This one has allegations of neglect and theft. Cops and prosecutors and other lawyers are involved. And an ex-fiancée plays a role.
All for a border collie and shepherd mix, a lovable 14-year-old mutt named Spur with one blue eye and one brown one.
[To me he looks like a Border Collie and Blue Heeler mix...]
Justin Stanford with his wife Amy and Spur
Justin Stanford of Oconomowoc is suing in Waukesha County Court to get the dog back. It wasn't his to begin with, but he says he rescued/adopted it four years ago and nursed it back to health with thousands of dollars in veterinarian bills.
"I don't like to try cases in the press," said his lawyer, Joseph Goode. "But I think this is a human interest story and an animal story, and I think this is a civil rights story."
Goode says his client's rights were violated when a sheriff's deputy, who never bothered to interview Stanford, showed up at his house with a search warrant in February, took Spur and handed him back to the people who used to own him, and in their minds still do.
Let's go back to a chilly evening in April 2010. Stanford, 34, a car dealer sales manager, was at a barn in Helenville where he keeps his horses. The Marshalls live next door.
A dog approached Stanford. He said it was in rough shape.
"He couldn't breathe. He had green snot coming out of his nose. He was biting himself raw. He had no front teeth. His upper and lower teeth were completely gone," Stanford told me in an interview last week.
He found the owners' contact information on the dog's tag, and said he called them three times and left a message that he had the dog. Tina Marshall called him back, he said.
"She said, 'He's fine, let him be. If you think you can do better, then you take him,'" according to Stanford.
He didn't want to leave the dog behind, so he took it home. He didn't change the dog's name and says he made no attempt to conceal the animal.
His fiancée at the time, Jennifer Washkuhn, was with him that night. He says she was in favor of taking the dog with them. But when I reached her, she denied that and said Stanford never tried to call the owners that night, despite phone records showing he did.
"It was a farm dog. It was fine," she told me.
She also denies taking Spur to the vet the following Monday, though her name shows up on the record from that day. It was one of the dog's many visits to the vet in the years to come, and many medications were prescribed. The care totaled $7,600.
[She is lying because she is angry that he broke up with her IMO.]
Stanford and Washkuhn broke up, and in June 2013 Stanford married a different woman, Amy, and they had a son in March of this year. Spur became part of the family, and Stanford says the previous owners never called about the dog, even though they had his number. He sees that as abandonment.
"The Marshalls knew where Spur was and yet did nothing to claim him," the lawsuit alleges.
Four years went by.
In February of this year, Washkuhn (the ex-fiancé) met Daniel Marshall in a bar through a mutual friend, and she told him Stanford had stolen his dog, according to the search warrant.
"He kept it because he wanted it," she told me, adding that the Marshalls claimed — despite Stanford's calls to them — that they had no idea what happened to the dog.
Daniel Marshall told me that he and his wife never talked to Stanford, didn't know him and didn't know he had the dog. He said he and his wife searched for the dog.
"Why would we give him the dog and then want it back?" Marshall said. "We never talked to this guy. I don't know how he got phone records saying we did."
Phone records don't lie. He called you.
He described Spur as a cow dog on the farm. Spur had allergies and had lost his teeth to a cow's kick, he said, but was not abused or neglected.
The dog also was his daughter's pet since he was a puppy.
"When I told my daughter her dog was still alive, she started crying," he said.
When Marshall found out Stanford had the dog, he went to his house to ask for it back. He said Stanford offered to pay him for it. Marshall declined the offer and then went to the Sheriff's Department.
The dog is now 14 years old, and he's a "worn-out cow dog," he said.
Stanford should be charged with theft because that's what he did, Marshall said.
The Marshalls reported the theft to the Jefferson County sheriff and the warrant was obtained.
UNPROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR BY LAW ENFORCEMENT
Deputy Lori Hogan, who has worked in law enforcement for 24-years, called Stanford and said in a voicemail that he needed to meet her at his house on Feb. 24 or "we'll just break your door in."
"Deputy Hogan then seized Spur and lawlessly rehomed the dog with the Marshalls. There was no hearing. There was no discussion," the lawsuit claims.
Stanford said he chased after the deputy, trying to give her the dog's medicine and special food and instructions. He hasn't seen Spur since that day.
Jefferson County Chief Deputy Jeffrey Parker told me the department would have no comment on Hogan's actions or the lawsuit. The Jefferson County district attorney's office also declined to comment on the case and whether Stanford eventually will be charged.
The lawsuit names the Marshalls and Jefferson County as defendants. It seeks an order removing Spur from the Marshalls' home and placing him in a secure setting until ownership is determined. It also seeks to have Stanford declared the owner and for the dog to come back to him.
Amy and Justin Stanford with their son and Spur
If the Marshalls are ruled as the rightful owners, Stanford wants money damages to cover his four years of caring for Spur, and he wants to be free of any criminal charge.
Goode, his lawyer, is right that a newspaper is a terrible place to try a case like this. I'm telling you what I know, but the court can decide a winner.
He needs to sue this ex-girlfriend for lying and defaming him. She said he never called the dog's previous owners - LIE. She said she never took it to the vet - LIE. She told the previous owner he stole the dog - LIE.
(JS Online - July 5, 2014)
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