ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 2, 1996 TAG: 9610020038
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
The owner of two pit bull terriers that mauled two small dogs during a rampage through a Roanoke neighborhood was found not guilty Tuesday of keeping dangerous dogs.
General District Judge William Broadhurst said he was dismissing the charge against Geraldine Harper only because there was no evidence that she knew her pets were dangerous before the Aug. 28 incident.
The pit bulls were not so fortunate. Both dogs - Al Capone and Boss - died after being shot by a police officer who had responded to complaints that they had killed a poodle on McDowell Avenue Northwest and bitten a 1-year-old Labrador mix on nearby Madison Avenue.
After hearing witnesses describe the attacks, Broadhurst said he had no doubt the dogs were dangerous and that he would have ordered them destroyed had they not been shot by police. The judge said the officer was justified in shooting the dogs.
"They were all over the place," a woman who witnessed the attack on the poodle testified. "They were the most vicious dogs I've ever seen in my life."
But because the dogs had no prior history of violence, Broadhurst said he could not convict Harper.
Harper said the dogs broke out of a pen behind her Madison Avenue home and were acting unusually aggressive because one of them was in heat.
Harper agreed to pay $88 in fines and court costs on charges of allowing the dogs to run at large and not having a license and rabies vaccination for one of them.
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