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Case #3932 Rating: 2.8 out of 5
Dogs neglected, fighting suspected - 12 seized
New Orleans, LA (US)Incident Date: Monday, Feb 28, 2005
County: Orleans
Charges: Misdemeanor
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Cleveland Harris, Jr.
Case Updates: 1 update(s) available
Police officers and SPCA workers responded Monday to an anonymous tip about dog fighting in New Orleans East. After almost two months of surveillance, officers swarmed a home in the 4700 block of Evangeline Street, seizing 12 dogs and a cat. The dogs, many of them scarred from fighting, were said to be malnourished and living in deplorable conditions in a back yard and garage.
"It was very wet, very muddy," said SPCA worker Kathryn Destreza. "They had short chains, no water, no food. A couple of were standing in mud puddles."
"There's dog feces throughout portions of the house that I went in," said State Police spokesman Trooper Omar Landrum. "There's a strong odor from the time you hit the door."
Cleveland Harris, 45, faces 12 counts of dog-fighting and 12 counts of animal cruelty. He also faces drug charges in connection with a substance used to strengethen the animals.
"On the back of several of the cages there is fresh blood splattered," said SPCA Director Laura Maloney. "So the dogs clearly had been injured at some point."
Since 2003, Harris has been arrested three times on similar charges. Maloney recalled a raid in August 2003.
"Sixteen people were arrested that night at that dog fight," Maloney said. "We did a search warrant on his home. He had 19 dogs, tapes, dog-fighting paraphernalia."
Harris said his arrest Monday was the result of a "vendetta" by the SPCA.
The SPCA said the dogs, mostly pit bulls, likely will have to be euthanized because dogs used in fights usually cannot be rehabilitated as pets.
A conviction for felony dog-fighting carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.
Case UpdatesA New Orleans man repeatedly targeted by state and local police for fighting his pit bulls was cleared of the allegations Monday night by a Criminal District Court judge.
Judge Ben Willard found Cleveland Harris, 47, innocent of multiple counts of dogfighting from arrests in 2003 and 2005, as well as a 2003 charge of steroid possession.
Harris was found guilty of eight counts of cruelty to animals, a misdemeanor, from the 2005 case.
In late February, Willard found Harris guilty of 16 counts of animal cruelty in the earlier case. On Monday, Willard gave Harris a three-year suspended sentence for those charges but put him on probation for that period and ordered him to perform 150 hours of community service. Harris also will have to pay a $5,000 fine to the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Harris' attorney said Willard's decision was fair because prosecutors from District Attorney Eddie Jordan's office never proved that Harris had fought his dogs, such as by producing an eyewitness to a fight.
"This was a guy raising dogs in an area that was too small," Frank Larre said, adding that all the dogs at Harris' home in eastern New Orleans had adequate shelter despite the cramped space. Larre put on several defense witnesses who described Harris' dogs as playful and friendly.
But Laura Maloney, the Louisiana SPCA's executive director, said the outcome was "very disappointing" and that many judges don't take dogfighting cases seriously.
Maloney, who testified at the trials, said police searched Harris' home and found copies of "underground" dogfighting magazines as well as medicines and equipment typically used by people who fight dogs. The dogfighting magazines mentioned Harris' business, New Orleans Dog Pound Kennels, as having won dogfights, Maloney said.
During the trial before Willard, prosecutors portrayed Harris as a man who both kept far too many dogs at his house and also owned equipment and medicines linked to dogfighting.
They brought forward two cases, starting first with a 2003 arrest by the New Orleans Police Department that uncovered 19 pit bulls, many of which were chained in Harris' back yard. Police also found a treadmill that experts said often is used to bulk up fighting dogs; a type of stick commonly used to pull two dogs who are locked in a bite apart from each other; and a breeding stand used to force hostile dogs to mate.
"Individually, those things as a stand-alone may not indicate dogfighting, but all together they do," Maloney said.
Assistant District Attorney Karen Calderon and Ian MacLaren, a student at the Loyola Law Clinic, also tried to convince Willard that evidence collected during a February 2005 State Police raid at Harris' home showed that he continued fighting his dogs even as he was being charged for that crime.
Trooper Jacob Dickinson told the judge that in February 2005, the State Police found 12 dogs living in dirty, unkempt conditions, with feces littering their living areas, blood spattered on their cages, and no food or water.
But Willard found Harris innocent of all the felony charges against him, including 13 counts of dogfighting and the drug count of possessing the steroid without a prescription.
Prosecutor Calderon called the judge's decision on the drug charge particularly disappointing because the defense never disputed that he had the steroid at his house.
The proceedings before Willard became tempestuous at times, with the judge at one point directing a sheriff's deputy to escort Calderon from the courtroom after she argued with him about allowing Dr. Wendy Wolfson, the Louisiana SPCA's veterinarian, to testify as an expert witness.
Calderon said Willard eventually let Wolfson return to the courtroom and heard her testimony. Prosecutors initially filed a writ seeking guidance about Willard's ruling from the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal, but withdrew it after the judge reversed his decision.
Wolfson testified that the scars on many of the pit bulls looked like dog bites. Wolfson did not actually examine the dogs but saw photos that were taken before animals were euthanized.
Larre repeatedly asked whether some of the scars or damage could have come from hog hunting, for example. He said Harris engaged in both the hunting of hogs with long tusks but also so-called "hog-dog" rodeos, which weren't outlawed by the Legislature until 2004. | Source: The Times Picayune - April 18, 2007
Update posted on Apr 18, 2007 - 2:35PM |
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