John Varcadipone, 23, is alleged to have beaten a seven-month-old Siberian Husky to death with a kitchen chair and a stick to terrorize his girlfriend on Friday, police say.
He pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of aggravated assault, simple assault and making terroristic threats to the victim, and remains in Passaic County Jail on $75,000 bail. On Thursday, he pleaded not guilty to one count of cruelty to animals in the third degree, resulting in the animal’s death.
Prosecutors on Thursday asked that his bail be increased to $150,000, with no option to be released on posting 10-percent of that amount. They also asked for a psychological evaluation to show whether he’s a danger to himself or others.
Varcadipone, appearing in court with his lawyer, Kenyatta Stewart, agreed to the evaluation, and Judge Marilyn Clark ordered it.
Gina Pfund, a Passaic County chief assistant prosecutor, presented more details of the dog’s gruesome death and the hours leading up to it. She read from police reports based on interviews with Varcadipone’s brother and the victim.
Meanwhile, Stewart and Varcadipone’s girlfriend, who showed up in court on Thursday, said Varcadipone was defending himself from the dog.
“It sounds like the dog attacked him,” Stewart said. Varcadipone had bite marks from Friday, as well as from a prior incident, Stewart said.
The night before the dog was killed, Varcadipone was involved in an argument with his brother that turned physical, Pfund said, reading from a police report. The brother said Varcadipone was “acting crazy due to drugs” and “fighting with everyone,” and Varcadipone’s brother and cousin stopped him from beating the girlfriend, Pfund said.
Varcadipone was “in rage because he could not find pills,” and had to be held back when he tried to attack her, his girlfriend told police, Pfund said.
The next morning, he woke up mad “because she did not wake him up for work on time,” the victim said, according to Pfund. He went to talk to the dog. “The dog started to whimper and whine because the dog was scared of John,” the girlfriend told police.
While she went to the bedroom to gather his clothes, Varcadipone went to the living room, and she heard the dog barking and “John throwing things and banging, then he ran down the hallway screaming, ‘the dog bit me,’” Pfund recounted from the girlfriend’s testimony.
Sometime afterward, Varcadipone went into the bathroom, but it’s unclear whether the dog was dead by that time. The girlfriend said she followed Varcadipone into the bathroom. He grabbed her hair and hit her head against the wall and bit her, she told police, according to Pfund.
The woman went to the living room and put a towel over the puppy, telling him, “I loved him, he was a good boy and I’m sorry,” Pfund said, reading from the report.
The brother told police he received a call the next day from Varcadipone’s girlfriend asking him to bring a shovel to bury the dog. “When I arrived, there was blood everywhere and the dog was dead,” Pfund said, reading from the report. The brother said Varcadipone threw him to the ground, causing an injury to his wrist.
Police arrived at 11:30 a.m. Friday at the home on 12 Travelo Drive, in a mobile home park, and found blood, broken furniture and the dog's body, they said.
Police allege that Varcadipone terrorized his girlfriend by beating her dog to death while she hid in the next room. He also bit her ear, banged her head against the wall and assaulted his brother by causing "abrasions" on his arms, the criminal complaint against him says.
There are no visible signs of injury to the woman, Stewart said, and she said she wants to establish contact with Varcadipone, even though he is ordered not to have contact with her. Varcadipone does not have a history of violence, Stewart said.
A woman who identified herself as Daisey and said she was Varcadipone's fiancé, appeared in court on Friday and said, “I'm here to support him because the dog did attack him.”
She disputed prosecutors' characterization of events, saying Varcadipone was defending himself and that he didn't bite her or bang her head against the wall, as police said he had. "He's not a monster like everybody's making him out to be," she said.
The woman said Varcadipone had been bitten by the dog three times before and that the dog wasn't well trained. She hid in the room during his beating of the dog, she said, to "keep distant" and because she "didn't want to add fuel to the fire."
The dog, named Winter, was seven months old, not six, as media reports had said, she said. "He was a big dog."
Last May, Varcadipone was sentenced to three years of probation after pleading guilty to possession of a substance called gamma hydroxybutyrate without prescription. It's commonly known as a date rape drug but is also used as a recreational drug.
He also pleaded guilty last March to receiving stolen property, a third-degree offense, for possessing a stolen samurai sword, Clark said.
Neighbors said they had heard shouting and what sounded like crashing of household items on Thursday night. The clamor resumed on Friday morning until police arrived.
Varcadipone had moved with his fiancé to Finn's Mobile Home Park, where his parents live, about a month ago.
In the courtroom, Varcadipone told the judge he was 23, born in Paterson and was working at HRL Landscaping. He was fired after what happened Friday, Stewart said.
(NorthJersey.com - March 24, 2016)
Did you do any fact checking??? This story is bull shit and I am embarrassed for the author.
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