Commonwealth v. Szewczyk (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-083-16)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us 15-P-155 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. STANLEY F. SZEWCZYK. No. 15-P-155. Hampshire. December 14, 2015. – July 14, 2016. Present: Grainger, Hanlon, & Agnes, JJ. Dog. Animal. Practice, Criminal, Findings by judge. Complaint received and sworn to in the Northampton Division of the District Court Department on June 10, 2014. The case was heard by Jacklyn M. Connly, J. Thomas P. Vincent for the defendant. Thomas H. Townsend, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. HANLON, J. After a jury-waived trial in the District Court, the defendant was convicted of one count of cruelty to an animal in violation of G. L. c. 272, § 77. He now appeals, arguing that the judge erred in denying three of his eleven requests for rulings of law, pursuant to Mass. R. Crim. P. 26, 378 Mass. 897 (1979).[1] We affirm. Background. The judge heard the following facts. Amy Lovell moved with her partner and two children to a new home in Hatfield in October, 2013; the family planned to farm. The farm was also home to a cat, ten goats, approximately twenty-five chickens, and a sheepdog named Kiera. On January 26, 2014, Lovell noticed that Kiera, who had been tied with a nylon leash to the woodshed in Lovell’s yard, had chewed through the leash and wandered off the property.[2] Lovell and her partner got in their truck to search for the dog; they found her a short distance away standing uncharacteristically still in the middle of the street in front of the defendant’s house.[3] When they drove up, Lovell noticed the dog was holding up her hind leg. Whereas, normally, she would have jumped into the truck, this time, she had to be lifted into the truck to be brought home. Once there, Lovell noticed drops of blood on the kitchen floor and, when she looked closer, she found a small, round hole in the dog’s hind leg with blood coming from it. The dog whined and tried to lick the wound and was unable to walk. The next day, Lovell brought the dog to a veterinarian. An X-ray showed a pellet lodged deep in the dog’s left flank, very close to the bone. The dog was returned to the veterinarian two days later for surgery to remove the pellet; the doctor […]