Dog baiting, animal torture and choking allegedly took place just behind a Roosevelt elementary school off a path frequented by young children, police said.
In mid-February, a humane society investigator said he noticed the mother of the pit bull puppies tethered to an inches-long leash and unable to lie down, finally hanging to death from exhaustion.
Then, days later, he noticed a puppy being dangled by his owner over the nose of a violent adult male pit bull, who responded by taking a bite out of the puppy's head, officials said.
These incidents, coming on the heels of months of complaints from neighbors, resulted in the arrest on Feb 20 of Geofreda Rivera, 21, of 7 Park Ave. He was using the puppies as bait while training the adult male pit bull to be a lucrative dog fighter, according to Nassau police and Marc Jurnow, the executive director of Ispeak in Plainview, a humane society.
Rivera was charged with aggravated cruelty to animals - a felony punishable by up to two years in prison - torturing animals and prohibition animal fighting, police said.
Observation of Rivera's home began in late fall, when teachers from a nearby elementary school contacted Ispeak after noticing that the puppies were being kept outside day and night during the wintry weather with no shelter, Jurnow said.
The 10 puppies reported to be alive at the beginning of the winter soon dwindled to five, Jurnow said. The remaining pups were covered by an overhang, but that area was covered in feces, investigators said.
"They were being kept outside day and night and were being forced to drink out of puddles," said Det. Lt. Andrew Fal of Nassau's First Squad. "It was sad."
Then the two incidents in mid-Feb were even worse, Fal said. In addition to the female who hung herself, the puppy waved over the fighter's face already had a missing eye, which led investigators to believe that the fighter had already in the past bitten the pup's eye out, according to Jurnow and Fal.
Police raided the home at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb 20. When the officers got there, it took nearly 10 of them to restrain the fighting pit bull, finally tackling him to the ground, Jurnow said.
"And he still kept fighting," said Jurnow. "When these dogs get vicious you can't stop them."
Fal said police recovered the fighting dog, a 1-year-old pit bull and the five puppies. Jurnow said that during Monday's raid he recognized several people at the home from the illegal dog fighting industry.
"Some of them were involved in a raid we did in March also in Roosevelt," Jurnow said. "Unfortunately we're seeing dog fighting all over the place now."
Authorities also learned that the mother who hung herself was buried in the backyard, and the pup with the injured eye was being hidden in the basement, Jurnow said.
At his arraignment at First District Court in Hempstead, Rivera was held on bail of $10,000 cash or $16,000 bond. Case UpdatesThe Roosevelt man who police said used puppies to incite dogs he was training to fight has pleaded guilty to one count of felony cruelty to animals, according to the Nassau district attorney's office.
The arrest in February of Geofreda Rivera, 22, came after complaints from neighbors, who told police they believed Rivera was training fighting dogs.
Police and a humane society representative say that Rivera had 10 pit bull dogs, many of them puppies, chained up in and around his Roosevelt home earlier this year.
During an investigation last fall, a humane society investigator discovered an adult female pit bull who was chained on a leash so short she hanged herself. The investigator also reported seeing Rivera dangle a puppy above an adult pit bull, which bit the puppy.
Another puppy was partially blinded by an injury police believe was inflicted by an adult dog. Dogs were also observed chained up during the winter in a feces-covered area outside Rivera's home.
Police recovered a 1-year-old male pit bull and five puppies during the February raid of Rivera's house.
The case "was pursued aggressively," said Eric Phillips, spokesman for Nassau district attorney. "We told the defendant from the beginning that we were looking for jail time."
Rivera's attorney, Anthony Piacentini of Port Washington, said he expects his client to receive less than the maximum 11/3 to 4 years in prison for the felony. Rivera entered his plea on Tuesday.
"The promise from the judge is that he gets no more than 6 months in jail and 5 years probation," Piacentini said. Two other charges for torturing animals and animal fighting were dropped.
Rivera is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 16. | Source: NY Newsday - Sept 21, 2006
Update posted on Oct 2, 2006 - 1:38PM |
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