Sand objects to ‘character’ witnesses in dog cruelty case

The attorney for a Hartland mental health counselor who is charged with animal cruelty for kicking a Springfield dog to death wants to present at least six “character” witnesses during his upcoming trial.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110614/NEWS02/706149924

Published June 14, 2011 in the Rutland Herald

Sand objects to ‘character’ witnesses in dog cruelty case

By SUSAN SMALLHEER

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — The attorney for a Hartland mental health counselor who is charged with animal cruelty for kicking a Springfield dog to death wants to present at least six “character” witnesses during his upcoming trial.

But Robert Sand, the Windsor County state’s attorney, has objected, saying that the criminal offense Mark Koch is charged with — animal cruelty — is a “strict liability crime” and thus doesn’t include issues such as Koch’s state of mind at the time of the incident.

Koch, 58, of Hartland, who used to have an office at the Springfield Family Center, has pleaded innocent to charges of animal cruelty in connection with the death of a white German shepherd named Zoe, owned by the Dechen family of Springfield.

The Dechens are neighbors of the Family Center.

Koch, a former Roman Catholic priest who now is a therapist practicing in White River Junction and Hartland, has vehemently denied the charges, claiming he was only defending his own dog.

Sand filed a motion last month objecting to attorney Kevin Griffin’s intention to call six witnesses in Koch’s defense who would talk about his “character,” according to court documents.

Sand said in his motion to strike the character witnesses that in some criminal cases the defense was entitled to put on evidence “of a pertinent trait of character,” but animal cruelty was not one of them.

“The statute under which defendant is charged is a ‘strict liability’ offense for which the state need only prove that defendant acted VOLUNTARILY (underlined). As such, the state need not prove defendant’s state of mind at the time of the alleged kick,” he wrote.

Griffin had until last Wednesday to respond to Sand’s motion to strike, but hadn’t as of Monday morning, according to court personnel in White River Junction. Griffin couldn’t be reached for comment Monday either.

“The motion raises an interesting issue,” said Sand in an interview Monday. “I’m not sure there’s a lot of law” on the issue.

In his motion, he noted “it does not matter why defendant committed the alleged act nor does it matter if he is not the type of person who would kick a dog. The only issue is whether he voluntarily kicked the dog and whether it was objectively unreasonable to do so.”

Koch’s attorney has already tried to get the charges against him dismissed, but Judge Patricia Zimmerman had rejected that bid, saying that witnesses said that it was the final kick — out of a series of kicks — that proved to be the fatal blow to Zoe.

Zoe belonged to the late Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kurt Dechen, 24, who died in Iraq, and had left his dog in his parents’ care while he was overseas.

Koch’s case is slated for a jury drawing later this week.