Attorneys/Judges
| Prosecutor(s): | Morley Swingle | | Defense(s): | Al Lowes | | Judge(s): | Michael Bullerdieck |
CONVICTED: Was justice served?
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Case #15001 Rating: 1.6 out of 5
Dog poisoned to death with antifreeze
Cape Girardeau, MO (US)Incident Date: Saturday, Nov 8, 2008
County: Cape Girardeau
Charges: Misdemeanor
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Ralph H. Ziegler
Case Updates: 4 update(s) available
A Cape Girardeau man faces could face jail time for allegedly poisoning his neighbors' dog.
Ralph H. Ziegler, 58, of 1315 Ashland Hills, was charged Monday with one misdemeanor count of animal abuse, according to a news release from Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle.
On Nov. 8, a Cape Girardeau couple found their German Shepherd, Lola, had died of poisoning. They found a plate of ribs in their backyard, according to a probable cause statement written and signed by Lt. Mark Maoros.
Barbecue sauce and a green fluid covered the ribs, according to the sworn statement.
Tests conducted by Lola's veterinarian confirmed that the green substance was antifreeze, which is deadly poisonous to dogs.
In an interview with police, Ziegler admitted to poisoning the dog because he was a light sleeper and Lola was "always barking," the sworn statement said.
He said he felt bad about the act and it had bothered him ever since it happened, the statement said.
Ziegler could face up to one year in jail or a fine of up to $1,000. or both, if convicted.
Case UpdatesOn a Saturday morning in November, Lola, a 10-year-old German shepherd mix, found and ate a plate of ribs that had been placed inside her fenced yard in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Antifreeze had been poured on the ribs. Lola became ill. Her owners, Bryan and Melinda Hodges, took her to a veterinarian, but to no avail. She died. Testing confirmed she had been poisoned by antifreeze.
The case went to Patrolman Ty Metzger, supervisor of the nuisance abatement division for the Cape Girardeau police. That division handles cases involving animals, both domestic and wild. He interviewed the Hodgeses.
They told him they had no idea who might have poisoned their dog, but several weeks earlier, they had received a note. "Please keep you're barker quiet." The note, grammar mistake and all â€" it's your, not you're â€" was unsigned. But it seemed to come from a neighbor. Had any neighbors complained? No, they said. Did they have the letter? No, they had thrown it out.
Little can stir emotions more than the story of a poisoned family pet â€" the Hodgeses have two small children, who, incidentally sometimes play in the area where the ribs had been placed â€" so the story got some play on local television. Melinda mentioned the note. A neighbor saw her on television and called. He, too, was a dog owner, and he said he had received a similar note about the same time. The difference was his note was signed. "Please keep you're barker quiet. Ralph."
The Hodgeses looked at his note. Same kind of paper. Same handwriting. Same misuse of the contraction.
So who was Ralph?
Ralph Ziegler. A postal carrier. He lived three houses down and on another street. That is, his house faced another street, and his backyard abutted the backyard of a house on the Hodgeses' street. Was he close enough to hear a barking dog? Certainly.
So Metzger had a suspect. But how should he proceed with his investigation? Even if he could tie the note to Ziegler, it wouldn't prove that Ziegler had poisoned the dog.
On a Monday morning in early December, Metzger went to Morley Swingle, the Cape Girardeau County prosecutor, and asked for advice.
Swingle had just completed a weeklong trial in Columbia in which a former police officer named Steven Rios was charged with murdering a lover. The strongest evidence in the case was DNA from some hairs that had been found on the man's body. In the peculiar language of DNA, the odds were 1 in 757.6 trillion that the DNA could match somebody other than Rios. With only about 7 billion people on the planet, those odds were enough for the jury. Rios was convicted.
Perhaps DNA could be used in this case. That seemed a stretch. The plate with the ribs had been out in the rain and it had been handled, and evidence would have been degraded.
We'll fake it, said Swingle.
He prepared a fake lab report which purported to show that Ziegler's DNA had been found on the plate. Swingle used the numbers from the Rios case. Maybe this can help you get a confession, Swingle said.
Perhaps you're wondering: Is this legal?
Yes.
In fact, Swingle prepared a brief in case Ziegler were to confess and then a lawyer were to argue to suppress the confession because of the false report.
"It is well recognized across the country that a law enforcement officer conducting an interview of a suspect may lie to the suspect about the state of the evidence against him in an effort to get him to confess," Swingle wrote.
