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Case #5150 Rating: 3.0 out of 5
Cat doused with gasoline, set on fire
Northbridge, MA (US)Incident Date: Sunday, May 22, 2005
County: Worcester
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Allan Bessette
Case Updates: 3 update(s) available
The 42-year-old Northbridge man who was arrested and charged with cruelty to animals on June 14 in connection with a cat that had been doused with gasoline and set on fire in May 2005, was back in court on July 20.
Allan Bessette, of Church Ave., Northbridge, was arraigned in Uxbridge District Court in June, and was scheduled for pretrial July 20. He was ordered in June to be held on $5,000 cash bail on the charge of cruelty to animals.
However, he had several other outstanding matters, according to a court official, and was subsequently ordered held without bail. Mr. Bessette is being held at the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction in West Boylston
Mr. Bessette's court-appointed lawyer, Gregg L. Bertonazzi, requested more time for discovery, and Assistant District Attorney Mark Murphy agreed to the request.
Robert B. Calagione, first justice of Milford District Court, presided yesterday. The new pretrial date has been set for Aug. 16.
Mr. Bessette could face five years in state prison on the cruelty to animal charge.
Upon Mr. Murphy's request, Judge Calagione ordered all interested parties to stay away from each other.
Case UpdatesNorthbridge man will serve one year in the House of Correction after pleading guilty yesterday to an animal cruelty charge for burning a stray cat last spring.
Judge John McCann sentenced Allan Bessette, 42, to 2 1/2 years in the House of Correction, with one year to serve. As Bessette was already serving time for a probation violation from his June arrest, the owners of the burned cat, Phoenix, believe the sentence is "a slap in the face."
"Here's a guy that commits two crimes, and he serves one sentence," said Karl Chapin of Grafton, formerly of Uxbridge. Chapin and his wife, Patricia, adopted Phoenix after finding him May 22 on the roadside near West Hill Dam Park. The couple has raised more than $23,000 for Phoenix's veterinarian services. While Chapin said Phoenix has recovered well after his three-month stay at Tufts University animal hospital in Grafton, the cat still has open sores from the burns.
The balance of Bessette's 2 1/2 years will be suspended for five years. If Bessette breaks the conditions of his probation (psychological evaluation, counseling as a recommendation, substance abuse evaluation and random urine testing), he will serve the remaining 1 1/2 years.
"It's like he got away with it, as far as I'm concerned," Chapin said. He said he finds little comfort in the fact that Bessette has been convicted of animal cruelty, which is a felony.
Bessette and his 15-year-old son were accused of setting the cat on fire last spring in a trap on Quaker Street in Northbridge.
The district attorney's office had asked the judge to sentence Bessette to 2 1/2 years in the House of Correction, with 15 months to serve. Had the judge agreed with these terms, the balance of Bessette's sentence would be suspended for two years, and the term would run after his other unrelated sentence ran out.
Bessette has been in the House of Correction since September, when he was sentenced to 2 1/2 years for a probation violation.
Chapin said Bessette turned to him yesterday in court, and apologized for burning Phoenix.
"I told him, 'You've got nothing to do with me,'" Chapin said. "'This is between you and Phoenix.'" | Source: Milford Daily News - Jan 24, 2006
Update posted on Jan 24, 2006 - 12:18AM |
Allan Bessette pleaded not guilty on October 14. Bessette, 42, was arraigned in Worcester Superior Court. Judge Leila R. Kern set bail at $5,000 cash. Bessette had been sentenced in September to 2 1/2 years in jail for a probation violation from his June arrest.
Bessette was indicted last month in Worcester Superior Court on an animal cruelty charge.
A Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals official said Bessette is not the first person to be indicted for felony animal cruelty charges in Massachusetts and likely will not be the last.
Bessette and his 15-year-old son are accused of setting a cat on fire this spring in a trap on Quaker Street in Northbridge. An Uxbridge couple found the cat May 22 in their town, named it Phoenix, and established a fund for his mounting veterinary bills.
Bessette faces up to five years in state prison, the maximum penalty for the animal cruelty charge, which became a felony last November. District Attorney John Conte has called the crime "dastardly," and said after Bessette's indictment last month that his office would seek the maximum penalty.
Prior to last November, Giacoppo said, Bessette's case would have been prosecuted as a misdemeanor.
He said the Phoenix case was a "prime example" of how the elevated felony status for such a charge is beneficial.
"Several years ago, this would have been charged under a different law," Giacoppo said. "Sadly, the old law was put in place in the 1800s to protect people's property. Farmers would kill each other's livestock, to give them an upper hand with animals as resources.
"(Phoenix) was a stray cat. Prosecutors wouldn't have been able to prove ownership, so they wouldn't have been able to charge them with the felony. The elevated status makes it easier to prosecute. It shows that animal cruelty is a serious crime. Having it as a misdemeanor devalues the nature of the incident."
The first people to be indicted under the felony law were two Southampton men convicted this year of cruelty charges after hacking a dog and cat with an ax, Giacoppo said.
One of the men was sentenced to six months in jail in June, after admitting he watched his friend kill the animals, the Boston Herald reported.
State Sen. Richard T. Moore, D-Uxbridge, sponsored the legislation last year that elevated the charge to a felony. Moore worked on the bill after a Douglas family found their dog mutilated in the woods near their home.
