Staying with the story
This newspaper has been following the Klonda Richey case and proposed changes to the state’s dog law since Richey’s death in February 2014. A newspaper investigation found that Richey sought protection from her neighbors and their dogs through the Montgomery County Animal Resource Center, the police and courts for the two years before she was mauled to death.
The current state law, which took effect in May 2012, created three designations for problem dogs and removed pit bulls from the definition of a vicious dog. Each designation, under state law, is defined as:
Nuisance: Without provocation and off their owners' property, chase or menace someone or attempt to bite a person.
Dangerous: Without provocation, injured someone, killed another dog or had three or more violations of regulations covering the confinement or control of dogs.
Vicious: Without provocation, killed or caused serious injury to a person.
The current state law, which took effect in May 2012, created three designations for problem dogs and removed pit bulls from the definition of a vicious dog. Each designation, under state law, is defined as:
Nuisance: Without provocation and off their owners' property, chase or menace someone or attempt to bite a person.
Dangerous: Without provocation, injured someone, killed another dog or had three or more violations of regulations covering the confinement or control of dogs.
Vicious: Without provocation, killed or caused serious injury to a person.
The current state law, which took effect in May 2012, created three designations for problem dogs and removed pit bulls from the definition of a vicious dog. Each designation, under state law, is defined as:
Nuisance: Without provocation and off their owners' property, chase or menace someone or attempt to bite a person.
Dangerous: Without provocation, injured someone, killed another dog or had three or more violations of regulations covering the confinement or control of dogs.
Vicious: Without provocation, killed or caused serious injury to a person.
Local legislators want the Klonda Richey Act in effect by this time next year, changing a current state law that gives dogs a one-time pass to harm a human being or another animal without a stiff penalty.
Sen. Bill Beagle, R-Tipp City, introduced legislation Monday afternoon at Sinclair Community College that is named after Klonda Richey, the Dayton woman mauled to death last February by two mixed-mastiff dogs.
Ohio’s current law allows “one free growl, one free bite and one free kill,” Beagle said.
He believes the bill will protect citizens from vicious and dangerous dogs.
Richey turned to authorities — the Montgomery County Animal Resource Center, the police and courts — for protection from the dogs and her neighbors in the two years preceding her death, an investigation by this newspaper found.
“We don’t want any family to go through something like this,” said Richey’s cousin Carol Myers, who came from Georgetown, Ohio, to attend the press conference. “ There’s always a reason for everything. If something good comes from it, then I guess that was the reason.”
Beagle said his hope is to get the legislation passed by this time next year. It must be passed by the end of 2016, or legislators will have to start over, he said.
“Klonda Richey’s death … doesn’t have to be in vain,” said Beagle, the bill’s primary sponsor. Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, is a co-sponsor.
The bill comes after months of collaboration with city and county officials, local prosecutors, sheriffs, dog wardens and humane society officers.
“It’s all compiled from suggestions from folks who deal with vicious dogs on a daily and weekly basis,” Beagle said.
The bill doesn’t create breed-specific legislation, Beagle said but does create preventative measures and hold dog owners more accountable.
Changes include:
- Creating a comprehensive penalty structure for nuisance, dangerous and vicious dogs as well as clearer penalties for seriously injuring or killing a person or a companion animal.
- Extending the amount of time felons cannot own dogs from three years to five years and adding child abusers to the list of restricted owners.
- Requiring that every call to a dog warden generates an investigation or follow-up.
- Allowing those seeing the crime to sign affidavits as witnesses.
- Creating penalties for not complying with the requirements of owning, transferring or registering a dangerous or vicious dog.
- Giving dog wardens arresting authority.
- Requiring owners to respond to warnings or postings within a certain amount of time, or be fined.
- Charging dog owners, under certain conditions, with a fifth-degree felony on the first offense.
“The goal here is to make the community safer and reduce the chances that anything like what happened to Ms. Richey would ever happen again,” Montgomery County Commissioner Dan Foley said.
Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said it was the city’s recommendation to require dog owners who are warned by a dog warden to respond to the notification.
“We hope there are opportunities for the police, the court system, the state legislature to all work together and be honest where the gaps are in this effort,” Whaley said.
Former state Reps. Roland Winburn, D-Harrison Twp., and Terry Blair, a Republican from Washington Twp., introduced another bill last May.
But Blair died in June and Winburn lost his re-election bid in November. Winburn was on hand Monday.
“I’m glad to see Sen. Beagle picking this up,” Winburn said. “(The bill) is very clear in what it wants to accomplish — address those issues about irresponsible (dog) ownership and the impact that dogs can hurt people.”
Beagle said other ideas will be discussed later that are not part of this legislation.
They include providing training for dog wardens if they have arresting power; seizing problem dogs and the property rights issue; creation of a dangerous dog database; and giving dog wardens access to the same information police officers have.
“We didn’t want to hold up the rest of this bill while we’re considering all these issues and make it too exhaustive,” Beagle said.
Richey, 57, was attacked outside of her home at 31 E. Bruce Ave. early Feb. 7, 2014. Her body lay outside in sub-freezing temperatures until a passerby reported seeing a naked body in the snow around 8:15 a.m. When police responded, the dogs charged them and were shot and killed.
In September, a Montgomery County grand jury declined to indict the owners, Andrew Nason and Julie Custer, on felony charges related to Richey’s death. Within 24 hours they were arrested and each charged by the city of Dayton with two misdemeanor counts of failure to control dogs.
Earlier this month, Nason, 30, and Custer, 27, pleaded no contest. Dayton Municipal Court Judge Carl Henderson then found them guilty on two counts each of failure to control dogs.
The dogs were registered to Custer, who lived at 35 E. Bruce Ave. along with the homeowner, Nason.
Nason and Custer are expected to be sentenced next month following the completion of pre-sentencing investigations. They each face a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.
In total, there were 13 complaints about 35 E. Bruce Ave. filed with the Animal Resource Center. There were another 46 calls to the Montgomery County Regional Dispatch Center related to Nason’s home between Dec. 27, 2011, and Richey’s death. Richey or someone associated with her phone number called the Montgomery County Regional Dispatch Center 23 times. The other calls were anonymous.
The majority of calls were about the dogs at the Nason house, but other calls included complaints about juveniles, fireworks and other activity.
The two dogs that attacked Richey did not have a designation as nuisance, dangerous or vicious because they had no history of biting someone or killing another dog, Mark Kumpf, director of the Montgomery County Animal Resource Center, previously said.
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