Man Accused of Habitually Beating His Dog : Law enforcement: A Fountain Valley resident is arrested after neighbors videotaped incidents, police said.

Police arrested a Fountain Valley man Friday on suspicion of kicking, stoning and beating his collie with a garden tool, after taping the dog’s mouth closed, which was videotaped by neighbors, authorities said.

Richard Eugene Griffith, Jr., 36, was arrested at his Huntington Beach insurance office, and booked at the city jail on $5,000 bail, police said.

On Thursday, authorities filed two felony counts of cruelty to an animal against Griffith in Westminster Municipal Court alleging “the continual beating of the family’s 1-year-old pet collie, named ‘Jazzy,’ ” Sgt. Dann Bean said.

“Concerned neighbors reported the incidents to Fountain Valley police and actually videotaped the beatings, which included Griffith kicking the collie, throwing rocks at her and beating her with a wooden handled garden tool,” Bean said. “The video depicts Griffith taping Jazzy’s mouth shut before striking her with the garden tool numerous times.”

Monica Griffith declined to comment on the charges against her husband but said that Jazzy was still in the walled back yard of the family’s two-story home on the 10900 block of La Carta Avenue Friday evening.

Mark N. Phillips, Griffith’s attorney, said his client would not comment on the charges until after they are allowed to see the videotape.

Pauline Younkin, whose back yard borders the Griffiths’, said, “The dog was abandoned during the day and did bark and bark and bark. My husband was more annoyed than I was.”

Younkin said that about two weeks ago, an anonymous letter appeared in neighborhood mailboxes, urging people who were bothered by the dog’s barking to write the Griffiths and complain.

“I gather the person who wrote this anonymous letter was pretty upset about it. The letter also said that the dog is never allowed in the house and is out in all weather.”

On March 30, a Fullerton man was sentenced to 60 days’ confinement after pleading no contest to charges that he killed a neighbor’s golden retriever by taping its mouth shut, because, he said, its barking gave him headaches.

Robert Steven Sakall, 39, also was sentenced to 250 hours of community service and three years of probation.

Orange County Municipal Court Judge Richard E. Behn ordered that Sakall’s community service should be related to the care of animals.