UTAH -- A man who had caused the death of his dog after binding its muzzle shut with rubber bands pleaded guilty to reduced charges of aggravated cruelty to an animal Thursday.
Romeo Lucero’s attorney negotiated with county prosecutors to reduce the initial third-degree felony charge of torture to an animal companion to a class A misdemeanor of aggravated cruelty to an animal.
Prosecutors read some of the pertinent facts of the case to Judge Michael D. DiReda of Ogden Second District Court, namely that Lucero’s dog had chewed up some of his items, so he got upset at his dog and wrapped rubber bands around her muzzle 15 times.
That act lead to the suffocating and killing of the family pet, a 3-year-old female canine named Remmy. Witnesses also reported on March 10 of seeing the pit bull tied to a post with an extremely short cord and it was trapped there for at least 12 hours overnight.
A necropsy determined “the rubber bands had been so tight that they actually indented the dog’s tongue on the inside of the dog’s mouth.”
Ogden Animal Services supervisor Stefanie Butte said that this case was the first to have a felony animal cruelty charge go to the courts from the city, something she has been trying to achieve for a long time.
“Are you frikkin’ kidding me?” Butte said of the plea deal. “We wanted a felony charge, we want him to do jail time. You have no idea what that dog went through.”
Butte said she worked a long time on that case and believed that the evidence shows that Lucero also had intent to torture the dog, something that the felony charge requires according to recent Utah state law.
“It’s really hard to get a felony because there has to be intent,” Butte said
Lucero was scheduled to come back to court on Sept. 10 for sentencing.
According to Utah’s court website, possible sentencing for a class A misdemeanor includes up to one year in jail and a $2,500 fine, whereas third-degree felony sentencing includes 0-5 years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.
“I am very discouraged by this, but I will continue to push for it, I’m still going to try,” Butte said.
(standard Examiner - July 16, 2015)
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