COURT CALENDAR
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:
Crimes Against Humans
Odd jobs man Joseph Bales,
33, and Helene LeMay, 31, a mail-
order vegetarian diet consultant, were
charged April 19 with illegally disposing
of their 10-week-old infant’s remains in
the woods near Eastman, Quebec, a
short drive from their St. Romain home,
and then filing a false kidnapping report
in New York City to cover up for the
baby’s death. Their story fell apart within
hours. An autopsy seemed to confirm
their story that the baby died of natural
causes, as there were no evident signs of
abuse or malnutrition. They did not
report the death, they said, because they
feared they would be charged with abuse,
after having been accused last year of
abusing a mentally retarded foster child.
Devout Seventh Day Adventists, Bales
and LeMay blamed those charges on per-
secution by the Catholic and conservative
St. Romain community. Although there
are now many vegetarians in Montreal
and the Eastern Townships (just south of
St. Romain), during the 1950s the gov-
ernment of longtime Quebec premier
Maurice DuPlessy routinely removed
children from the homes of both vegetari-
ans and evangelical Protestants.
Serial killer and avid deer
hunter Danny Rolling, 39, drew the
death penalty on April 26 in Gainesville,
Florida, for the 1990 dismemberment
murders of four young women and a
young man who tried to intervene.
Four men and a woman drew
60 years in prison apiece on May 4 in
Mexico City for the murders of 13 people
during voodoo ceremonies performed in
association with drug smuggling. The
murders, carried out between August
1988 and April 1989, followed a string of
animal sacrifices. The five also killed the
two cult leaders, on their own orders, as
police arrested them in May 1989.
A media blackout is in effect
on the trial of Toronto accountant Paul
Bernardo, 29, for the prolonged torture
murders of two teenaged girls in 1992.
The trial began on May 4. The chief wit-
ness against Bernardo is his wife, Karla
Teale, a veterinary technician who was
recently convicted of manslaughter in
connection with the same killings. Teale
provided Bernardo with veterinary drugs
and surgical instruments used in the
killings––and revealed during her own
trial that they had also killed her sister,
14, with an accidental drug overdose
while they raped her. Bernardo is the
chief suspect in at least five other rapes.
Stanford psychiatry professor
Seymour Levine, 69, whose monkey
experiments have attracted sporadic
protest since 1972, has been sued for
alleged sexual harassment by research
assistant Helen Bae, 24. Bae’s suit
alleges a pattern of sexual harassment of
other young women dating back to 1977.
Activism
Jailed on February 18 for
refusing to testify to a Spokane federal
grand jury investigating alleged Animal
Liberation Front actions, Kim Trimview
and Deborah Stout could remain in cus-
tody until April 1995. Last Chance for
Animals has instructions for correspond-
ing with them, c/o 18653 Ventura Blvd.,
#356, Tarzana, CA 91356.
The Wisconsin state court of
appeals for the 3rd district on May 10
rejected a suit by Waupun Correction-
al Institution inmate David Hatch, 29,
demanding vegetarian meals. The court
ruled that not serving Hatch meatless
meals did not infringe upon his religious
freedom because his views are “idiosyn-
cratic to himself.” Hatch, serving a 77-
year sentence since 1985 on two counts of
attempted murder and kidnapping, told
the court that he believes “using animals
for food is the moral equivalent of the
average American using his fellow man
for food,” based on readings of Plato,
Ovid, and the Bible.
Wildlife
The Fund for Animals,
Biodiversity Legal Foundation, the
Swan View Coalition, and numerous
individuals on May 10 sued the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service for allegedly failing
to properly protect grizzly bear habitat.
The plaintiffs are concerned that the
USFWS will soon drop grizzly bears
from the endangered species list. The
Fund obtained the endangered designa-
tion for grizzlies in 1975, and the same
coalition of plaintiffs stopped grizzly bear
hunting in Montana with a 1991 lawsuit.
Thirteen environmental
groups led by the Wilderness Society
filed suit on May 20 in response to Bill
Clinton’s Northwest Forest Plan, claim-
ing it inadequately protects endangered
salmon runs, northern spotted owls, and
other endangered species dependent upon
old growth forests. The suits are intended
to amend the Northwest Forest Plan,
Wilderness Society Northwest regional
director Steve Whitney said––not stop it.
Humane enforcement
Daniel Doney, 17, and an
unidentified 15-year-old are charged
with killing a swan from the municipal
pond on April 30 in Manius, New York.
The case drew wide publicity after Doney
stopped going to school because of
alleged threats from fellow students.
Doney claims he was just a witness as the
15-year-old stabbed the swan up to 40
times after breaking both of her legs.
Said Doney’s father, Floyd, “All this
over a duck.”
Richard Eugene Griffith Jr.,
36, of Fountain Valley, California,
was charged May 7 with two counts of
felony cruelty after a neighbor showed
police a video of Griffith allegedly kick-
ing a one-year-old collie, throwing rocks
at her, and beating her with a garden
tool––after taping her mouth shut. The
dog was taken into protective custody.
Griffith was released on $5,000 bail.
Claimed his lawyer, Mark N. Phillips,
“That dog was not being mistreated in
any way, shape, or form.”
Police and the Sevier County
Humane Society in Tennessee are seek-
ing a rabbit serial killer, who first killed
individual rabbits at the Bunnyland Mini
Golf Course, then killed 10 in one night,
and finally bludgeoned and partially
skinned 58 on the night of May 19.
Michael Silverman,
of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on April 27
was jailed for 30 days for not vaccinating
his pets and ignoring fines accruing to
$879 since 1991. The jailing, an appar-
ent first, will cost taxpayers $1,860. It
came as raccoon rabies reached
Pittsburgh, showing the need for vaccina-
tion.
Legislation In Support of
Animals and the Louisiana SPCA led a
probe of cockfighting in New Orleans
that brought the arrest of more than 40
participants on May 15 by New Orleans
police, public health officials, and agents
of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and
Firearms––who seized a substantial quan-
tity of cocaine at the site.
Sheriff Norman Hooten of
Kinney County, Texas, was among 23
attendees arrested at a May 23 high stakes
dogfight near Bastrop, Texas. Two seri-
ously injured dogs were seized in the raid.
Father and son Mario and
Nick Mazzeo, of Lake George, New
York, were arraigned on May 12 for
allegedly killing a neighbor’s Siamese cat
with a pitchfork, claiming they mistook
her for a rabid raccoon. They are report-
edly suspected in the disappearance of
other cats.
