Teacher Acquitted in Rabbit’s Death

A jury has acquitted a former Huntington Park middle school teacher of animal cruelty charges stemming from a dissection experiment last year in which he suffocated a rabbit in front of his special education students.

The jury decided that Godwin Collins Onunwah, a former seventh-grade teacher at Gage Middle School, did not act maliciously when he placed a rabbit in a plastic bag, tied the end shut and then waited for the animal to die.

“Since the purpose of euthanizing an animal is dissection for a biology class, I didn’t think any evidence of malice existed, and apparently the jury agreed,” said Onunwah’s attorney, Floyd Aragon.

The verdict represented a stark reversal from the teacher’s first trial, in which a jury deadlocked 11 to 1 for conviction. Onunwah, who was not rehired by the district when his contract expired in June, was not available for comment Wednesday.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ken Von Helmolt, who handled the case, said jurors were unsure that Onunwah intended to commit an illegal act. He maintains that the defendant’s actions were troubling. “If I had a child in the seventh grade, I would not want the teacher to do that,” he said.

The incident occurred last September, a few days after Onunwah asked his students to bring in animals for classroom dissection experiments. The black and white rabbit was brought in by a 13-year-old boy who had bought it at a pet store with his father.

Onunwah placed the rabbit in the bag, but it was still alive at the end of class. Onunwah then put the bag with the live rabbit inside in a cabinet and left for the weekend. On Monday, the rabbit was dead and Onunwah called authorities to dispose of the carcass.

The charges were filed after complaints from irate parents and an investigation by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Onunwah, who joined the district in 1998, faced a year in jail and a $20,000 fine if convicted.