http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010712079877
Published December 7, 2010 in the Rutland Herald Cruelty trial cites legal allowance By SUSAN SMALLHEER Staff Writer WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — The attorney for a former Springfield therapist charged with killing a dog is seeking to have the criminal charges dismissed. In a motion filed last week in White River Junction criminal court, attorney Kevin Griffin argued that the facts in the case against Mark Koch did not support criminal charges. Griffin wrote in his motion that state law allows an animal owner to use force to protect his own animals or pet, which Griffin said was the case when Koch repeatedly kicked a German shepherd to separate it from his dog. The dog, Zoe, died later that night at the Springfield Veterinary Hospital, the result of a ruptured spleen. Koch, who at the time had an office at the Springfield Family Center, had been arraigned in August on charges of cruelty to animals. Koch admitted to kicking Zoe, who belonged to Marine Lance Cpl. Kurt Dechen, who died in Iraq in August 2006 on his 24th birthday. He was a 2001 graduate of Springfield High School. His dog lived with his parents at their home on Summer Street, next to the Family Center. “Counsel is mindful of the fact that there are certain emotional aspects to this case,” Griffin noted. “Discovery has revealed that Zoe’s previous owner was the Dechens’ son, who lost his life while fighting in the Middle East. The investigating officer was candid enough to admit that the case was ‘sensitive’ for that reason,” Griffin wrote. “However, to force a man with no prior criminal record to go through trial for taking action clearly authorized by statute is simply unfair,” the motion concludes. Koch is a marriage and family therapist, who at the time of the incident had an office at the Springfield Family Center. He now has an office in White River Junction. Griffin said Koch often brought his dog to work at the Family Center, and on the day of June 3, he saw Zoe sitting on the Dechen family’s driveway and he put a leash on his dog. But before Koch could get his dog into his car, according to Griffin, “a vicious dogfight quickly ensued and Mark kicked repeatedly at both dogs in an effort to separate them.” According to the motion, Zoe was twice the size of his dog, and his dog had begun bleeding from the snout. Griffin noted that in sworn interviews after the charges were filed, it was learned that Zoe was not restrained at the time of the attack and that the Dechen family knew Zoe was able to get loose and had bought a replacement lead for the dog but hadn’t fixed the dog’s restraint system. The motion to dismiss cites Springfield’s dog ordinance stating that residents must restrain and control their dogs, and defined a dog as a public nuisance when it bites, jumps on people or injures people, other animals and dogs. After Koch separated the two dogs, Richard Dechen took his son’s dog home, and later took her to the vet. She died during the night and an autopsy showed she died from a ruptured spleen. “The current state of evidence is there is no way to tell which kick may have caused the ruptured spleen, i.e., the first or the last, but it is likely that one of the blows lead to the ruptured spleen,” Griffin wrote. According to court records, Koch kicked the dogs five or six times, with Richard Dechen saying Koch kicked Zoe most forcefully during the last blow. A status conference in the case is slated for later this week. http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20101207/NEWS02/712079877
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