He spent the past few weeks with Justin Stanford, who says he rescued Spur from the side of a road four years ago and nursed him back to health.
This coming Wednesday, Stanford and his wife, Amy, were scheduled to drive to a prearranged Mobil station and hand Spur over to Daniel Marshall and Tina Marshall for their month. The Marshalls claimed Stanford stole the dog from them.
That hand-off won't be happening. Spur, who was nearing his 15th birthday and battling cancer, died Friday.
"The cancer just took him over," Stanford said. "We had to put him down today."
Amy and Justin Stanford with their son and Spur
The messy quarrel over this dog was settled recently with a joint custody agreement hammered out in a room full of lawyers. The fight had spawned both a lawsuit and a [FALSE] felony criminal charge against Stanford, both of which have been dismissed.
King Solomon in his wisdom might have suggested cutting the dog in half, but it made much more sense to divide his time between the two households — the Stanfords in Oconomowoc and the Marshalls in the Jefferson County community of Helenville.
"It was such a unique case. I don't know if I will see anything like it again in my legal career," said Adam W. Lopez, the Marshalls' lawyer.
I first told you about this battle in a column in July. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Department had served a search warrant and seized Spur from Stanford's house in February, and now he was suing to get the dog back and claiming the raid violated his civil rights.
But we need to back up to start this story. The Marshalls got Spur, a border collie and shepherd mix, as a puppy for their daughter, Maci. They live in a rural area, and Spur was raised as a farm dog that spent a lot of time outdoors. He was black and white, and had one blue eye and one brown one.
Stanford kept his horses at a barn near the Marshalls' home. While there on a chilly evening in April 2010, he spotted Spur and was alarmed that the dog had trouble breathing and showed a discharge coming from his nose and spots on his body where he had bitten himself raw with what was left of his teeth.
What happened next was at the center of the dispute between the two families. Stanford said he found the Marshalls' phone number on the dog's tag, and he called them three times.
Finally, he said, Tina Marshall called him back and said: "He's fine. Let him be. If you think you can do better, then you take him."
So he did. The Marshalls said they never received these calls or talked to Stanford that night. They CLAIM THEY had no idea what happened to their dog, which they claim was well treated.
Justin Stanford has phone records proving what he says -- that he called and left a voicemail at their number and then they returned his call and he had a conversation with them.
Of course the Marshalls, caught in a lie, can't explain this. Instead, Daniel Marshall says "We never talked to this guy. I don't know how he got phone records saying we did."
Um, phone records don't lie. I'll tell you who's lying - Tina Marshall.
Four years later, Stanford's ex-fiancée told Daniel Marshall at a bar that Stanford had his dog. He alerted the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, which, without ever hearing Stanford's side of the story, seized Spur and gave him back to the Marshalls.
I believe she called Justin Stanford back that night. I believe they had a conversation about the dog. I believe she told him to keep the dog. I also believe Tina Marshall purposely never told her husband about the dog or this phone conversation. She probably felt Justin would take better care of the dog. However, four years later Justin's bitter ex-fiancee told Daniel Marshall Justin had the dog and Daniel Marshall's the wife - Tina Marshall - couldn't or wouldn't tell her husband the truth. She's had to play along with this whole mess. Is it because she's afraid of her husband?
A few weeks after my article ran, a felony theft charge was filed against Stanford.
His lawyer, Joseph Goode, angrily alleged that this was done to gain leverage in the civil case. Jefferson County District Attorney Susan Happ, who is running as a Democrat for state attorney general, denied this was true and made clear that the case was assigned to Assistant District Attorney Theresa Beck.
The Sheriff's Office is trying to cover their butts because they were named in the lawsuit as well. Deputy Lori Hogan did not even bother to speak with Justin or his wife Amy to question them about the allegation.
If she had, Justin would have shown her the phone records which show phone calls to the Marshall residence -- more than just ringing and a hang-up. Justin had called the Marshalls and left a voicemail and then Tina Marshall called him back. They had a conversation in which she gave him the dog, per Justin.
Deputy Lori Hogan, if she had bothered to speak with Justin first before getting a search warrant and seizing the dog, would have been told about the near-immediate trip to the vet to document Spur's poor condition. Deputy Lori Hogan would have been able to confirm all of this IF SHE HAD JUST DONE HER JOB.
Justin Sanford and his wife Amy with Spur
During the nearly four years Stanford had the dog, he spent $7,600 for its many trips to the vet and for medications. That number now approaches $10,000.
Spur was diagnosed in August with lymph node cancer, and Stanford has paid for the chemotherapy.
Joint custody was not an easy sell for either side.
The two families, plus their lawyers and other attorneys representing Jefferson County, met on Aug. 21 at the Milwaukee Bar Association office downtown with mediator Joseph Beisenstein. It took six hours.
"We need to settle this," Lopez told the Marshalls. "Because if you guys want to go to court, yeah, we'll be there in a year for trial, and the dog will be dead by then. So at that point it's a moot point."
And, of course, both sides would have to spend many thousands of dollars in additional legal fees to go forward toward trial.
The Marshalls did not want to talk to me, but Stanford said he was willing to do what it took to get Spur back — at least part of the time — and to assure he was well cared for.
The agreement called for an independent veterinarian to be appointed, and one in Madison was selected. Both sides agreed to abide by the vet's wishes about the dog's care, diet, need for proper shelter and so forth. Any charges under $300 were to be split equally.
For anything more than that, the family who wanted the treatment had to pay for it. That's why Stanford covered the cost of chemotherapy.
The Marshalls agreed to send a letter to the Jefferson County district attorney's office, asking that the theft charge against Stanford be dropped, and that dismissal came on Sept. 4. And Stanford agreed to dismiss his lawsuit.
There was even a euthanasia clause in the agreement, calling for the parties to cooperate when the time came. That moment arrived Friday.
Stanford picked up Spur from the clinic and took him to the Marshalls' house. There these two families, these adversaries, gathered in the front yard and cried together.
The vet arrived. Spur was placed on a blanket, and the doctor made the injection that ended the dog's life and this rare saga in which he starred.
(JS Online - Oct. 11, 2014)
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