Guilty in Laurel Canyon Park Incident : Dog-Owner Advocate Is Convicted

A man whose confrontation with animal-control officers at Laurel Canyon Park became a cause celebre among dog owners near the park has been convicted of failing to keep his dog on a leash and resisting arrest.

The incident at the park above Studio City, which earlier this year was the scene of frequent confrontations between dog owners and Los Angeles animal-control officers, was the subject of a three-day trial in Los Angeles Municipal Court. A jury Wednesday found Robert Alan Greene, 55, of West Hollywood guilty of the charges.

Crackdown Followed Dispute

Animal-control officers said Greene ran away from them on March 31 when they tried to cite him for a violation of the city’s leash law, which requires that dogs on public property be kept on leashes.

Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 30.

The four-acre Laurel Canyon Park, situated in an affluent Santa Monica Mountains neighborhood, first was the focus of a dispute between dog owners, who often let their pets run loose there, and other residents, who wanted the area used as a playground for children.

That dispute was followed by a city crackdown at the park, which led to the issuance of 74 citations to pet owners over eight weekends from March 2 to April 21.

Greene’s case was cited by dog owners belonging to a group called Park Watch that complained to city officials that the city Department of Animal Regulation used “Gestapo-type” tactics to enforce the leash law. The group lobbied for an ordinance, approved by the City Council in September, to create dog runs in city parks.

Lt. Richard Felosky, the animal-control officer who arrested Greene, said five other leash-law cases out of Laurel Canyon Park are awaiting trial.

Greene and Felosky offered radically different descriptions of the events of March 31, even disagreeing on what kind of dog Greene was walking, a 3 1/2-year-old female named Princess.

Greene said it was a mixed-breed dog, part German shepherd and part terrier. Felosky said it was a pit bull terrier apt to display dangerous and unpredictable behavior.

Greene claimed Felosky beat him about the face and put him in a choke hold during the arrest. Felosky said he merely held Greene after the dog owner tried to escape into the brush.

Greene contended that animal-control officers wanted to punish him for speaking out against their enforcement practices at hearings before the Los Angeles Animal Regulation Commission, an advisory body that recommended that officers curb their crackdown at Laurel Canyon Park.

“They’re out to get me,” he said “They want me in jail. They’re also out to get Park Watch.”

But Felosky, an animal-control officer for 17 years, responded with a charge of his own: that Park Watch members are trying to discourage enforcement of the leash law by encouraging legal fights such as Greene’s.

“It could loosely be construed as some kind of conspiracy,” said Felosky. “We have to try and put a stop to it . . . I’ve sworn to the city and the State of California to do my job in a righteous manner.”

The founder of Park Watch, Jane Purse, said an attorney in the group offered to defend Greene, but that there was no policy of offering legal backing to dog owners who contest citations.

Greene declined the attorney’s offer and represented himself in Municipal Court. “If I were found guilty, I’d only have myself to blame,” he said. “The judge told me I was a fool.”

Felosky and Green agreed on one point: that the judge in the Municipal Court case, Cary H. Nishimoto, was not happy that their canine dispute took up so much court time.

“Of all the possible things he wouldn’t want in his court, it would probably be the leash law,” Felosky said.

Nishimoto declined through a court official to comment.