AR-News: (AL - US) Accused dog torturer/killer has court date reset

[Snugglezzz at aol.com]

Animal cruelty case reset for May 13
Defendant injured in robbery, assault 
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
By GARY McELROY 
Staff Reporter 
On Monday, accused dog killer Kevin Scott Beritiech didn't show up for a scheduled court appearance and was later ordered to jail. 
      
On Tuesday, he did show up in a wheelchair, the result of a weekend incident, his lawyer said, in which Beritiech was robbed and thrown from a moving vehicle. The lawyer reported the client had fractures and facial injuries, an injured eye and other cuts and abrasions to his head. 

In light of his client's injuries, attorney James Kimbrough asked Mobile County Circuit Judge Edward McDermott for a delay in the animal cruelty case against Beritiech. 

McDermott granted the delay, resetting the case for May 13, but turned down Kimbrough's request that Beritiech be allowed out of jail. 

Beritiech is accused of slitting the throats of two dogs that belonged to his former girlfriend during a domestic dispute at his south Mobile County home in August 2003. One dog lived, one died. 

Beritiech ultimately was charged under the state's relatively new Pet Protection Act, also known as the "Gucci Law," named after a Mobile dog that was tortured and burned but survived. 

Until his Monday no-show, Beritiech had been expected to enter a guilty plea to one felony count of cruelty to animals. Whether he still plans to do so was unclear Tuesday, and neither Kimbrough nor Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Wright indicated they could say for sure a guilty plea will still happen. 

Wright has insisted that if such a plea is forthcoming, Beritiech, 41, must spend time in jail. If so, he would be the first to be incarcerated under Alabama's 2000 felony law protecting pets.