10/17/08 (LA):
Expert's Exclusion Leads To Acquittal In Dog Fight Case
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A 15th District Court judge has acquitted two men of 48 counts of dog fighting.
The judge said a state prosecutor failed to provide substantial evidence of their involvement in the illegal sport. Floyd Boudreaux, 74, and his son Guy Boudreaux, 44, were on trial for three days for the charges after being arrested more than three years ago.
The men faced the charges after an investigation led Louisiana State Police officers on March 11, 2005, to seize 57 pit bulls the officers believed were being used for illegal dog fighting. The dogs were seized from the men's Youngsville home. Dog fighting has been illegal since 1982.
Investigators also seized and photographed items prosecutor Ronald Dauterive referred to as items associated with the training of dogs for dog fighting. Those included home videos, dog fighting magazines, treadmills, break sticks and steroids, among other items.
During the seizure, the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals took custody of the animals and euthanized them the next day. This left the defendants' attorney, Jason Robideaux, questioning why further investigation of the animals was not conducted before they were killed.
On Wednesday, prosecution witness Kathyrn Destreza with SPCA could not answer who gave direct orders to kill the dogs before the lead investigator and witness trooper Jacob Dickinson was notified.
The trial began Monday afternoon after the defendants waived their rights to a jury and opted for a judge to make a decision on the case. The case began to unravel for Dauterive on Wednesday after Robideaux was granted the motion to exclude the prosecution's expert witness from the case.
Kathy Strouse, a superintendent for the Chesapeake Animal Control Unit in Virginia, was brought in as an expert witness by the United States Humane Society. She was involved in the dog fighting prosecution of Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick who had pleaded guilty to a federal dog fighting conspiracy charge in August 2007.
Strouse also testified that she helped investigate and testify against another Virginia man who was convicted of dog fighting charges.
The 15th Judicial District Court Judge Kristian Earls agreed with Robideaux's argument that Strouse's experience was not adequate, as this would have been the first time she was an expert witness in a case she had not helped investigate.
She was also not considered an expert because she had not established herself as an expert through written works.
Earlier in the trial, Dauterive brought forth veterinarian Wendy Wolfson, who reviewed her evaluation of the dogs at the scene during the seizure.
She testified that many of them had scar tissue and scars on the front of their bodies, which usually results from dog fighting.
But this, Robideaux argued, is all the prosecution had that stood as evidence that dog fighting may have taken place among the dogs.
Break sticks, which are used to pry open a pit bull's mouth, were used as evidence against the defendants. But the sticks had no visible bite marks.
Home videos showed dog training and some dog fighting, but never showed either defendant as taking part of the activities. "The only evidence the state has is scars," Robideaux said adding that the veterinarian was not able to date the scars or verify who had custody of the dogs before the defendants.
Dauterive said that although no single piece of evidence conclusively pointed to the Boudreauxs engaging in dog fighting, the "cumulative nature of the evidence" demonstrated that the illegal sport was being done.
But Earls agreed that the evidence was not enough.
© X-Pro 2008
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