Sentencing of Boys Who Blinded Donkey

[Guest guest]

Please write a quick note to the Judge who'll be sentencing the culprits who

brutalized Doris the donkey & the miniature horses in Orchard Park, NY

(original information follows)

 

Tell the judge that the animals are not the only victims in this case. The

humans who love the animals are forever scarred by this incident. They not only

have to live every day with how their animals are suffering, but they live in

fear for their own safety. Every day that the perpetrators of such violence are

free to roam is yet another day people must live in fear for themselves and

their loved ones.

 

Ask the judge to give the most severe penalties allowed under law. Youthful

offender status should not even be considered.

 

The Hon. Mario J. Rossetti

Justice of the Supreme Court

92 Franklin Street

Buffalo, New York 14202

 

Original story:

 

Amid uproar, 3 in animal-abuse case plead guilty

By JANICE L. HABUDA; News Staff Reporter; 5/17/01

 

Already condemned in the court of public opinion, three of the teenagers

indicted in an Orchard Park animal-cruelty case pleaded guilty - Christopher

Fisher, 18; John Forant, 17; and Christopher Marszalek, 18 - pleaded

guilty to felony charges of burglary & aggravated cruelty to animals.

Sentencing was scheduled for Jul 27. The fourth defendant, Vincent Evan, 17,

pleaded not guilty to a felony burglary charge. No future court date was set for

him.

 

The teens are accused of breaking into the barn of the Thelen family,

neighbors of Fisher, early last month. A pregnant donkey was shot & beaten

with a BB gun & three miniature horses also were attacked. Doris, the

donkey, was left blind; she gave birth Apr 29 to a healthy jack named Theodore.

 

?I'm glad they pled guilty,? Sarah Thelen said. ?I hope they pled guilty

because they're accepting responsibility for what they did.?

 

News of the attacks sparked community outrage & petition drives urging full

prosecution by the Erie County district attorney's office. ?Quite frankly,

we took a no-plea stance right from the outset,? DA Frank J. Clark said.

 

The burglary charge carries the most serious potential penalty: from 2 1/2

to seven years in prison; the animal-cruelty charge has a maximum penalty of

two years in jail and a $5,000 fine.

 

Rosetti told the three he'd consider granting them youthful-offender status,

which would limit the sentence to 4 yrs, vacate criminal charges & seal their

records. All four were allowed to remain free on the $2,500 bail each of them

posted previously.

 

It is unknown whether public outcry was a factor in the guilty pleas, which

the district attorney said are ?highly unusual? at arraignment. The teens

declined to comment as they left the courtroom with their attorneys.

 

Clark said his office received correspondence about the case from as far

away as British Columbia. ?We received petitions with thousands & thousands of

signatures,? he said.

 

Community reaction was a factor in his office's position on the case, but

not the only one. ?I don't substitute the community's judgment for my judgment,?

Clark said. ?I'm a member of the community, too. I was moved by the

senselessness of the whole thing.?

 

 

 

 

 

Humans are a disease, a cancer of this planet, and we are the cure... GO VEGAN!

 

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