He mentioned the kinds of lies that are acceptable. The police can falsely claim that a suspect's fingerprints were found on the murder weapon or at the scene of the crime. (He cited a case in which a suspect was shown a fake photograph of his fingerprint on a victim's shoe.) The police can falsely claim that the victim's blood was found on the suspect's clothing. The police can falsely claim that somebody else confessed and named the suspect as an accomplice, that he has been matched to evidence from a rape kit, that a surveillance video shows him committing the crime, that he has failed a polygraph test.
The standard is this: A lie is acceptable as long as it would not induce an innocent person to confess. The police cannot assure a person he can go home if he confesses. They cannot promise mental health treatment in exchange for a confession, or claim that welfare benefits will be withdrawn or children taken away unless there is a confession.
In addition to the false lab report, Swingle got Metzger a search warrant so he could look for antifreeze.
Metzger confronted Ziegler. At first, Ziegler denied poisoning the dog. Then Metzger showed him the phony lab report. "He looked at it, and then he asked me how we had his DNA. I just came up with something right there and said, 'I swabbed your door knob.' He slumped forward and said, 'It was bad. I shouldn't have done it.'"
Ziegler told Metzger that he had disposed of the antifreeze. He took Metzger to the trash bin where he had thrown it out, but the bin had been emptied in the meantime.
Ziegler pleaded guilty last week to animal abuse, a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail to be served on weekends, two years of probation and he was ordered to pay restitution to the Hodgeses for the vet and cremation bills for Lola and the cost of a new dog. The total is about $1,600. He is currently on suspension from his job.
I asked Bryan Hodges what he thought of the sentence. "It's fair," he said. He also denied that Lola had been a barker.
By the way, did Ziegler's lawyer ever challenge the confession?
"No, I sure didn't," said Albert Lowes, who has been practicing law for about 50 years. "My client had been sick, and he was remorseful and he just wanted to put this behind him. Besides, I'm sure Swingle's right. The cops can lie. What is it they call a lie? A ruse. That's what they call it."
The story has generated much debate in Cape Girardeau, with readers of the local paper, the Southeast Missourian, discussing the crime, the sentence and the methodology of the police. I asked Lowes if he had followed the debate.
"Hell, no," he said. Hodges and Metzger said they had tuned it out, too. | Source: St Louis Post Dispatch - Feb 15, 2009
Update posted on Feb 16, 2009 - 3:37PM |
A Cape Girardeau man convicted of killing his neighbors' dog will serve 30 days in jail, Associate Circuit Judge Michael Bullerdieck ruled Wednesday.
Ralph H. Ziegler, 58, 1315 Ashland Hills, pleaded guilty Wednesday afternoon to one count of animal abuse for poisoning a German shepherd mix named Lola.
Lola, who belonged to Brian and Mindy Hodges, died Nov. 8 from internal damage caused by eating ribs laced with antifreeze.
Ziegler was charged with poisoning the animal after he confessed to leaving the plate of ribs out because the dog was barking at night.
Ziegler's attorney, Al Lowes, argued Wednesday his client would lose his postal service job if he were forced to serve jail time. Ziegler had been suspended from his job since the charges were filed in November, Lowes said.
Lowes asked that his client be sentenced to community service, but prosecutor Julie Hunter asked that he serve some time in the county jail for what she called "a vengeful, malicious act."
In addition to the 30 days' shock incarceration, to be served at the Cape Girardeau County Jail on weekends, Ziegler was sentenced to a year in jail with a suspended execution of sentence.
Bullerdieck said he ordered the jail time in an effort to make Ziegler recognize the severity of his actions.
"Hopefully that'll make you realize how serious this is. Do a little more than community service," Bullerdieck said.
He was also sentenced to two years' probation and ordered to pay restitution to the Hodges for the vet and cremation bills for Lola and the cost of a new dog, about $1,650.
Lowes called a jail sentence "gross overkill," saying he believed the Hodges and Hunter sought "vengeance, not justice."
Ziegler confessed to the crime after being confronted with a report showing DNA had been recovered from the plate of poisoned ribs during forensic analysis, said Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle.
The DNA report was false, Swingle said, a trick used by Cape Girardeau nuisance abatement officer Ty Metzger to obtain Ziegler's confession.
Swingle prepared a brief defending the use of the false report, arguing the Missouri Supreme Court holds that a law enforcement officer may lie about evidence if the lie would not persuade a person to confess to something they didn't do.
