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24 dogs seized from former Beverly Hills Mayor
Riverside, CA (US)Incident Date: Friday, Apr 23, 2010
County: Riverside
Charges: Misdemeanor
Disposition: Alleged
Case Images: 1 files available
Alleged: Charlotte Spadaro
Case Updates: 2 update(s) available
Officials in Riverside say they rescued 24 dogs Friday from a home belonging to former Beverly Hills Mayor Charlotte Spadaro, a self-described animal rescuer.
Riverside County Department of Animal Services personnel said the animals they found under Spadaro's care were in need of rescue.
Authorities say 24 dogs, a cat and her four kittens were taken from the property on Myers Street, near Van Buren Boulevard.
Captain Tammie Belmonte said, "No animal should have to live like this. There was feces everywhere."
Animal Services spokesman John Welsh said Spadaro, 68, owns the property and animal control has been monitoring her for as long as two years.
Belmonte described the smell inside the property as "overwhelming."
Many of the rescued dogs are puppies and Belmone says many of them have mange.
Spadaro faces animal cruelty charge in San Bernardino County for allegedly keeping dozens of animals in unsanitary conditions.
Officials shut an unlicensed kennel Spadaro operated in February 2009. She was charged with 242 misdemeanor counts of violating the city's dog licensing laws.
Case UpdatesA former Beverly Hills mayor accused of animal cruelty for allegedly penning up two dozen dogs in a cramped, filthy trailer in Riverside will ask a judge today to dismiss the charges.
Charlotte Spadaro, 69, is charged with 16 misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals in connection with an April 2010 seizure of mange-infested, malnourished canines at a mobile home in the 3000 block of Myers Street, just south of the Riverside (91) Freeway.
Spadaro, who served as the mayor of Beverly Hills in the mid-1980s, is a real estate attorney and representing herself in the case.
The Redlands woman was recently convicted in San Bernardino County for maintaining an unsanitary, unlicensed dog and cat rescue operation in Rialto. She was sentenced Tuesday to three years probation, 250 hours of community service and ordered not to own more than three dogs in the future.
Charges were filed in the Riverside case after Riverside County Animal Services officers conducted an investigation at the Myers Street location and discovered the allegedly neglected dogs, as well as a cat and her four kittens.
One dog had died in the trailer, which was covered in feces, investigators said.
Spadaro didn't own the property but was allegedly using it as a makeshift shelter for abandoned pets.
Last August, the ex-mayor was tried for running an unlicensed dog shelter at 5930 Jasmine St. in Riverside, where 242 animals were seized in February 2009. A judge dismissed 236 misdemeanor counts alleging violations of the city's dog licensure law and found Spadaro not guilty of six other counts.
If convicted of the current charges, Spadaro could face a year in county jail and fines in excess of $300,000. | Source: myvalleynews.com - Mar 24, 2011
Update posted on Mar 24, 2011 - 9:11AM |
An attorney for Riverside dropped a majority of more than 200 citations against self-described animal rescuer Charlotte Spadaro, but he argued Wednesday that Spadaro should be made to answer for 30 counts of having unlicensed dogs.
The citations came after a February 2009 inspection at a Riverside kennel where Spadaro said she kept some of her own dogs and helped care for animals that were boarded there or had been rescued.
Riverside County Animal Services officials said they found 242 adult dogs, none of which were licensed, and a number of puppies and cats at the Jasmine Street facility.
Riverside Deputy City Attorney Brandon Mercer said Wednesday he is only pursuing 30 counts "basically to save the court a lot of time."
Spadaro, a former Beverly Hills mayor, has disputed the citations, saying individual dog licenses weren't needed because the facility was operating as a commercial kennel. She also has said she takes in animals to save them from being euthanized elsewhere.
On Wednesday, she agreed that the dogs weren't licensed but argued to Riverside County Superior Court Judge Michele D. Levine that only about 20 of the dogs belonged to her, and the rest had other owners or had been rescued.
Animal services workers called as witnesses said they recalled Spadaro referring to the animals at various times as "her dogs."
Spadaro said she represented the kennel's owners as an attorney and did not run the kennel, though she was frequently there to help out.
Whether the kennel had a permit was also in question. Spadaro said she applied for one in 2006 and was later told by animal services Director Rob Miller that he wasn't issuing permits in the city but not to worry about it
Part of the city's evidence was a letter Miller said he sent Spadaro denying her permit request in January 2009, but Levine noted the letter wasn't dated.
Levine will take both sides' closing arguments in writing and is scheduled to rule on the case Sept. 21.
Spadaro and the kennel owners were evicted from the Jasmine Street property in mid-2009. The Riverside County district attorney in July filed 16 misdemeanor animal cruelty charges against her stemming from an April inspection at another Riverside property. | Source: inlandsocal.com - Aug 16, 2010
Update posted on Aug 25, 2010 - 5:32PM |
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