“With the injury there is now this insult in this case,” Hagmaier said.
The injury was the death of the Baker family’s 10-year-old beagle, Bailey, she said.
The insult is the fact the Bakers are being sued for up to $1 million in damages by the neighbor whose dogs attacked and killed Bailey, a lawsuit that has incited outrage across the nation.
But that’s not the way White’s attorney, Paul LaValle, sees it, he said.
One of Emerald White's Pit Bulls that killed the Beagle
“This case is nothing more than a premises liability case,” LaValle said.
LaValle claims too that since he filed the lawsuit on behalf of White, he has received threats by phone and e-mail.
Baker and his wife were served Nov. 12 with a lawsuit filed in the 405th District Court. It stemmed from an Oct. 27 incident in the backyard of their home in the 2900 block of Ninth Street North, during which their dog was “shaken like a rag doll” and killed by four pit bulls.
White, the plaintiff, claims she was “seriously injured” after she was “unexpectedly and viciously attacked” by the beagle when she entered the Bakers’ backyard to retrieve her dogs, which had entered through a hole in the fence separating the two properties, according to court documents.
White claims she had gone into the Bakers’ backyard to get her dogs, which had followed the beagle after it had gotten into her yard.
White claims she suffered “multiple serious bite and scratch-type injuries requiring ongoing medical treatment,” according to court documents. She also claims feeling “conscious pain and suffering and now suffers from fear, anxiety and trepidation” as a result of the “unprovoked attack” by the Bakers’ dog, according to court documents.
White argues that she and the Bakers had an understanding that if either ever needed to enter the other’s yard, they could “feel free to do so.”
Hagmaier said she offered to take the Bakers’ case without being paid, but the Bakers agreed to pay for her services.
“I relate to both sides of the story,” Hagmaier said. “I’m a dog owner. I grew up with dogs. My first dog actually was a beagle and now I own a pit-mix.”
But what motivated her most was that such a lawsuit could be brought against the Bakers, she said.
“I wanted to give the Bakers an opportunity to see how the legal process works with people who want to see justice and who are not just in it to make money,” Hagmaier said. “I don’t like bullies and I feel like in some ways this case was meant to bully.”
LaValle said that was not true.
“The whole reason I became an attorney is to speak up for people who can’t speak for themselves,” LaValle said.
The only bullies involved were those sending hate mail and death threats to his Texas City office for taking on the case, he said.
“This isn’t a case I’m going to be scared away from,” LaValle said.
Although she had not received any threats herself, White said she had barely left her home, or used social media, out of fear.
“I’ve been trying not to answer the phone or go anywhere,” White said in her first public statements since the attack and lawsuit were first reported by The Daily News.
For the Bakers, the response from the community, and all across the nation, has been supportive, Steve Baker said.
“There’s been an overwhelming support from the local community,” he said. “We have never intended to make this another pit-bull story, but a frivolous lawsuit story.”
White’s four dogs, which she claims had never been aggressive, have been declared dangerous by the city of Texas City. The dangerous dog ordinance requires owners to obtain a secure enclosure at least 6 feet high with a mechanical locking device.
Each of the dogs must be registered with the city annually and the owners must post a sign in their yard alerting others about their dangerous dogs. The owners must also have $100,000 in liability insurance on the dogs, police have said.
Hagmaier said the Bakers’ case differs from any other dog attack litigation in only one way.
“This family is a really good example of how victims are turned around and revictimized,” Hagmaier said.
Hagmaier said she plans to file an answer to the lawsuit today.
(Galveston News - November 18, 2014)
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