AR-News: SECOND UPDATE - NJ Cat Dragging Case, Letters Needed

[Joe Miele]

> From: New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance
> Sent: Monday, January 05, 2004 3:57 PM
> To: NJARA Action Alerts!
> Subject: [NjaraAlert] SECOND UPDATE - NJ Cat Dragging Case, Letters Needed
>
> We have just learned that Mr. Blitz, the prosecutor, is considering
> elevating the charges to a felony, but as of 3 PM today (Monday), has not
> acted. He acknowledged receiving numerous faxes, so we need to continue
> sending them, or calling, for the rest of today and tomorrow. When you
call
> the main number listed below, you have to ask for Blitz's office. The main
> operator knows nothing about this case. Additionally, you can fax Blitz at
> his personal fax line: 609-909-7803.
> ------------------------------------------
>
> PLEASE CROSS POST WIDELY
>
> On Friday, 1/2/04, we sent out an alert (copied at the end of this alert)
> asking you to contact the Atlantic CITY Prosecutor and Judge about the
> recent cat dragging case.
>
> We have learned that it is also imperative to contact the Atlantic COUNTY
> Prosecutor to urge their office to upgrade the charges to felonies. Urge
him
> to investigate this case, and if the evidence warrants it, to upgrade the
> charges to indictable offenses and to present the case to a Grand Jury.
>
> CONTACT INFO:
>
> Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office
> Jeffrey S. Blitz, Prosecutor
> PO Box 2002
> 4997 Unami Boulevard
> Mays Landing, NJ 08330
> Phone 609-909-7800 (if you call when the office is closed, you must let it
> ring quite a number of times until the voice mail allows you to leave a
> message).
> Fax: 609-909-7802
>
> The arraignment (in Atlantic City Municipal Court) is Wednesday, 1/7/04.
We
> are hoping that Mr. Blitz will intervene BEFORE the arraignment (at which
> time the defendants may plead guilty to disorderly persons offenses and be
> sentenced on those charges, rather than on felony charges). PLEASE
FAX/LEAVE
> PHONE MESSAGES FOR Mr. Blitz ASAP.
>
> Mention the following, to identify the case:
> Arraignment court date (in the Atlantic City Municipal Court): Wednesday
> 1/7/04
> Defendants names: Robert Hewitt, Jr. & Joseph Newton, Jr.
>
> AS ALWAYS, MAKE YOUR CONTACT POLITE
>
> ***************
> ORIGINAL ALERT
>
> PLEASE CROSS POST WIDELY
>
> Recently a cat was dragged to death in Atlantic City. At the end of this
> alert is an article on the case.
>
> Please contact the following, politely demanding that justice be done in
> this case. Let them know that we will all be monitoring this case closely.
>
> As the arraignment is on 1/7/04, please Fax, rather than mail, your
letters,
> if possible. There is no e-mail address for the Prosecutor or Judge.
>
> Mention the following to identify the case:
> Arraignment court date: 1/7/04
> Defendants names: Robert Hewitt, Jr. & Joseph Newton, Jr.
>
> In speaking with the SPCA officer involved we learned that she is pushing
to
> get them charged appropriately. Unfortunately, the police officer who
> witnessed the offense did not file the correct citations. The SPCA officer
> said that letters to the Prosecutor and Judge, urging that the charges be
> upgraded to felonies, will be helpful, but she stressed that the LETTERS
> MUST BE POLITE.
>
> 1. Contact the Chief Prosecutor and the Judge. Urge that the charges be
> UPGRADED FROM "DISORDERLY PERSONS OFFENSES," WHICH ARE MISDEMEANORS, TO
> FELONY CHARGES. Politely remind them that New Jersey has a FELONY animal
> cruelty law.
>
> Request that maximum penalties, along with mandatory psychological
> counseling and a ban on harboring or working with animals be levied if the
> defendants are found guilty.
