Richard Brian Daignault of Hill n' Dale faces charges of domestic battery, child abuse, and cruelty to animals stemming from a reported August 29 domestic dispute during which he allegedly threw his family's cat into a wall. The animal proceeded to "scream and roll around the floor" before dying, according to news sources. Daignault allegedly also pushed his wife and repeatedly punched his 13-year-old son in the face that evening.
State records show Daignault has a history of criminal activity starting in 1985 that includes violent acts to people and animals.
In 1995, he pleaded guilty in Clearwater to charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and burglary.
In 1998, he pleaded no contest on charges of domestic battery and cruelty to animals.
In the latest incident, authorities say his wife, Melissa Daignault, was sleeping on a couch in the living room about 11 p.m. Monday, Aug. 29, when her husband woke her up and they began arguing.
During the exchange, he pushed his wife, beat his son and threw the family cat at a wall, a sheriff's report said. Case UpdatesOne night last summer, Richard Daignault, a man with a violent, criminal past, was arrested after allegedly pushing his wife, punching his kid and killing a kitten by throwing it against a wall. He was charged in August with felony domestic battery, felony aggravated child abuse and felony cruelty to animals.
On Thursday morning, though, he pleaded guilty to the much lesser charges of misdemeanor battery and misdemeanor animal cruelty. The child abuse was dropped altogether. And even though he could have gotten up to 40 years in state prison, he was sentenced as part of the plea deal to 11 months, 29 days in the Hernando County Jail - the majority of which he's already done.
The main reason for the relatively soft resolution: His wife and his son backed off their original accounts.
"My 13-year-old son lied," Melissa Daignault said Thursday afternoon when reached by phone at her home.
"It was a great big misunderstanding, but the state attorney, being in a small town like Hernando County, they saw a man with a record and said, "Boy, we can really nail this man."'
"They have been absolutely, 100 percent adamant, and very consistent on their denial since the day after this happened," said Dave Bauer, Daignault's public defender.
Not that simple, the prosecutor said.
"The person we were trying to protect was fighting against us harder than anyone else," Assistant State Attorney Rob Lewis said Thursday afternoon. "She was protecting him. That's the way I see it."
According to the initial report from the Sheriff's Office, Richard Daignault, 38, a sheetrock worker who lives at 6253 Ogburn St., east of Brooksville, was having an argument with his 13-year-old son when he threw the kitten against the wall. The report says it "screamed" and rolled around on the floor before it died. Lewis says it had a five-minute seizure.
But Daignault's son said two days later that never happened and that he said what he said only because he was angry.
Daignault's wife backed up the teen.
Their new story went like this: Daignault and his son had gotten into a shouting match because the son was grounded and was using the phone when he wasn't allowed to.
Daignault tried to spank him. Melissa Daignault woke up from sleeping on a couch in a different room and approached the two of them to see why they were arguing.
The domestic battery charge?
"My husband moved me out of the doorway," Melissa Daignault said Thursday. "He touched me. That was it."
As for the kitten?
Someone stepped on it during the argument when the living room was dark.
Melissa Daignault asked the State Attorney's Office to drop the charges.
Lewis wouldn't do it because of Daignault's prior record. He's been in prison four times on convictions for burglary, battery and assault.
"He needs to be separated from society for as long as possible," Lewis said last fall. "He's not the guy who has a 9-to-5 job who has a bad day. This guy . . . he's the guy who gets out and goes and kills his family. . . . He is going to go in on his wife and child and beat them till they can't move."
On Thursday afternoon, though, Melissa Daignault said she couldn't wait for him to come home.
"I think my husband has sat in jail for way too long," she said.
"Our position is that the witnesses were being truthful when they recanted their story," said Bauer, the public defender. "It was in the best interest of everybody to agree to disagree and reach a compromise. That's the process of plea bargaining."
"The guy is absolutely dangerous," Lewis said Thursday.
"I do believe people can change," Melissa Daignault said. | Source: St. Petersburg Times - April 21, 2006
Update posted on Apr 28, 2006 - 2:20PM |
| Daignault, 38, of Brooksville, who was arrested in August and charged with domestic battery, aggravated child abuse and cruelty to animals, has a pretrial conference on Friday. | | Update posted on Dec 1, 2005 - 8:45PM |
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