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Attorneys/Judges
| Prosecutor(s): | Nicole Colucci | | Defense(s): | John Koufos | | Judge(s): | Edward M. Neafsey |
CONVICTED: Was justice served?
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Case #12844 Rating: 2.4 out of 5 (21 votes)
19 cats and kittens tortured
Aberdeen, NJ (US)Incident Date: Friday, Dec 21, 2007
County: Monmouth
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Anthony Appolonia
Case Updates: 4 update(s) available
Anthony Appolonia may have seemed like a nice guy who just wanted to give kittens a good home, but authorities said he was a predator who tortured and killed at least 14 cats before he was arrested on animal cruelty charges Friday.
The investigation is still unfolding, according to the Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The agency's chief investigator said he expects additional charges against Appolonia and has not ruled out the possibility that other people may be involved in a systematic torture and killing of animals.
Appolonia, 48, confessed to killing 14 cats and kittens, and claimed that another eight animals authorities traced to him had gotten away, said Victor "Buddy" Amato, chief of police for the Monmouth County SPCA.
He termed it "the worst case of purposeful animal cruelty I have seen" in a 25-year law enforcement career, five of them with the SPCA.
"He's confessed to 14 cats that he tortured and killed," Amato said. "But I suspect he's killed many, many more. This isn't something he just woke up and started doing the other day."
Amato said Appolonia would acquire the cats by answering newspaper advertisements in which people offered the animals to someone willing to provide a good home. During the last nine weeks, Amato said, it is certain that he acquired at least 22 cats and kittens, although it is possible that number could be higher. The SPCA has interviewed roughly 20 people who dealt with Appolonia, he said.
Amato said the killings happened over the last nine weeks in Appolonia's quiet, first-floor apartment in the Ken Gardens Apartments in Aberdeen.
He lived alone and led a quiet life, neighbors told police, yet there were some disturbing signs.
A neighbor told Amato he had once watched Appolonia spray a cat that had an obvious broken paw with a water hose.
"When the neighbor asked what he was doing, he said he was trying to calm the cat down," Amato said. "You don't calm a cat down with water."
But if the allegations are true, that torment was the least the cats received.
In what police termed a chilling videotaped statement, Appolonia told Amato he would play with the kittens for a while, and then something would happen, Amato said. The cat would hiss at him, maybe scratch him. At that point, Appolonia would "throw the cat, beat, punch and break its bones. He would let it live for a little while, in some cases a day, in tremendous pain, and then drown it," Amato said.
Kittens would be drowned in the toilet bowl, larger cats in the bathtub, he said.
The case came to light when John P. Casale of Matawan became suspicious.
Casale said he tries to find good homes for cats and had scheduled a meeting with Appolonia, who had contacted him after Casale had placed an ad looking for someone to take cats.
"He never kept the appointment," Casale said. "But a woman told me she had given him a cat and was worried about it."
Casale said he went to Appolonia's apartment.
"There was a litter pan and cat food, but no cat," he said. "He told me he hadn't been able to get a cat and I knew he was lying. I had already spoke to a woman who said she gave him a cat. The hairs on the back of my neck just went up."
Casale went to the SPCA.
When he first confronted Appolonia, Amato said he was told by Appolonia that the cats had been given away.
"He gave me the names of about 20 people he said he had given cats to. I guess he figured I wouldn't check. Not one of them had received a cat from him. Some people hadn't seen him in a year," he said.
When confronted with the results of his investigation, Amato said Appolonia "put his head in his hands and just said, "OK, you're right. I killed them all.' "
The animal cruelty charges that Appolonia faces are fourth-degree crimes, the lowest level of indictable crime in New Jersey, Amato said. Those crimes carry a maximum penalty of 18 months in prison and a $10,000 fine. His admissions that the acts were purposeful will probably raise it a notch, to a third-degree crime, he said. A third-degree crime has a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $15,000 fine.
For Ursula Goetz, the executive director of the Monmouth County SPCA, the alleged crimes are symptomatic of the cruelty many animals face.
"He really committed a heinous crime," she said. "What he did to these animals was unspeakable. What he did to the people he got these cats from was also cruel. They wanted a good home for these animals. He convinced them he was that good home."
Casale said he has spoken with several of the people who gave cats or kittens to Appolonia.
"They're devastated," he said. "It's heartbreaking. I'm distraught myself. These animals can't speak for themselves. They can't call for help. I just don't want to talk about it anymore."
Appolonia was taken to the Monmouth County Jail, where he was being held in lieu of $105,000 bail, officials said.
