WESTMINSTER : D.A. Says No Deal in Dog Beating Case

The attorney for a Fountain Valley man who is charged with beating the family collie portrayed his client Friday as “not the type of person who abuses animals.”

Richard Eugene Griffith Jr., 36, was arrested May 6 after a neighbor captured on videotape the alleged assault of his 1-year-old dog, Jazzy.

Griffith was charged on two felony counts of cruelty to an animal and has pleaded not guilty. Deputy District Atty. James W. Hicks said Griffith faces a maximum three years and eight months in prison and a $20,000 fine if convicted on both counts.

“In my opinion, he shouldn’t go down on a felony count,” Griffith’s attorney, Mark N. Phillips, said Friday. “The dog was never injured. . . . I think it’s emotions that are running the case.”

Griffith, an insurance broker, appeared in Municipal Court in Westminster for a pretrial hearing Friday. But the case was continued until Sept. 2.

“We’re trying to work out a disposition for both sides,” Phillips said, adding that Griffith “cares for the dog.”

Police said the videotape shows the dog, with its mouth taped shut, being beaten with a wooden-handled garden tool in the back yard of Griffith’s house on La Carta Avenue.

“He did some of those acts--but the motivation behind the acts that led to what they’re calling cruelty to an animal is the question,” Phillips said.

Phillips added that the dog’s mouth was taped closed because she had just “nipped” Griffith’s daughter, and he was trying to discipline the dog so it wouldn’t nip him too.

Phillips contended that because the dog was not physically injured, Griffith, who is married and the father of four young children, should not face animal cruelty charges.

“The dog was neither maimed, mutilated, wounded or tortured,” he said.

Hicks disagreed, saying that “given the nature of the case and the facts of the case, I’m not interested in making a deal.”

Fountain Valley Police Sgt. Dann Bean said the dog has been temporarily placed with a Garden Grove family, where it is doing “very well.”

The dog was taken to the county animal control shelter the day after Griffith’s arrest. Police received a flood of calls from angry dog lovers that prompted authorities to remove it from Griffith’s home.

Bean said that while the dog was at the county shelter it lost weight and was distraught.

Where the dog will live permanently will depend on the outcome of the case.