“This cat died after repeated blunt force trauma and hyperthermia with bruising to the head and face, broken teeth, bleeding into the eyes and pulmonary contusions”
On Monday, Lori Tasney, 38, changed her plea in Norfolk County Superior Court in Dedham to a count of animal cruelty, a count of killing, maiming or poisoning an animal and a count of larceny over $250. However, Tasney didn’t concede to all of the facts in the case against her.
Tasney, whose trial was set to start Tuesday, is already on probation through April 2017 for a separate criminal case out of Suffolk County, said David Traub, a spokesman for Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey.
Following Tasney’s guilty plea Monday, Norfolk County Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone added two conditions to Tasney’s existing probation – that she receive mental-health evaluations and she abstain from drugs and alcohol.
It is disgusting that they gave this odious woman probation after torturing this poor animal to death.
Tasney’s co-defendant in the animal-cruelty case, Christopher Lang, 35, of Quincy, pleaded guilty to the same three counts last year and was sentenced to three years in jail in conjunction with his guilty pleas in a separate case on charges of breaking and entering and larceny.
Prosecutors said Lang put a cat in a clothes dryer in early May 2013 while Lang and Tasney were guests in a Sea Street home in Quincy. The cat, named Kitty, was later found dead outside near the basement door, court documents said.
 | |
| Lori Tasney and Chris Lang look into each others eyes as Marilyn and Daniel Haldeman hold each other at the end of a visit. Tasney and Lang have been dating for two years and plan to marry when he gets out. His current parole date is set for 2008. Lang was imprisoned for robbery in January 2005. Tasney visits twice a week, which is the most time any inmate is allowed visitors, but says “I would visit every day if I could.” -- Prison Photography - Elyse Butler |
Prior to her guilty plea, Tasney asserted that she was not aware of the cat’s whereabouts when Lang put the animal in the dryer. Her defense attorneys were Natalie Corvington and Sandra Gant.
The prosecutor was Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Tracey Cusick.
Tasney’s case was scheduled to start earlier this year, but it was delayed after her lawyers questioned her competency. In a court motion filed in April, defense attorneys said Tasney nodded off repeatedly during the jury-selection process, wrote indecipherable notes to herself and did not seem to remember which jurors were selected or why.
Tasney underwent a competency evaluation and was deemed fit to stand trial.
The death of Kitty was one of two high-profile animal cruelty cases out of Quincy in 2013. In October of that year, Radoslaw Czerkawski, a Polish national, was arrested and charged in the death of Puppy Doe, the name given to the pit bull that police say was brutally tortured in a Whitwell Street home.
Cusick, who has been involved in animal-cruelty prosecutions since 2001, is also the prosecutor in the Czerkawski case.
(Patriot Ledger - Nov 30, 2015)
Earlier:
No comments:
Post a Comment