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Case #1871 Rating: 3.0 out of 5
Rottweiler kicked, choked to death
Joliet, IL (US)Incident Date: Sunday, Aug 31, 2003
County: Will
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Bernard C. Blowers
Case Updates: 3 update(s) available
Blowers faces felony charges of animal torture and aggravated cruelty to an animal in connection with the September death of his pet Rottweiler, Harley.
Police first arrested the 29-year-old Blowers on a misdemeanor criminal damage to property charge, but Tomczak's office elevated the charge to a felony. Blowers reportedly kicked the dog down and stomped on the animal's neck until it died.
Blowers denies killing his Rottweiler and says he left the dog in the back yard of his home, 1521 Waverly Place, to make an afternoon traffic court appearance. When he returned home that night, Blowers said, he found the dog on the ground and gasping for breath.
He claims that he allegedly then enlisted the help of a neighbor and loaded the dead dog into his car. They dropped the body off on the side of a road for Animal Control to find, Blowers said.
Case Updates| Blowers was sentenced to 30 months of probation for killing his Rottweiler. He is also not allowed to own, care for, posess, look after...any animal. He must also get a 40-hour-a-week job. It can be a paid position or community service but it must be 40 hours a week. | | Update posted on May 26, 2004 - 12:42PM |
Joliet man says he's innocent, but pleads guilty to dog cruelty
Sentencing in May 2004 over stomping his pet Rottweiler to death
Although he proclaimed his innocence outside of a Will County courtroom, a Joliet man nevertheless pleaded guilty Thursday March 04, 2004 to two felony counts of animal cruelty in the death of his dog last fall.
Bernard Blowers, 29, entered the plea to charges of animal tortureand aggravated cruelty to a companion animal. Judge Daniel Rozak scheduled a May 7, 2004 sentencing hearing.
Blowers was accused kicking his female Rottweiler and standing on the dog's throat, choking it to death on Sept. 23, 2003.
Joliet police originally charged Blowers with a misdemeanor, but the Will County state's attorney's office upgraded the charges Oct. 2, 2003.
Assistant State's Atty. Chris Messina told Rozak that the dog was found discarded on the side of a road.
Several animal rights groups had taken an interest in what they called a precedent-setting case and had launched a lobbying campaign to get State's Atty. Jeff Tomczak to upgrade the charges.
Rozak told Blowers that he could be sentenced to as many as 5 years in prison on the animal torture charge. The cruelty charge carries a maximum 3-year prison term. Blowers could also receive probation.
Representatives of the Peoples Animal Welfare Society animal shelter in Tinley Park and the Chicago Heights-based South Suburban Humane Society attended the hearing. | | Update posted on Mar 6, 2004 - 8:40AM |
Blowers was scheduled to plead guilty in the case Wednesday in front of Judge Dan Rozak in Courtroom 404. It would have been a blind plea, meaning that Blowers did not know what punishment Rozak would choose.
After the case was continued, Keith Jones, Blowers' public defender, told Rozak that his client claimed to have a contagious disease. Rozak immediately cleared the courtroom. Then he had it cleaned not once but twice, just to be sure.
Blowers' case will be back in court at 9:30 a.m. March 3. | | Update posted on Feb 26, 2004 - 2:21PM |
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