Attorneys/Judges
| Prosecutor(s): | Assistant District Attorney Lisa Berk | | Judge(s): | Hon. Dineen Riviezzo |
Images for this Case
Dog thrown from roof of 6-story building
Brooklyn, NY (US)Incident Date: Thursday, Jun 18, 2009
County: Kings
Charges: Felony CTA
Disposition: Convicted
Case Images: 1 files available
Defendant/Suspect: Fabian Henderson
Case Updates: 7 update(s) available
A young Brooklyn man hurled his dog from the roof of a Brooklyn Housing project - but the pooch miraculously survived the six-story plunge, officials said.
Fabian Henderson, 19, was arrested Friday for the crime against Oreo, who ended up with shattered legs, bruised lungs and severe internal bleeding.
"It's just remarkable she survived that fall," Joseph Pentangelo of the ASPCA said of the one-year-old terrier mix.
The heartless act happened June 18 at the Red Hook Houses and left Henderson's neighbors stunned.
"It gives me goose bumps," said a resident who would only give her first name, Elester.
The ASPCA initially received a complaint that an animal was being beaten on the third floor of 28 W. 9th St., where Henderson lives with his family, Pentangelo said.
A few minutes later, the ASPCA got two more calls from people reporting a dog had been thrown off the roof.
ASPCA officers took Oreo to a nearby animal clinic, where she was stabilized. She was then transferred to an ASPCA hospital where veterinarians performed surgery to reconstruct her front legs using plates and screws.
Oreo is recovering under the care of the ASPCA, which owns the poor pup after Henderson relinquished his rights to her, Pentangelo said.
Henderson's mother, Samantha Henderson, 41, told the Daily News Friday she's never seen the dog before and doesn't believe her son did it.
"I was surprised that he got arrested for that," she said, noting the family has a pit bull mix named Diamond. "He's basically a quiet person, good with animals."
Numerous witnesses saw Henderson toss Oreo off the roof, Pentangelo said. After he was arrested, he admitted he'd done it but refused to explain why, Pentangelo added.
He later changed his story and said the dog jumped, Pentangelo said. To do that, Oreo would have had to hop over a 3-foot, 8-inch wall.
Henderson, who is unemployed, was charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, a felony punishable by up to two years in prison.
He was also charged with reckless endangerment, because the 45-pound Oreo could have hit a person down below, Pentangelo said.
Case UpdatesWhat sentence a Brooklyn man will receive for throwing his pit bull off a rooftop is in dispute, after his defense attorney disagreed with the prosecutor Monday as to the terms of the defendant’s guilty plea.
Fabian Henderson, 20, of Red Hook, pled guilty in February to throwing Oreo, his year-old pit bull-mix, off the rooftop of a Red Hook public housing project in June 2009. Oreo suffered two broken legs, internal bleeding and various other serious injuries but survived the six-story fall. She was later euthanized due to “aggression issues.”
A nervous-looking but composed Henderson appeared in Kings County Supreme Court Monday wearing an ornately designed red shirt with the words “Harsh Time” on it. Henderson, who has already spent about three months in jail for beating his young pit bull and throwing her from the roof, could have been sentenced to additional time in jail " something prosecutors and animal-rights activists were hoping for.
But Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Mark Dwyer announced after a brief sidebar with the attorneys that the plea deal made in February was unclear and adjourned the sentencing to Sept. 14, where the transcript from the guilty plea will be produced.
Prosecutors believe the deal Henderson made with the judge was for six months in jail and five years of probation, but defense counsel believes the deal was for six months in interim supervision followed by five years of probation.
The office of Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes maintains its objection to both sentences, arguing that Henderson should be sent to prison for at least two years. Henderson had faced a possible one to four years in prison for the class-E felony crime.
Since being released on his own recognizance in February, Henderson has been in the Fortune Society’s drug-treatment program. He has apparently tested positive nine times for marijuana use while there and also missed a treatment appointment, prosecutors said.
Justice Dwyer mentioned these facts and reminded Henderson that prosecutors are pushing for two years in prison if he misses more court dates or tests positive for drugs again.
“If he doesn’t do well in the program, the judge is definitely going to give him two years. That’s part of the deal,” the prosecutor said outside the courtroom.
