COURT CALENDAR
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1998:
Humane enforcement
The Suffolk County SPCA
on May 3 arrested Thomas Capriola,
27, of Islip Terrace, New York, after
learning from an informant that he produced
so-called “squish” videos under
the business name Foot Fetish Films.
“He has girls wear high heel shoes and
crush mice, rats, guinea pigs, lizards,
and turtles. Either the girls do it, or he
dresses as a girl himself and does it. He
advertises for models. They just don’t
realize what is involved until they get
there,” SC/SPCA detective A d a m
G r o s s told Tom Demoretcky of N e w
York Newsday. Raiding Capriola’s
home, police and the SC/SPCA investigators
reportedly confiscated 36 videotapes,
a small amount of marijuana,
eight weapons, and 10 white mice. U.S.
humane investigators and Scotland Yard
had been investigating Internet distribution
of “squish” videos allegedly sold by
Capriola and one Jeff Vilencia, of
Squish Productions in California, for
approximately one year. Royal SPCA
inspector Martin Daly recently told
Cassandra Brown of the London
Sunday Telegraph that the video purchasers
have frequently also turned out
to be buyers of child pornography.
The Alliance for Animals i s
organizing protest against a May 5 plea
bargain that enabled Barry Herbeck,
36, of Janesville, Wisconsin, to plead
no contest to five felony counts of animal
abuse resulting in death and one
felony count of possessing a firearm as a
convicted felon. A new girlfriend called
police in April 1997 upon discovering
parts of a dead cat in Herbeck’s kitchen
plumbing, and hearing from his two
young children that Herbeck had taped
their puppy’s mouth shut, then left him
to die in front of them. According to
police, Herbeck admitted collecting cats
via “free to good home” ads, then
killing them through acts of bestiality.
The remains of the puppy and numerous
cats were discovered in his freezer, on
his porch, and in his yard. “The charges
of sexual gratification with a cat and the
puppy killing charge have been
dropped,” the Alliance objects. “It is
imperative that the judge know” at sentencing
scheduled for July 6 “that this
kind of violence will not be tolerated. In
1989 Herbeck served six months in jail
for first degree sexual assault of his stepdaughter.
He has sole custody of his
stepdaughter now.” Herbeck has been
free on $25,000 bond since his arrest.
Rock County assistant district attorney
said the purpose of the plea bargain was
to spare the children from testifying at a
trial, and said he would ask for a sentence
of four years in jail plus six years
on probation. The allowable maximum
under the charges to which Herbeck
pleaded would be 10 years in jail.
Letters may be addressed to J u d g e
Richard Werner, Rock County
Courthouse, 51 South Main Street,
Janesville, WI 53545. The Alliance for
Animals may be contacted for further
information at 608-257-6333; fax 608-
257-6400; e-mail >>alliance@allanimals.org<<.
New York City animal parts
dealer William Stevens, 49, on May
15 drew 90 days in jail and a fine of
$10,000 for illegally selling parts of
eagles, elephants, gorillas, chimpanzees,
and pumas at his SoHo store,
Evolution Inc. Stevens came under
investigation in July 1996 when United
Parcel Service workers found human
fetuses in a package addressed to him
that was leaking formaldehyde. Stevens
faces sentencing on May 21 on related
charges pertaining to selling skulls looted
from Native American graveyards.
The Utah Court of Appeals
on May 4 upheld the 1996 cruelty conviction
of Robert L. Murray, 38, for
shotgunning a nine-month-old cocker
spaniel because he wouldn’t stay
home––but only because Murray took
multiple shots to do the job. A p p e a l s
Judge James Davis wrote that Murray
had the right under Utah law to kill the
puppy, even without cause, if he had
done so humanely.
Arkansas leads the U.S. i n
raising chickens for slaughter, but that
doesn’t allow people to keep chickens
inhumanely, contends F a y e t t e v i l l e
Animal Services Department superintendent
Lib Horn. Horn, despite public
criticism, is pursuing 12 cruelty
counts against University of Arkansas
maintenance worker Darrell Barron for
allegedly keeping a dozen chickens
caged in a truck, without food, water,
or room to move. Horn investigated at
request of a University of Arkansas
police officer. Barron pleaded innocent.
Activism
Progressive Animal Welfare
Society advocacy staff member W i l l
Anderson, of Seattle, in mid-May sued
the Okanogan County (Washington)
Sheriff’s Office, four deputies, Omak
Stampede Inc., and Omak Stampede
rodeo director Ted Huber for allegedly
improperly restraining him and throwing
his video equipment into the Okanogan
River on August 10, 1996, as Anderson
videotaped a horse who had broken a leg
during a running of the infamous Omak
Suicide Race. The race, in which horses
plunge over a steep cliff into the river,
is held daily during the annual rodeo.
Charges against Anderson of trespassing
and resisting arrest were dropped in
February 1997, reportedly because
deputy prosecutor Dale Lehrman
advised that they would not stand up
against Anderson’s audio evidence.
Mike Kennedy, 20, of
Novato, California, was booked for
trespassing on April 28 after spending a
week in a climber’s hammock suspended
from the Campanile, a bell tower on
the campus of the University of
California at Berkeley, to protest animal
experiments. Charged with trespassing,
for assisting Kennedy, were G e r a r d
L i v e r n o i s, 34, of San Francisco;
Lauren and Patrick Sullivan, 28 and
26, of Novato; Stella Sythe, 21, of
San Francisco; and an unidentified 17-
year-old boy, of Montera. Each pleaded
not guilty on April 27.
