AR-News: (US WI) Spurned boyfriend charged in cat killings

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

TwinCities.com

Posted on Fri, Jun. 11, 2004
2 felines stabbed in throat; felony counts filed in case

BY SHANNON PRATHER

Pioneer Press


A Hudson, Wis., man has been charged with stabbing his former girlfriend's 
two cats to death in a jealous rage and leaving one on the bed in her Rosemount 
home.
The Dakota County attorney charged Joseph Donald Leier with felony burglary 
and animal cruelty Tuesday in the November 2003 slayings. It's the third time 
the Dakota County attorney has filed charges of felony animal cruelty since 
legislators created the felony statute in 2001, according to the prosecutor's 
office.
Leier, 29, is accused of breaking into the Rosemount home of his 
ex-girlfriend, Jennifer Berquist, on Nov. 17, 2003, and stabbing her two cats in the 
throats with a kitchen knife.
According to the complaint, a roommate returned home to discover Anika the 
cat with a kitchen knife still embedded in its throat on Berquist's bed. The 
roommate called police and Berquist, who was with friends.
"I got a phone call from my roommate, and she was hysterical. She said Anika 
was dead," Berquist said. "I just prayed that Ginger, my other cat, was OK and 
that she'd hidden and gotten away. I got the bad news an hour later that she 
didn't. I was pretty devastated."
Rosemount police later found the second cat's body in Berquist's walk-in 
closet. The roommate's dog was unharmed.
Leier, who is not in police custody, declined to comment Thursday. But 
according to the complaint, Leier denied killing the cats to police, although 
officers observed catlike scratches on his arms. Leier also said he wasn't in 
Minnesota the night of the incident, but police traced Leier's cell-phone records, 
which show he made phone calls that were routed through towers in Rosemount.
Berquist, 33, said she first met Leier at a bar two years ago. Berquist said 
the relationship turned sour a year later when they began arguing frequently. 
She described the situation as "mentally abusive."


full story:
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/8894272.htm 

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