>
> Contact:
>
> (a) Ms. Billie Moore
> Chief Municipal Prosecutor
> Atlantic City Prosecutor's Office
> 2715 Atlantic Avenue
> Atlantic City, NJ 08401
> Fax: (609) 347-9280
>
> (b) Judge Bruce Weekes
> Atlantic City Municipal Court
> 2715 Atlantic Avenue 2nd Floor
> Atlantic City, NJ 08401
> Fax: (609) 347-5450
>
> 2. Contact the Ocean Cable Group. It appears that the alleged animal
abusers
> may not have been suspended in a timely manner, if at all, and that the
> company may not be fully cooperating with the SPCA on this matter. Do not
> make threats to them (which they have apparently already received), just
> urge them to suspend the men (and fire them, if convicted) and to
cooperate
> with the investigation.
> Ocean Cable Group
> Somers Point, NJ
> 609-653-0844
>
> 3. Send letters to the editor to the Press of Atlantic City at:
> letters at pressofac.com
>
> *******
>
> http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/atlantic/123003CRUELCAT_D30.html
>
> December 30, 2003
>
> Cable workers charged with dragging cat behind truck
> By BRIDGET MURPHY Staff Writer, (609) 272-7257 bmurphy at pressofac.com
>
> ATLANTIC CITY - Two cable installers face animal-cruelty charges after
> police allegedly saw a cat tethered to the bumper of a cable-company truck
> and being dragged along at a high rate of speed as another truck from the
> same company drove behind it.
>
> The Dec. 22 incident killed the adult cat and left it mutilated to the
point
> that the animal's sex cannot be determined, police Sgt. Ken Brown said
> Monday.
>
> Brown witnessed the incident on Route 30, while driving into the city
> shortly after 3 p.m. to work a uniformed security detail.
>
> After first spotting the truck dragging the animal while on Route 30 in
> Absecon, the sergeant radioed to the Police Department and had a marked
> patrol car stop the cable trucks - both from Somers Point-based Ocean
Cable
> Group - at Route 30 and Grammercy Avenue.
>
> The cat was tied to the rear bumper of one truck by its neck with four
feet
> of cable wire and one of its legs had snapped off, Brown said.
>
> "I've seen some really bad things in my 27 years here, but this is up
> there," the Police Department veteran said Monday, soon after signing
> complaints against the drivers of both cable trucks. "To do something like
> this to an animal - it's despicable."
>
> The animal's corpse is in a freezer at the county animal shelter,
according
> to Nancy Beall, president of Atlantic County's Society for the Prevention
of
> Cruelty to Animals.
>
> Police took photos of the animal and also kept the cable wire it was
lashed
> to the truck with as evidence.
>
> Authorities identified the driver of the truck that was dragging the cat
as
> Robert Hewitt Jr., 28, of Hickory Lane in Egg Harbor Township, and the
> driver of the truck that was following him as Joseph M. Newton Jr., 25, of
> Maddox Run in Galloway Township.
>
> Both face animal-cruelty charges, and Hewitt also faces a charge of
inhumane
> treatment of an animal, police said Monday. Both charges are disorderly
> persons offenses.
>
> The suspects are due to appear in court at 1:30 p.m. on Jan. 7, according
to
> authorities.
>
> Ocean Cable Group owner Bob Mills said Monday that he suspended Hewitt and
> Newton from their jobs and will fire them if they're found guilty of the
> offenses.
>
> Mills, who has two pet cats himself, said his company does not condone
such
> behavior as police are alleging and that nothing similar has ever happened
> in the past.
>
> He said Hewitt and Newton had been working on jobs in Atlantic City that
> day. They had headed out to Galloway Township for a lunch break and were
> returning to the resort to continue working when police stopped their
> trucks.
>
> Mills said he believes one worker may have tried to call the other with a
> Nextel phone to tell him about the animal dragging behind the truck, but
> that his phone didn't work.
>
> "Both of them said they didn't know what was going on," Mills said Monday,
> adding that each employee had worked for him for a few years.
>
> The business owner said some disgruntled former company employees also
live
> in the area where his employees stopped for lunch and suggested that
perhaps
> they could be involved in the incident.
>
> To e-mail Bridget Murphy at The Press: BMurphy at pressofac.com
>