Dog owner accused in SWAT standoff says he didn’t pull knife on animal control officer

NEW MEXICO -- A dog owner accused of pulling a knife on an animal control officer during a 2014 incident that escalated into a standoff with a police SWAT team told jurors Tuesday that he never pulled a weapon.
 
Stephen Cummings, then 36, is charged with aggravated assault on a peace officer with a deadly weapon for allegedly pulling a knife on an animal control officer and then barricading himself in a rented trailer for several hours before surrendering to police.

Jurors heard differing accounts of the incident Tuesday from Cummings and the animal control officer who had responded to a report that Cummings’ dog was running at large and threatening a neighbor one day last summer. Gloria Morales, 77, said she was raking her yard when Cummings’ Akita-heeler mix bounded into her yard, barking menacingly and attempting to attack her.

Stephen Cummings, center, said on the stand Tuesday that he
did not pull a knife on an animal control officer.
Phaedra Haywood/The New Mexican

Morales, who claimed the dog had tried to attack her twice before, said Cummings’ girlfriend, Heather Sessa — who lived with him in a trailer next door — eventually came to retrieve the dog. But the dog wouldn’t come, Morales said, and Sessa had to chase it around her house several times to capture it.

Meanwhile, Morales said, she fled into her home, where she locked the door and called 911.

According to prosecutor Anastasia Martin, when Animal Control Officer Marshall Martinez arrived at the scene, he took a statement from Morales and then went to next door looking for a dog running at large. The officer encountered Cummings, Martin said, who approached spewing profanities and racial slurs and ordered Martinez off the property.

When the officer didn’t leave, Martin said, Cummings pulled out a knife and began “closing distance” on Martinez. The officer brandished his baton, ordered Cummings to stop and called calling for backup on his radio.

After obtaining a warrant to search Cummings’ home, police did find a knife inside. But Sessa said Tuesday that the knife was for cutting vegetables and had not been taken outside the trailer that day.

Public defender Matt Swessinger said Cummings has post-traumatic stress disorder, caused in part by a beating he suffered at the hands of police while growing up in Detroit. Swessinger said Cummings “lost control of his mouth” and shouted at Martinez but never pulled a knife. He didn’t come out of the trailer sooner because he was afraid police would kill him, the attorney said.

If convicted on the third-degree felony charge, Cummings would face a maximum possible penalty of three years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

(Santa Fe New Mexican - July 15, 2015)