Brooklyn native Camille Hankins, an animal-rights activist with W.A.R. (Win Animal Rights) was in the courtroom Monday. She has closely followed Henderson’s case and is harshly critical of the ASPCA’s decision to euthanize Oreo after she survived the fall from the housing project.
“We’re going to see this through to the end, because we’re committed to the memory of Oreo,” said Hankins. “What gives me heart is that the D.A.’s office is really pursuing this case.”
The case had garnered national attention because of the cold cruelty of Henderson’s decision to bring the young dog up to his rooftop and throw the animal off in a presumed attempt to kill her.
On June 18, 2009, Henderson’s neighbors at the West Ninth Street housing project had called the ASPCA to report a dog was being beaten inside an apartment. Minutes later, neighbors found the injured pit bull lying on the ground outside the building.
Oreo was taken to the Veterinary Emergency & Referral Group animal hospital on Warren Street in Boerum Hill where she underwent surgery.
The Kings County District Attorney’s Office said the pit bull suffered multiple fractures in her two front legs, severe ligament damage, bruised lungs, a fractured rib, liver injury and internal bleeding. Surgeons had to reassemble Oreo’s front legs.
The plight of Oreo stirred emotions among animal lovers, and the ASPCA’s decision to euthanize her led many to flood the organization with hundreds of calls, e-mails and Twitter messages, as well as lobby the legislature for “Oreo’s Law,” which will outlaw euthanization of an animal when there is a legitimate no-kill alternative.
“The Oreo case is changing everything. And not just here in New York, but all across the country,” Hankins said. | Source: Brooklyn Daily Eagle - Aug 30, 2010
Update posted on Aug 31, 2010 - 1:31PM |
The Red Hook man who beat his 1-year-old pit bull and then threw her off a rooftop last summer is expected to be sentenced Monday in Kings County Supreme Court. The question is whether or not Fabian Henderson will get any jail time.
The case captured headlines last year around the city and region as animal-rights activists and dog-lovers cried out for the dog’s life to be spared. But the young pit bull-mix named “Oreo,” who survived being thrown off the sixth-floor rooftop, was declared unfit to live because of her aggressive behavior, her caretakers said. She was euthanized in October 2009.
Oreo suffered internal bleeding, two broken legs and a fractured rib when 20-year-old Fabian Henderson beat her and threw her off the roof of a Red Hook public housing project last June. After months of working to rehabilitate her, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals determined that Oreo had become unpredictably aggressive, and could never live among humans or other dogs.
In February, Henderson pled guilty to the top count in the indictment " aggravated cruelty to animals, which covers the lesser charges of trespassing, and torturing and injuring animals. It was actually Henderson’s second time pleading guilty to the crime due to the fact that he failed to appear at his sentencing date last year.
In November, Justice Cassandra M. Mullen was expected to sentence Handerson to a seemingly light sentence of six months in jail and five years of probation instead of the two years in jail that Kings County prosecutors were seeking. At the time, the judge could have sentenced Henderson to one to four years in prison for the class-E felony crime.
But when Henderson failed to show up for his sentencing, the plea deal was withdrawn. Now, having pled guilty again, and apparently involved in some sort of interim supervision/probation program, Henderson faces possible jail time again.
Sentences are ultimately up to the presiding judge, but it appears that Justice Mullen’s original decision to sentence Henderson to six months in jail and five years of probation is likely to be the outcome today. The office of Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes maintains its objection to this sentence, which prosecutors deem as being too lenient.
Kings County Supreme Court Justice Mark Dwyer will sentence Henderson today, after the case was reassigned from Justice Dineen Riviezzo, who had taken the case from Justice Mullen when Mullen had transferred to another county.
Some of the animal-rights activists who have been following the case and demanding Henderson get prison time are expected to attend Monday’s sentencing.
The case had garnered national attention because of the cold cruelty of Henderson’s decision to bring the young dog up to his rooftop and throw the animal off in a presumed attempt to kill her.
On June 18, 2009, Henderson’s neighbors at the West Ninth Street housing project had called the ASPCA to report a dog was being beaten inside an apartment. Minutes later, neighbors found the injured pit bull lying on the ground outside the building.