"I'm just sorry about everything, so sorry," Ziegler said during the hearing.
Mindy Hodges gave a statement to the court asking that Bullerdieck send the message that animal cruelty will not be tolerated.
"We realize that this did not involve a human being, but the loss of our family pet, of our children's pet, has been unexplainable," Hodges said.
Lowes said his client "made a rather serious mistake. He's not a mean or sinister person." He had been recovering from surgery and taking a prescription of hydrocodone for the pain, which made him irritable, Lowes said.
His wife also worked a night shift and said the barking kept her awake, Lowes said.
The Hodges have said previously that they kept both their dogs inside most of the time, and none of their other neighbors complained. | Source: semissourian.com - Feb 5, 2009
Update posted on Feb 5, 2009 - 4:42PM |
A new hearing date has been set in the case of a man charged with killing his neighbor's dog.
Ralph Ziegler, of 1315 Ashland Hills Drive, faces one charge of animal abuse after allegedly leaving out a plate of poisoned ribs for Lola, his neighbors' German shepherd mix, in September.
Lola was owned by Brian and Mindy Hodges, who live several houses away from Ziegler. They have said they never spoke to the man.
They found a note in their mailbox about a month before Lola was poisoned telling them to "keep their barker quiet," the couple said, but only recently learned it allegedly came from Ziegler.
When Brian Hodges found the plate of ribs, covered with antifreeze, the couple rushed Lola to the vet, but she had already suffered serious damage to her internal organs.
She was euthanized a few days later on the vet's recommendation, and the Hodges incurred nearly $900 in veterinarian bills, they have said.
The case, set for arraignment Wednesday, has been rescheduled for Feb. 4, according to Al Lowes, attorney for Ziegler, to give attorneys more time to prepare.
Cape Girardeau Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said he does not know yet whether the case will go to trial. | Source: SEMissourian - Jan 8, 2008
Update posted on Jan 8, 2009 - 8:44AM |
When a Cape Girardeau couple received an unsigned note in their mailbox telling them to keep their dog quiet, they were puzzled but didn't know who'd sent it, they said Thursday.
Bryan and Mindy Hodges, who had two dogs, Lola and Maggie, asked several neighbors about the note but didn't suspect it came from a man who lived several houses away and with whom they'd never spoken.
On Monday, Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle charged Ralph H. Ziegler, 58, with one count of animal abuse for allegedly poisoning Lola with antifreeze.
On Nov. 8, Bryan Hodges found the plate of barbecued ribs covered with a sticky green substance in the fenced-in backyard. But his discovery came nearly 10 hours after Lola had been poisoned.
They'd noticed the dog was having trouble walking but thought it was due to her chronic hip ailments.
When they found the antifreeze on the plate, they rushed Lola to the vet and spent more than $800 trying to save the life of the German shepherd mix, but the antifreeze had damaged the dog's kidneys to the point she had to be euthanized, Mindy Hodges said.
"She was one of our family members," she said.
The Hodges had had Lola for 10 years.
Ziegler, who was charged with the crime after Cape Girardeau nuisance abatement officer Ty Metzger found that another neighbor of the Hodges had received a similar note, this one signed by Ziegler.
Al Lowes, attorney for Ziegler, said his client has expressed remorse about his actions.
Ziegler had been taking medication that made him "short-tempered," Lowes said.
"I feel for him, and I feel for the dog, and I feel for the people that lost the dog," Lowes said.
Ziegler also told Metzger in a police interview he regretted what he'd done, according to a probable-cause statement.
"It's good that he's remorseful, but it doesn't bring the dog back and it doesn't help me explain to my kids why someone would hurt their dog," Mindy Hodges said.
Mindy Hodges said her 6-year-old and 2-year-old sons play in the backyard and the idea that they could have just as easily been poisoned is a chilling one.
The family generally kept its two dogs inside, except for bathroom breaks, and never left them outside at night, they said.
Ziegler could face up to one year in jail or a fine of up to $1,000 or both, if convicted.
"I don't think the man needs to spend a year in jail," Mindy Hodges said.
She said she would like to see Ziegler perform community service, perhaps at the Humane Society.
Swingle said he intends to get the case through the courts as quickly as possible.
A first court appearance in the case was scheduled for Jan. 7. | Source: Southeast Missourian - Dec 19, 2008
Update posted on Dec 19, 2008 - 10:14AM |
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