WISCONSIN -- A Columbia County judge on Thursday ruled there was enough evidence against a Portage man accused of beating a family dog to the brink of death to warrant a trial.
The man’s attorney argued that no one really knows what happened to the dog.
Andrew Collette (Andy Collette), 38, sat at the defense table as a Portage police officer testified about interviews with the dog’s owners, a Lodi veterinarian and Collette himself about the events surrounding a dog being crippled and euthanized in February.
Sgt. Michael Schutz described the condition of the 9-pound papillon spaniel at the end of its life, according to the Lodi veterinarian who originally called law enforcement to report suspected abuse. The dog suffered multiple hip fractures, a broken pelvis, a collapsed lung and likely brain damage as the pupils of the dog’s eyes were different sizes at the time.
The dog’s owners — Eric and Brandy Rose, who attended the hearing — said that they had known Collette and his then-girlfriend well, having lived across the street from them for more than a year.
On Feb. 18, Collette was helping to set up the family’s TV surround-sound system, when, according to court documents, he asked Brandy Rose to get him some tools from Walmart to finish the job. She and a friend went to the store and later her husband took the kids and went to the park, leaving Collette alone with their two dogs.
“Upon returning home, she stated that things were not normal,” Schutz said of Brandy Rose’s statement to police. “Normally when she would come through the door, both dogs would come running up to her and she stated that only one of the dogs ran up to her.”
When she asked Collette what had happened, Collette reportedly told her that the missing dog, Pepe, had jumped through the window, but didn’t know where it was.
After a search of the house, Collette found Pepe under a bed.
How interesting that he "found" him. They say that murderers often help with the search of the missing person and then conveniently "find" the victim's body, ensuring that their fingerprints, DNA, etc. is found at the scene in an "innocent way".
Proceedings were occasionally paused as defense attorney Roger Klopp objected to questions on the basis of Schutz’s testimony being hearsay, or hearsay of hearsay, such as Schutz’s explanation that no one was in the house at the time of the dog’s injury except Collette.
“If you bring witnesses that say someone else was there, then I’ll consider it,” said Judge Alan J. White, “because hearsay is admissible in preliminary hearings.”
“At some point did you speak with Andrew Collette?” Assistant District Attorney Crystal Long asked Schutz.
“Yes I did,” he replied, going on to say that Collette “indicated that no one else was with him,” and that when asked about the condition of the dog, Collette said he was working on the electronics and the dog had run over, “prancing” with its paws on the window and that as Collette looked away, the glass broke and he then saw the dog running away.
“So he told you that the dog ran away,” asked Long.
“Correct,” said Schutz, who in response to questions about Brandy Rose taking the dog to the veterinarian, told the court that the veterinarian reported that the dog was unable to stand.
Klopp asked Schutz when it was that the owners last saw the dog, to which Schutz was not able to say.
“So when she left the house, you don’t know if the dog was injured or not, do you?” asked Klopp.
“Correct,” Schutz answered.
When asked the same about Eric Rose leaving with the children, Schutz said the dog was last seen, “prior to him leaving,” but without an exact time.
“So you don’t know if the dog was injured at the time that Mr. Rose left the house either,” said Klopp.
“Correct,” said Schutz.
“So no one saw the dog being injured,” said Klopp.
“Besides the comment about the dog prancing on the window,” said Schutz.
Klopp asked if the veterinarian had seen what happened or if she knew how high the window in question was from the ground, to which Schutz said the general layout of the house was known, including that, “the dog was supposed to have gone out of a first-story window.”
At the conclusion of testimony, White ordered Collette, who has been in custody on a probation hold, to be bound over for trial, with arraignment scheduled for April 2.
The Roses watched as Collette was escorted from the courtroom following the hearing.
“We want to be as involved as we can because I don’t know if that lawyer was a good one or a bad one,” said Eric Rose, “but all the questions he was insinuating, that’s the farthest thing from the truth and we don’t want any of that stuff to be considered for him to get off or anything.”
“I can barely go anywhere and the kids are upset,” said Brandy Rose, shaking as she wiped away tears with a tissue, “and he’s already been convicted of felonies before and he’s a dangerous person.”
ANDREW COLLETTE: CAREER CRIMINAL AND SEX OFFENDER
In 2011, Collette entered a no-contest plea to counts of fourth-degree sexual assault and felony bail jumping, while in 2010 he entered a no-contest plea for violation of a sex offender registry and at the same time entered a no-contest plea to substantial battery.
June 25, 2010 article: "
Andrew Collette, a registered sex offender, accused of badgering 16-year-old girl for sex"
“When they say that the kids were being rambunctious, they were just being kids and he yelled and screamed and hollered at my son and told my daughter to shut up, so the judge didn’t hear the real part of that,” said Eric Rose. “That’s why I left.”
He said there was a broken window in the house, but that there was no way Pepe could have been injured in a fall, given that it was a double-pane window with a screen and that only one pane had been broken.
If convicted of the single count of felony mistreatment of an animal, Collette faces up to three and a half years in prison.
Wisconsin Department of Corrections
Offender Basic Information Sheet
Name: COLLETTE, ANDREW B
Aliases
ANDREW BRIAN COLLETTE
ANDY COLLETTE
LIZARD COLLETTE
LIZARD BOY COLLETTE
THUNDER COLLETTE
DOC #: 00258521
Birth Year: 1978
Age: 38
Height: 6' 2"
Weight: 161
Race:
WHITE
Hair Color: BROWN
Eye Color: HAZEL
Sex: MALE
Dexterity: RIGHT HANDED
(
WiscNews - March 30, 2017)
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