Case UpdatesA Superior Court judge today sentenced a 50-year-old Aberdeen man to the maximum prison term of five years for beating and drowning 19 cats, some of them kittens, after adopting them from area feline lovers last year.
The sentence imposed by Superior Court Judge Edward M. Neafsey on Anthony Appolonia was applauded afterward by some animal lovers, although others said they wished the defendant got a longer prison term.
"As far as I'm concerned, it couldn't have gone better,'' Victor "Buddy'' Amato, chief of police for the Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said of the sentencing hearing.
"I wish he could have gotten five years for each animal,'' said Alice White, who had given Appolonia one of the cats he later killed. "Keep him off the streets forever.''
Appolonia pleaded guilty Sept. 29 to each of the 19 counts of animal cruelty he had been charged with. The crimes occurred from Oct. 20, 2007 to Dec. 18, 2007 in Appolonia's home.
In entering his guilty plea, Appolonia admitted to Neafsey that he beat each of the animals with his own hands, breaking their bones, before drowning them in his bathtub.
An investigation by the S.P.C.A. revealed that Appolonia sought out the cats that he later killed by answering ads for pet adoptions.
In addition to imposing the prison term, Neafsey ordered that Appolonia serve 40 hours of community service, although the judge specified that the work must not be performed at the S.P.C.A. or any agency dealing with animals. Neafsey also barred Appolonia from owning cats or being around felines without supervision.
Appolonia's attorney, John Koufos, said that his client, with credit for time he has served in the Monmouth County Jail from his arrest last year, could be considered for release on parole in as little as three weeks. | Source: Daily Record - Dec 4, 2008
Update posted on Dec 4, 2008 - 9:47PM |
A 50-year-old Aberdeen man today admitted beating and drowning 19 cats, some of them kittens, after adopting them from area cat lovers last year.
Some of the people who gave Anthony Appolonia the cats were sobbing uncontrollably as they heard him admit to Superior Court Judge Edward M. Neafsey that he beat each of the cats with his own hands, breaking their bones, before drowning them in his bathtub.
"You broke their bones with your hands?'' Neafsey asked Appolonia, who responded affirmatively.
"You held the cats under the water in the bathtub until they could no longer breathe?'' the judge asked, to which Appolonia also answered that he did.
'It's horrible,'' John Casale of Matawan said afterward. "These are innocent animals. What pushes a person to do this?''
Casale brought his suspicions about Appolonia to the attention of the Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in December, after he went to Appolonia's house, knowing he had recently been given many cats, but found that none of the felines there.
Appolonia pleaded guilty to each of the 19 counts of animal cruelty that had been filed against him. Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Nicole Colucci said the state will recommend that Appolonia receive a five-year prison term when he is sentenced Dec. 4.
Under a plea bargain with Appolonia, he will forbidden for life from owning any animals, a restriction that will be enforced by the state Parole Department. | Source: Daily Record - Sept 29, 2008
Update posted on Sep 29, 2008 - 6:40PM |
Lois Justice typically cares for stray cats in her Ocean County neighborhood. In December, she took out an ad looking for a good home for one of them, a stray named Mandy. Anthony Appolonia answered that ad, and took the cat.
"Winter was coming on. I thought it would be better if she had a home," Justice said of the cat.
She paused and took a breath.
"This will be with me for the rest of my life," Justice said of the repercussions of her decision to give Mandy to Appolonia.
Justice was one of three Ocean County women who were in Superior Court in Freehold on Monday to see the man who is accused of torturing and killing cats they had given to him.
After first spotting the women, Ap-polonia immediately turned away from them and sat with his back to them during his arraignment on 19 counts of animal cruelty.
Appolonia, 50, of Aberdeen is alleged to have tortured and killed 19 cats given to him by animal rescuers when he answered their newspaper ads offering the felines for free to a good home.
Attorney John Koufos, appointed by the Monmouth County Public Defender's Office to defend Appolonia, entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of his client during the arraignment before Superior Court Judge Edward F. Neafsey.
Koufos said afterward that motions to move the case out of Monmouth County to reduce the impact of pretrial publicity, to suppress any statements Appolonia made to authorities, and for a diminished capacity defense are all under consideration.
"The path of this case has to be decided by myself and Mr. Appolonia and the Monmouth County Public Defender's Office," Koufos told reporters. "The case is in its fledgling stage right now."
Inside the courtroom earlier, with the three Ocean County women who gave cats to Appolonia, were two other people whose suspicions about what Appolonia was doing with the cats led to his arrest in December and his indictment last month. The group brought with them a poster board, which was not allowed in the courtroom, picturing three of the cats Appolonia is alleged to have killed, as well as 19 sympathy cards for each of the dead felines.
