite Adams’ other hand as she tried to free herself.
Responding police from Beverly and Edgewater Park believed the dog had bitten Adams’ finger off, and the animal was shot after it allegedly approached the officers in an aggressive manner in a vacant lot off Perkins Lane.
The dog was shot three times in the neck and chest, but survived after being treated at a veterinary hospital. The dog was returned to Lockhart on Thursday after being quarantined at the Burlington County Animal Shelter in Westampton.
A follow-up investigation with doctors confirmed that Adams’ injury was not consistent with a dog bite, and was “more consistent with having the finger separated via pulling action,” Public Safety Director Richard Wolbert said.
Crespo was at the scene of the shooting and was charged with obstruction and disorderly conduct for allegedly failing to follow officers' directions to stay away from the dog, Wolbert said.
Crespo is also accused of ignoring officers' instructions by chasing the dog after it was shot and of allegedly trying to grab the snare of an animal control officer after she arrived on the scene, he said.
The case has been assigned to Mansfield’s municipal court because Crespo is a former member of the City Council. He served for about seven years, but was defeated first in the Democratic primary in June 2012 and later in the 2013 general election after he was reappointed to fill an unexpired term.
Reached Friday, Crespo said he would contest the charges. He denied trying to take the animal control officer’s snare, and said he complied with officers’ instructions as soon as it was safe for him to do so.
Crespo said he became involved in the incident after seeing the dog run loose along Warren Street. He said he initially believed the dog belonged to a friend, but he followed it into the vacant lot because he was worried it might injure a bystander.
Crespo said the dog acted “petrified” in the lot, began growling and snarling at him when he approached, and moved toward him when he tried to back away.
He said officers from Beverly and Edgewater Park arrived and came from behind him with their service weapons drawn.
“They yelled for me to get behind them, but the dog wouldn’t let me move. He was growling and snarling and clearly petrified,” Crespo said. “I didn’t feel safe moving. I didn’t want to turn my back on him, because I was afraid I’d get mauled.”
He said he was eventually able to retreat behind an Edgewater Park officer, who then shot the dog.
“I didn’t interfere with officers. … The only order I was given was to get behind them,” Crespo said, adding that he did chase the dog after it was shot because he was afraid it might attack another bystander.
Crespo said that he did not believe the animal needed to be shot and that he did not see it charge aggressively at any officers.
“I heard (the officer) say, ‘If the dog comes any closer, I’m taking it down.’ Then they shot it in the field,” he said.
Wolbert has said the shooting is under investigation. The identity of the officer who shot the dog has not been released.
Crespo is no stranger to controversy in this small riverfront town. He was previously named in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former female police officer and another female employee. The city paid a $200,000 settlement to the officer last year and a $75,000 settlement to the other employee in 2012.
In April 2010, police responded to a bomb scare involving Crespo’s truck, but an investigation revealed there was no evidence that a third party was involved. In a letter obtained by the Burlington County Times, an assistant prosecutor with the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office said there was evidence to suggest Crespo may have attached an inoperable device to his own truck for unknown reasons.
(Burlington County Times - June 20, 2014)
No comments:
Post a Comment