Dangerous dog case thrown out despite fatal attack

Several Georgetown residents have been waiting weeks to tell a judge about two dogs they say have been putting them on edge for months after attacking neighbors and family dogs.

Sitting in the hall outside a Justice of the Peace Court in Dover Oct. 17, April Cleveland, Sandy Baker, Donaldo Ramirez, Mary Cahill and her daughter couldn't wait to tell their story. They had received subpoenas for a dangerous dog hearing to determine whether a dog that killed Ramirez's toy poodle Sept. 18 was too dangerous to return home.

But they never got the chance.

The dangerous dog hearing didn't proceed because the judge threw out the case. The defendant’s attorney had the case dismissed because state animal-control officers failed to request the hearing in the legally required 72 hours after finding the dog's owner. Delaware Animal Services officers, who had no attorney, presented no legal excuse for failing to meet that deadline.

The dog's owners, Valerie Taylor and her son Kevaughn Taylor, were overcome with joy at the judge's decision. They not only got to pick up their dog, Moka, and take her home that day, but the ruling also waived the $25 per day boarding fees that had been racking up since the state seized the dog Sept. 18.

“Technicality or not, the law is the law, and they should have followed it,” Valerie Taylor said. “They don't know what they're doing, and their officers need to be trained on the statutes.”

The Taylors' neighbors, however, were less than pleased.

“I am disgusted,” Cahill said. Cahill, who lives on Nancy Street a couple blocks from the Taylors, says she and her toy poodle were attacked by the Taylors' two pit bulls, Moka and DC, in September 2015.

Shortly before that attack, which was reported to the Georgetown Police Department at the time, there had been another attack on Nancy Street involving the same dogs, the neighbors say. That's when Cleveland began keeping track of incidents she says involved Moka and DC.

But Cleveland's record of complaints, which includes emails from former animal-control officers, doesn't match the Office of Animal Welfare's – the agency created in 2013 to handle dog control and other animal-welfare issues.

That may be because when the office took over dog-control complaints in January 2016, state officials failed to obtain records previously kept by First State Animal Center and SPCA, which handled dog control from 2006 to 2015.

Outgoing OAW Director Hetti Brown, who recently announced she'd be leaving the organization in December, admitted no records were transferred when the state took over dog control Jan. 1, 2016. She blamed First State for not using a statewide incident reporting system.

“So a dog died because two agencies didn't play nice in the sandbox? That really stinks,” Cleveland said. “This has been long and drawn out. When you send your son out to take a dog for a walk, you shouldn't have to say take the baseball bat with you. This has got everybody on edge.”

Brown said she attempted to work with First State officials during the transition of animal-control duties, but to no avail. First State Executive Director Kevin Usilton said Brown did not attempt to transfer files, and that no one from the state agency has requested additional records since taking over animal control at the beginning of the year.

“Unless it was a serious enough case that charges were filed in the court, they don't know who has been charged with violations for animal cruelty, neglect, dogs running at large,” Usilton said. “They never asked how we operated or who we had issues with. There was no transition. OAW has never asked us for copies of incidents, so they have no idea of the history of an address, an owner or an animal.”

Usilton corroborated some of the incidents reported by Cleveland, dating back to fall 2015, but Taylor argues Cleveland may have falsified the number of attacks involving Moka and DC.

The Office of Animal Welfare only confirmed one attack in July and the fatal attack in September.

“When our officers checked criminal history for the dog owner in question, there were no past citations for dog-related incidents,” department spokeswoman Andrea Wojcik said in an email.

Although the dangerous dog hearing was tossed out of court, Valerie Taylor still faces two citations for the July attack and Kevaughn Taylor faces several charges for the September incident.

Regardless of any past incidents involving the two dogs, state officers have missed the chance for a dangerous dog hearing. Because the judge dismissed the case with prejudice, state officials cannot refile for a dangerous dog hearing based on the September attack, meaning it will take another serious incident to bring the Taylors back to court.

As for Cleveland and her neighbors, they’re left with few options.

“They keep telling me to call back,” said Donaldo Ramirez, who owned the poodle killed last month. “I can't understand this system. I'm angry with the system. It's not fair.”

Valerie Taylor said she doesn't expect that to happen, and plans to install a fence around her yard to keep the dogs contained. DC has been neutered and Taylor said she plans to spay Moka in the near future, and the Taylors have purchased shock collars for both dogs.

Cleveland, who said she still worries for her safety and will continue to carry pepper spray when she walks around the neighborhood, said she plans to work with her neighbors to contact an attorney about a possible civil suit.

“I can’t believe they didn’t even ask us to talk,” Cleveland said. “We're the recipients of OAW's problems. And, one way or another, those dogs are going to get someone or something.”