"He's a serial killer of animals," Roseanne Sullivan of Lakewood said of Appolonia as she was leaving the courthouse.
Sullivan was one of the people whose suspicions led to an investigation of Appolonia by the Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
When the brief court proceeding was over, the group talked outside the courthouse about their experiences with Appolonia.
Justice said Appolonia returned to her home several days after adopting Mandy, asking to adopt another cat, but Justice declined.
Gerry Ballwanz said she let Appolonia adopt Charlie, but he told her two days later that the cat was lost, and he wanted to know the names of other people who could give him some kittens. She told him to find Charlie first. Then, when Appolonia told Ballwanz he had found Charlie, he returned and said he wanted some kittens to keep Charlie company, Ballwanz said.
Alice White said she gave the cat Monkey to Appolonia, because he told her a cat would help him find a girlfriend and because she thought he wanted a nice pet.
"I still can't deal with this," White said, beginning to sob.
Justice, Ballwanz and White said they all live in the same hometown but, out of fear, they did not want the name of the town revealed in the newspaper.
The SPCA investigation determined that between October and December, Appolonia had acquired about 19 cats by answering adoption ads placed by citizens in local newspapers, Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis A. Valentin has said.
Appolonia has confessed to killing 14 cats after torturing them. He told authorities he would use various means to injure the cats, and then let them live for a few days before drowning them.
"I can't sleep at night wondering what he did to them," Sullivan said outside the courthouse.
Neafsey scheduled a conference on the case for July 14 at 1:30 p.m.
Appolonia is being held in the Monmouth County Jail. His bail is set at $105,000. | Source: Asbury Park Press - June 10, 2008
Update posted on Jul 1, 2008 - 7:00PM |
A Monmouth County grand jury indicted Anthony Appolonia yesterday on 19 counts of animal cruelty, offenses punishable by at least five years in prison per cat, said Monmouth County Prosecutor Luis Valentin.
Anthony Appolonia answered newspaper advertisements seeking homes for cats. The cat rescuers who gave 19 felines to Appolonia between October and December thought they were giving the animals, house pets and stray kittens, a loving home.
Instead, the 50-year-old unemployed Aberdeen man tortured and killed the animals while he went on the prowl for more, authorities said yesterday.
"Appolonia was given these cats by people who trusted in his promise that he would care for the animals," Valentin said. "The charges allege that rather than keeping that promise, he engaged in acts of senseless torture and killing."
Once he adopted the cats, Appolonia allegedly beat them, broke their bones, stepped on their paws or hung them by their tails, Buddy Amato, chief humane law enforcement officer for the Monmouth County Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, has said.
Depending on their size, Appolonia then apparently drowned them either in a toilet bowl or the bathtub, Amato has said. He declined to say how Appolonia allegedly disposed of the bodies.
Most of the felines he adopted were kittens. Appolonia primarily got the animals from cat rescuers in Monmouth, Middlesex and Ocean counties who advertised in local newspapers, Amato has said.
"They thought in their own hearts they were giving them to someone with a warm and loving heart," Amato said.
John Koufos, the Long Branch attorney appointed by the state public defender's office to represent Appolonia, said he cannot comment on the allegations be cause he hasn't seen the indictment or the discovery in the case.
"No matter how the case resolves, my partner and I will be donating the legal fees to the Monmouth County SPCA," he said.
Amato has said his office began investigating Appolonia on a tip from a cat rescuer. That rescuer, who made an appointment to meet Appolonia at his apartment, made an odd observation.
"He knew for a fact (Appolonia) was adopting cats, but there were no cats present," Amato said.
Appolonia is the brother of Stephen and Matthew Appolonia, the former co-owners of a Howell-based trucking firm who pleaded guilty in September to accepting a bribe from a Monmouth County official to secure job contracts, Kou fos said.
Arrested Dec. 21 at his home by officers from the MCSPCA and Aberdeen Township police, Appolonia remains in the Monmouth County jail in Freehold Borough in lieu of $105,000 bail.
"He collected cats," Amato said, noting Appolonia was "on the prowl" for the felines full time.
Amato has said he could not speak to a specific motive for Appolonia's alleged cat killing, but said he's seen a pattern among other offenders.
"People do this because animals are voiceless victims. An animal can't reach out and dial 911 or tell their friend," Amato said. "Obvi ously there's gotta be some type of gratification they get out of doing it or they wouldn't do it." | Source: The Star Ledger - May 7, 2008
Update posted on May 7, 2008 - 1:03PM |
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