In a motion filed May 23, Assistant Carroll County Attorney Geoffrey Gallagher asked Patten to take a more expansive view of New Hampshire’s animal-cruelty law under which his office had previously charged Laurinda Miller.
On July 10, 2015, acting on a tip about animals being kept in what were described as “deplorable conditions,” authorities executed a search warrant at Sweet Paws Spa and Inn and Sweet Tails Animal Rescue, both of which were owned and operated by Miller from the same address on Route 16 in Center Ossipee.
Some 50 dogs and a dozen cats were removed from Miller and later most were put up for adoption. She was charged with 21 counts, later reduced to 19, of misdemeanor animal cruelty.
During a bench trial before Patten in April, Gallagher pointed out that many of the animals were covered in their own filth and few had clean food and water.
Although prosecution witnesses testified to the seemingly-poor conditions inside the spa and rescue, they could not definitively say when Miller had last given food or water to the animals nor how long they had been in the dirty states in which they were found.
Miller told Patten that the accumulated fecal material in her facilities was the result of her missing just one of her daily cleanings but Patten, in a ruling he handed down May 11, said flatly that “Such an assertion simply cannot be true on the evidence presented…”
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| The judge doesn't think animals need to be kept "clean and dry", meaning FREE OF FECES AND URINE?? |
Nonetheless, Patten continued, Miller hadn’t been charged “… with cruelty by negligently depriving the animals of necessary care by her failure to keep the animals themselves clean and dry,” and as a result, he had no choice but to dismiss the charges against her.
In his motion for reconsideration, Assistant Carroll County Attorney Gallagher wrote that Judge Patten’s construction of the animal cruelty law “…undermines the intent and policy sought to be advanced by the statute and should be avoided. The State questions how the legislature could have intended to require that animals be kept ‘clean and dry’ from the weather, but not feces and urine.”
In his reply, which was issued May 26, Judge Patten did not address those points, but did say that “this court has not overlooked or misapprehended any facts presented at trial or the law that is applicable to these facts.”
(Union Leader - June 2, 2016)
Earlier:
- New Hampshire: 59 dogs, 7 cats seized from pet spa; owner Laurinda Miller to face charges
- New Hampshire: Laurinda Miller, owner of Ossipee animal shelter charged with 21 counts of animal cruelty
- New Hampshire: Laurinda Miller, 51, owner of animal spa and rescue pleads not guilty to 21 counts of cruelty
- New Hampshire: Charged with animal cruelty, Ossipee woman Laurinda Miller contests evidence
- New Hampshire: Animal cruelty trial against Laurinda Miller begins
- New Hampshire: All 21 animal cruelty charges against Laurinda Miller thrown out on technicality
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