"My hope was, by raising the stakes, law enforcement would find it more important to pursue," Moore said.
Uxbridge Police Chief Scott Freitas said his department would have worked just as hard to solve the case had the charge been a misdemeanor. However, he added, the felony made the arresting process go more smoothly.
Uxbridge and Northbridge police worked collaboratively to arrest the men, he said.
"It's easier. You don't have to go through summonses," Freitas said. "In the long run, having it a felony with a potential for a more serious punishment, is something I certainly support. Statistically speaking, people who torture animals have a high potential to be violent to people."
Patricia and Karl Chapin of Uxbridge adopted Phoenix after finding him May 22 on the roadside near West Hill Dam Park, and have closely followed Bessette's case.
"We are supposed to be a civilization -- to be civil," Patricia Chapin said after Bessette's first scheduled arraignment last week, which was postponed to yesterday. "What (Bessette) did to that animal was not civil. And, it's a very short leap to a human being."
She said Phoenix, who has received more than $23,000 in veterinarian services and stayed for three months at Tufts University animal hospital in Grafton, is doing well and recently started playing with one of the couple's other cats.
"I told Phoenix, before we left for the arraignment, 'I'm going to get the bad guy,'" Chapin said.
Bessette next appears in court Nov. 21 for a pre-trial conference. | Source: Milford Daily News - Oct 15, 2005
Update posted on Oct 16, 2005 - 9:25PM |
A 42-year-old Northbridge man has been indicted on a charge of animal cruelty in the burning of a cat.
A Worcester County grand jury handed down an indictment on Sept 15, charging Allan Bessette, of 96 Church St., Northbridge, with one count of animal cruelty. The cat was doused with gasoline on May 22 while in a trap in the woods.
The indictment will move the case to Worcester Superior Court, where Mr. Bessette will be arraigned at a future date. A six-man jury trial was scheduled for Worcester District Court, but because of the grand jury indictment, the District Court case will be dismissed.
"We felt it was a crime that was significant enough to present to the grand jury," District Attorney John J. Conte said yesterday. "This is a serious matter."
Mr. Bessette was arrested by Northbridge police June 14 and charged with cruelty to animals after a weeklong investigation.
Northbridge Police Officer Lisa M. Lasala and Detective Sgt. Shawn P. Heney received information about possible suspects in the case in early June. A joint investigation between the Uxbridge and Northbridge police departments began, and many interviews were conducted. Those interviews revealed that a man and a boy had told several residents of the Rockdale section of Northbridge about their involvement in the burning of the cat.
Police said the pair had been trapping cats that they believed to be strays in the neighborhood. Several cats were believed to be released around the West Hill Dam area in Northbridge and Uxbridge.
Police allege that the pair trapped this particular cat in a Havahart live animal catch trap and took it to the "lookout rock area" on Quaker Street in Northbridge. The pair allegedly poured gasoline on the cat while he was still in the trap and set him on fire.
Police said the cat was released from the trap and ran underneath Mr. Bessette's truck. The pair then threw rocks at the cat, police said, to get it from underneath the truck, because Mr. Bessette was afraid the cat would set the truck on fire. The cat reportedly ran off into the woods and was later found alive by a couple in Uxbridge.
As part of their investigation, police recovered a trap with burn and singe marks on it. After interviewing the suspects, Northbridge police made the arrests.
The maximum penalty for the animal cruelty charge is up to five years in prison.
Mr. Bessette was initially arraigned in Uxbridge District Court in June. He was ordered held on $5,000 cash bail on the charge of cruelty to animals. However, he had several other outstanding matters, according to a court official, and was subsequently ordered held without bail at the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction in West Boylston. The boy was released to the custody of his mother until his arraignment in Milford Juvenile Court at a later date.
Mr. Bessette was found guilty a couple of years ago for assault and battery and resisting arrest in connection with a Nov. 29, 2003, offense. He was ordered to be placed on probation. In addition to the grand jury indictment this week, there also was a probation surrender hearing for Mr. Bessette held in Uxbridge District Court on Wednesday. He was found in violation of his probation order stemming from the Nov. 29, 2003, offense. He was committed to the House of Correction for 2-1/2 years.
There also is a second assault and battery case pending against Mr. Bessette in Central District Court stemming from an offense earlier this year.
Patricia A. and Karl D. Chapin of Uxbridge were on a Sunday drive home May 22 when they discovered a cat sitting on the side of Hartford Avenue East near West Hill Dam park. They said the cat was shaking violently, injured and severely burned.
Mr. Chapin immediately called the Uxbridge police that day, and he eventually captured the cat. The couple rushed the cat - who was burned over more than 85 percent of his body - to the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University in North Grafton, and accepted full financial responsibility for the cat. The cat, which Mrs. Chapin named Phoenix, underwent over $20,000 of major medical treatment for burns that covered almost all of his body, with the exception of his face and paws. Even his ears suffered burns.
The Chapins took Phoenix home when he was released from Tufts Aug. 26 after the three-month stay, the longest stay for a cat at Tufts. Mr. Chapin said yesterday, "He is doing unbelievable." | Source: Worcester Telegraph - Sept 16, 2005
Update posted on Sep 19, 2005 - 7:04PM |
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