A few weeks ago I posted here that the Denver prosecutor offered me an attractive plea deal to make the case against my cat Ichabod go away. They said all I had to do was plead guilty in something called a “deferred judgement.” I would pay around $350 in restitution and the charge would disappear after a year. What I failed to understand at the time was that what they meant by “disappear” included a stipulation of court-supervised probation.
This could mean me visiting a probation officer every month. Peeing in a cup. The whole nine yards.
For those of you just catching up this whole thing started back in June when my cat Ichabod was sleeping in my garden box by the sidewalk and a dog attacked him. In the scuffle that followed he bit the dog’s owner and I ended up with a court summons.
I’m incredibly lucky that I didn’t take the deal that day. Instead I chose to mull over my options and wait to see what evidence would show up in the discovery process.
I also retained a lawyer.
Justie Nicol at Colorado Law Team accompanied my to court on Tuesday and got the full rundown from the prosecution. Nicol was not surprised to that I could get confused by the deal I’d been offered. “This why people need lawyers.”
To some degree, this entire situation is akin to what every single person who appears in an American criminal court.
“Take this and you magnify it. It's a small, minor thing in most of our lives. It's a cat, it's a petty offense, it's silly. But what plays out here plays out on the grander scheme of things, too. So I have clients who are charged with major offenses, sex offenses, right? That they're in the same position, like, ‘What am I doing? I'm facing life in prison. I'm innocent, but I can't take that risk.’ And you get people who are innocent pleading guilty every day,” said Nicol.
To make things just a little worse, it seems that the dog owner has been lying to animal control (or the animal control is making errors in their report) about the basic facts of what happened. Including the fact that I offered to pay her medical bills immediately after the incident.
Here’s an excerpt from the police report (I’ve redacted the dog-owners name).
You can see the exchange between my and the dog owner’s husband below
What really upsets me about this is that rather than settling this issue like two responsible adults—with me offering to write a check immediately even though I knew my cat was provoked—she opted to use the court system to collect the exact same money I was going to give her anyway. In doing so she compelled the city to pursue criminal charges.
To be clear: Ichabod is innocent. In Denver it’s legal to have your cat roam outside. He only bit the dog owner when she tried to break up the two animals while they were fighting.
It gets all the more absurd because the entire event happened on my property and the sidewalk and garden bed that I maintain. The dog attacked my cat while it was napping. Ichabod is 5 years old and has never once attacked anyone or anything else in his life.
Under Denver Municipal Code: Sec. 8-61. - Animal attack or bite, animals that are “Provoked, tormented, abused, or inflicted injury upon in such a manner as to result in the attack or bite” are clear of wrong doing.
Luckily, I have security footage that proves my case and I’m prepared to go all the way.
For anyone who want’s to join the #FreeIchabod movement you’ll be happy to know that I have shirts available for anyone who wants them! Check out the full selection on my YouTube Shop.
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