Oreo was taken to the Veterinary Emergency & Referral Group animal hospital on Warren Street in Boerum Hill where she underwent surgery.
The Kings County District Attorney’s Office said the pit bull suffered multiple fractures in her two front legs, severe ligament damage, bruised lungs, a fractured rib, liver injury and internal bleeding. Joseph Pentangelo of the ASPCA said surgeons had to reassemble Oreo’s front legs.
The plight of Oreo stirred emotions among animal lovers, and the ASPCA’s decision to euthanize her led many to flood the organization with hundreds of calls, e-mails and Twitter messages.
“We’re saddened by the outcome,” said ASPCA spokesman Andy Izquierdo after the organization announced Oreo’s death. “But we truly feel it’s the most humane decision for Oreo.” | Source: Brooklyn Daily Eagle - Aug 27, 2010
Update posted on Aug 30, 2010 - 3:31PM |
A young pit bull mix that survived being thrown off the sixth-floor roof of a Brooklyn building still was not fit to live because of her aggressive behavior, her caretakers said, and she was euthanized Friday, despite pleas from animal activists to spare her life.
Oreo suffered two broken legs and a fractured rib when she was beaten and thrown off a roof June 18. After months of working to rehabilitate her, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals determined that she was unpredictably aggressive, and could never live among humans or other dogs.
The plight of the 1-year-old Oreo stirred emotions among animal lovers, and the ASPCA decision to euthanize her led many to flood the organization with hundreds of calls, e-mails and Twitter messages.
"We're saddened by the outcome," said ASPCA spokesman Andy Izquierdo on Friday afternoon after the organization announced Oreo's death. "But we truly feel it's the most humane decision for Oreo."
Earlier, Izquierdo said the agency had received well over 200 calls and e-mail messages, as well as at least two death threats.
"People don't know the behavioral piece," Izquierdo said. "We could fix her physically, but we couldn't do anything with her psychologically."
Protesters rallied outside the building Friday morning. And at least one pet sanctuary offered to take in the dog.
"The aggression thing is a dumb excuse because all dogs can be worked with," said Emily Danks, a self-described animal rescuer who said she was escorted out of the ASPCA's building on the Upper East Side after trying to convince staff members to let her take Oreo.
She said she had planned to take the dog to Pets Alive, a sanctuary in Middletown.
Matt DeAngelis, executive director of Pets Alive, said his organization had left phone messages for the ASPCA with an offer to take in Oreo. But he said they had not heard anything, and he was perplexed at why the ASPCA didn't accept the group's offer.
In an e-mail, Stephen Zawistowski, one of the ASPCA's lead animal behavior experts who had worked with Oreo, said the organization didn't believe that sanctuary placement was "good for her welfare."
"We made this decision having the experience of working with a number of well-known sanctuaries and rescue groups," he said, adding that the ASPCA was unfamiliar with Pets Alive.
Fabian Henderson, a 19-year-old who lived at the housing complex in Brooklyn's Red Hook section, where officers found Oreo badly injured, was arrested on felony charges. He has pleaded guilty to aggravated cruelty to animals, and is to be sentenced Dec. 1.
There was no phone listing for Henderson at the Brooklyn building. His lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment. | Source: Sanluisobispo.com - Nov 13, 2009
Update posted on Nov 13, 2009 - 7:05PM |
Animal rights supporters have bombarded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals with phone calls and e-mail messages in a frantic last-minute bid to save Oreo, a pit bull that survived being tossed off a roof and is scheduled to be euthanized Friday afternoon.
The entreaties, which ranged from the sorrowful and pleading to the outraged and threatening, included a protest outside the organization’s headquarters on the Upper East Side and a lobbying effort by an animal sanctuary in the Hudson Valley to take in the dog.
Camile Hankins, director of Win Animal Rights, who has been following the case, said she stayed up all night Thursday trying to spread the word about the decision to “execute” Oreo, in an effort to win a reprieve. “This is not over,” she said. “We can’t allow a dog to be, in our opinion, to be neglected and abused by an animal-protection group.”
