Posted on 07/09/2010 6:33:50 PM PDT by csvset
Abby Toll, who bound and taped an 11-pound puppy to the side of a fridge in her boyfriend's Boulder apartment last year, nearly came face to face with her victim Friday during a hearing in which a judge punished the former University of Colorado student with a 30-day jail sentence and three years of probation.
A prosecutor in the case asked Boulder County District Judge Maria Berkenkotter if the curious and energetic shiba inu Toll targeted with hair ties and packing tape could make an appearance in court while his tormentor was sentenced.
The judge denied the request, saying only service animals are allowed in court. But she took Toll to task for carrying out what she described as a “senseless and cruel” series of actions against the helpless animal, known then as Rex.
Berkenkotter described to the court how Toll painstakingly bound Rex's snout, feet and tail with packing tape and hair ties, before adhering the animal to the fridge with more tape.
“He almost certainly must have struggled,” the judge intoned several times.
She ordered that Toll be taken immediately into custody. Handcuffed, Toll was led out of the courtroom by sheriff's deputies as her mother and brother looked on, bringing to an end a bizarre case that attracted worldwide media attention and spawned a collection of Web sites condemning Toll.
Berkenkotter also ordered Toll to perform 200 hours of community service, pay $771 in restitution, and have no contact with animals while she is on probation – an order that prompted Toll to peer frantically over at her mother. Toll and her mother live with a dog in their Chicago home.
The judge credited Toll with two days credit for time already served in jail.
Just before she was escorted from the courtroom, Toll tearfully said she was “deeply sorry for what happened to Rex last year.”
“I am so ashamed,” she said. “There is no doubt that a horrible, bizarre thing happened in that apartment that night.”
She called herself an “animal lover” and said she kept Rex, who was adopted by a Castle Rock couple and renamed Yoshi, in her thoughts every day.
Toll was arrested on April 14, 2009 after police received a call of a domestic dispute at a Boulder apartment building. Inside the unit, they found an 8-month-old puppy struggling in a “tomb of tape” that had been stuck to the side of a refrigerator.
Toll admitted binding and attaching the dog to the fridge, saying she did it to get back at her boyfriend, Bryan Beck, for paying more attention to his dog than to her, according to police. She also accused Rex of biting her and acting aggressively toward her.
She was charged with felony animal cruelty. A jury found her guilty after a two-day trial in April, during which her previous attorney called no witnesses to the stand.
Prosecutor David Cheval said Toll, who faced up to 18 months in prison for the Class 6 felony conviction, should serve 90 days behind bars.
“We would like Ms. Toll to see what it's like to be confined like Yoshi, with no way to escape,” he said Friday.
Toll's lawyer, Joshua Maximon, asked for electronic home monitoring for his client and said she was the victim of a difficult childhood and a violent relationship with Beck, during which he once punched Toll in the face.
“She is a good person,” Maximon said. “This night didn't capture her in the way people know her.”
Toll's mother, Sherry, told the court that her daughter had grown up with pets and loved them dearly.
“Her history with animals is extraordinary,” she said. “Her real true love are dogs.”
Maximon told the court that Toll had struggled through her parents' bitter divorce when she was 8 years old and her father's death from cancer when she was 14.
He said she was sick and exhausted from treatment for a staph infection the morning Rex was taped to the fridge and that all she wanted to do was leave her boyfriend's apartment following a fight they had.
Beck didn't let her leave when she made several attempts to do so, Maximon said.
“He grabs her and rips her jacket as she is trying to get out of the window,” the lawyer said.
Beck was the one who actually bound the dog, Maximon said, and that his client simply stuck the animal up on the fridge. She lied to police about her role in the incident to protect her boyfriend, he said.
Cheval shot back that Toll's allegations about Beck were unfair and amounted to “character assassination” because Beck wasn't in court to defend himself.
Beck pleaded guilty last summer to misdemeanor attempted animal cruelty in the case and was given a one-year deferred sentence. Click on any photo to see full gallery
“He didn't do this. She did, and a jury found her guilty,” Cheval said. “She continues to make excuses, she continues to not take responsibility.”
The judge agreed.
“The court is concerned that Ms. Toll doesn't completely grasp the impact of her actions,” Berkenkotter said. “Ms. Toll showed no concern for Rex.”
But Berkenkotter noted that Toll had no criminal history and that family members and friends had written letters on her behalf saying her behavior last year was “out of character.”
Lisa Pearson, the other prosecutor on the case and the Boulder County District Attorney Office's animal cruelty liaison, said she was pleased that the judge decided to force Toll to spend some time behind bars.
“I think because of the methodical nature of what she did – spending time getting all the tools that she used for the torture – I think that's what really raises this to the level where jail is appropriate,” she said.
Shannnon Park, who with his wife now owns Yoshi, said the dog had nightmares for the first couple of weeks after coming off the fridge. He said Yoshi is fearful around people and other dogs he doesn't know and has had to have sessions with an animal behaviorist.
But he said he felt the sentence was fair and he hoped Toll would learn something from the incident.
“It's depressing to see a young woman make such a dramatic and sad choice in her life that will affect her profoundly,” Park said.
Ewww...going to name calling.
you never comment on the reality of psychopaths abusing animals.That is the whole point of the law.
excellant post..very articulat.e You have grasped the significance of this deranged woman’s lethal potential.
‘The pet and PETA thing is idiotic.’
I fear it is more sinister than mere idiocy. Once animal “abuse” becomes a felony, then all the mouth breathing bottom feeders like lawyers, prison personnel, probation personnel ad nauseam become lifetime feeders in the government trough.
Worse yet, the removal of property is an action striking at the core of America’s founding premises.
Who gave some government trough feeder the right to take that dog?
As a matter of fact, to give an animal to a Boulder Liberal, who will treat it as something other than an animal because it ‘has rights’, and ‘can have nightmares’ as the ickle Libroid said, is a refined form of cruelty - if one understands canids.
The fact that animal whackos are socialists says all any American needs to know. Socialism is antithetical to America.
For anyone to assume they can predict human behavior sufficiently accurately to PREVENTABLY remove any Constitution guarantee is proof positive that they have been watching too much TV.
Regarding the soft science claims in the area of “Crime Science”, it is interesting to note that even fingerprints are not the infallible science they were claimed to be. Seems many fingerprint ID’s are made by people (”experts”) who can’t reliably match prints. OOPSIE ! ! !
To grant to some government trough feeder the right to take property and imprison people on socialism based premises, as was done in this case, is to aid and abet the advance of tyranny.
Unlike Muslim communities, Boulder doesn’t need to be nuked - just remove their franchise and prevent them from sitting on a jury. They have proved themselves unable to adhere to the simplest aspects of the Constitution.
Oddly, BDS suffers like being Liberal. A well educated woman had a cougar bounce off her window (tried to jump in and attack her) and she said, as I drove up and got out of my car, “I want you to know we are Boulder Liberals” regarding her cougar problems.
She did finally admit she was thinking of buying a gun. Amazing how animal whacko thoughts fade when a real predator shows up.
Too bad she can’t recognize that America is facing socialist predators.
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