Oreo broke two legs on June 18 when she was tossed from the roof of a six-story apartment building in the Red Hook Houses in Brooklyn. Her owner, Fabian Henderson, 19, pleaded guilty in State Supreme Court last month to a felony charge of animal cruelty and will be sentenced on Dec. 1.
The A.S.P.C.A., which has been trying to nurse the dog back to health, determined that Oreo was unfit to be around people or other dogs because she was “unpredictably aggressive,” growling, lunging and trying to bite people who came too close, said Andy Izquierdo, a spokesman. He said that rumors that the dog had already been euthanized were untrue.
“There is anger, which we expected,” Mr. Izquierdo said. “We tried to do everything we could for Oreo. We were able to recuperate her physical injuries, but her psychological injuries were such that we couldn’t do anything for her.”
He added, “The notion that we would do this for any other reason than necessity is disheartening and ludicrous.”
Officials at Pets Alive, a nonprofit animal sanctuary in Middletown, N.Y., said it received no response to phone calls, e-mail messages and tweets they sent requesting to take in the dog. “We’ve had tremendous success with these types of cases,” said Kerry Clair, executive co-director of the sanctuary. “After all the abuse this dog been through, the solution is not to kill her.”
Mr. Izquierdo said that the A.S.P.C.A. was planning to respond to the offer from Pets Alive. He said that in addition to a small protest Friday morning, the organization received “several calls and emails” about the decision to euthanize Oreo. Pressed he upgraded that to “dozens.” Pressed further he said, “When I say dozens, it could be 10 or 20 dozen.”
“Its not abating, that’s for certain,” he added.
Denise Breslin, a former graphic designer who lives on the Upper East Side, said she had personally placed “about 40” calls since learning about the decision from an article in The New York Times on Thursday night. She said she believed that A.S.P.C.A. was going out of its way to kill the dog. “I love animals and I can’t stand injustice,” she said. | Source: New York Times - Nov 13, 2009
Update posted on Nov 13, 2009 - 4:48PM |
Oreo, a pit bull mix, was hailed as a miracle dog when she survived being hurled off a Brooklyn rooftop last summer. She had two broken legs and a broken rib.
Her owner was arrested on cruelty charges, and Oreo, a dark brown dog with white paws and forelegs and a white stripe down her forehead, was nursed back to health. Dozens of people expressed interest in adopting her.
They will not get the chance. After overseeing her recovery, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has decided she has to be put to death. Oreo will be euthanized on Friday, according to the society’s president and chief executive, Ed Sayres.
Oreo was almost impossible to control once her injuries healed, he said. Other officials from the society said Oreo had shown extreme aggressiveness during several behavioral examinations: growling, lunging and trying to bite people who came too close.
Mr. Sayres called it a “most difficult and heartbreaking decision” but added that Oreo “is not able to do any of the companion things” a normal dog does. A specialist who had rated Oreo’s behavioral prognosis as poor in July downgraded it last month to grave " despite two months of daily sessions with a therapy team. A video of part of an October examination showed Oreo straining against her leash as if she wanted to charge another dog that passed by.
Later in the video, Oreo bared her teeth at the camera and looked as if she was ready to attack.
Oreo survived her plunge on June 18 from 28 West Ninth Street, a six-story apartment building in the Red Hook Houses complex. Several people called 911, and dispatchers sent agents from the society’s humane law enforcement department to investigate, said Stacy Wolf, the vice president and chief legal counsel of the humane law enforcement department.
The agents took Oreo for treatment and, when no one came forward as her owner, returned to the complex to find out who owned Oreo, Ms. Wolf said. On July 30, the authorities arrested Fabian Henderson, 19, a resident of the Red Hook Houses. He pleaded guilty in State Supreme Court last month to a felony charge and will be sentenced on Dec. 1.
The society never considered putting Oreo up for adoption in the conventional sense, to an ordinary household. She was a candidate for a “long-term resident facility,” a sanctuary where the society sends dogs it believes need more careful handling. Mr. Sayres said Oreo would have had to live out her life in seclusion, away from the other dogs and from people.
“Her quality of life would have been reduced to virtually nothing,” he said.
But some animal-care specialists questioned the decision to euthanize her. “The dog is a victim of cruelty,” said Nathan Winograd, a former director of operations for the San Francisco S.P.C.A., who has helped set up no-kill programs around the country. “It’s incredibly traumatized. It’s going to be fearful and distrustful and perhaps even in pain. Under those circumstances, even evaluating the dog right now is setting the dog up for failure.”
He said the society should find “a skilled long-term foster care situation” and let Oreo go through “a rehabilitative process where the dog learns to trust people again, and then re-evaluate the dog.”
“That takes time,” he said.
Mr. Sayres said the society had not reached the decision about Oreo lightly " it even called in an outside veterinary behaviorist, E’Lise Christensen, for a consultation. She said that Oreo had “exhibited intense aggressive behaviors” during the evaluation, biting a fake hand that was dangled in front of her.
Among other things, she wrote, “Oreo should not have any access to the public or uncontrolled areas outdoors. Oreo shouldn’t be around children.”
Mr. Sayres said the society had evaluated dogs taken from Michael Vick, the football quarterback who served 18 months in federal prison for his role in a dogfighting ring. He said that fighting dogs normally have to be euthanized, but that 49 of the 50 Vick dogs “were immediately adoptable.”
“There are no prejudgments,” he said in an interview. “We look at the actual behavior.”
Society officials said a major factor in their decision to put Oreo to death was that she was unpredictable " so unpredictable that she even attacked her handler, someone she saw regularly. Oreo had to be kept in relative isolation for the safety of society employees and other dogs at the society’s headquarters at 424 East 92nd Street, between First and York Avenues.
“Oreo’s aggression is triggered by, basically, everything,” Mr. Sayres said. | Source: New York Times - Nov 13, 2009
Update posted on Nov 13, 2009 - 4:32PM |
A Red Hook teenager was indicted Monday for allegedly throwing his dog off the roof of a six-story building in Brooklyn.
Fabian Henderson, 19, is charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, criminal trespass and overdriving, torturing and injuring animals. If convicted, he could face two years in prison " or perhaps even four years in prison if sentences were to run consecutive.
On June 18, Henderson’s neighbors at the Red Hook housing project had called the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) to report a dog was being beaten inside an apartment. Minutes later, neighbors found the injured female pit bull lying on the ground outside the building at 28 W. 9th St.
The 1-year-old dog named “Oreo” was taken to the Veterinary Emergency & Referral Group animal hospital on Warren Street in Boerum Hill where she underwent surgery.
The pit bull, which is conspicuously identified only as a “terrier mix” by several media outlets, including the New York Post, Daily News and NY1, is still recovering at the ASPCA and is looking for a family to adopt her. NY1 refused to comment when asked if they would have identified Oreo as a “pit bull” if the dog had bitten someone instead.
The Kings County District Attorney’s Office said the pit bull suffered multiple fractures in her two front legs, severe ligament damage, bruised lungs, a fractured rib, liver injury and internal bleeding. Joseph Pentangelo of the ASPCA said surgeons had to reassemble Oreo’s front legs.
The Animal Crimes Unit at the Brooklyn D.A.’s office is helping prosecute the case. | Source: Brooklyn Daily Eagle - Aug 10, 2009
Update posted on Aug 10, 2009 - 10:08PM |
The dog that amazingly survived being flung off the roof of a six-story Brooklyn housing project may owe her life to the building's air conditioners, law-enforcement sources revealed yesterday.
Oreo, a 1-year-old terrier mix, repeatedly struck the window units during her terrifying, 100- foot plunge on June 18 at the Red Hook Houses.
The series of collisions slowed her descent and, animal-welfare people believe, saved her life. Her front legs were shattered and she suffered internal injuries -- but she's expected to recover.
The man who allegedly tossed her off the roof, Fabian Henderson, 19, was arrested Friday. Yesterday, he pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges of animal cruelty, reckless endangerment and criminal trespass.
The complaint against Henderson also notes that Oreo's skin was infected around her stomach and armpits, suggesting he mistreated her before tossing off the roof.
He was being held last night on $50,000 bail. | Source: New York Post - Aug 1, 2009
Update posted on Aug 2, 2009 - 8:40PM |
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