Crime/Court
Kristie Atwood Non-Suited in Case of Remaining 18 Dogs Seized by WCSO, Family Regaining Possession of 6 or More of Those Dogs
Part Two of the “Dog Day Afternoon” drama pitting defendant Kristie Atwood and her family against the Warren County Sheriff’s Office in a battle over custody of a total of 19 dogs seized by the sheriff’s office from the Atwoods on June 30 and July 5 was resolved Friday morning, July 21, in Warren County General District Court.
After some discussion between Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Samantha Meadows and defense counsel David Silek, then between Silek and his clients obtaining Ms. Atwood’s signature on a written agreement, the three members of the Atwood family present left the courtroom at 10:14 a.m. Asked where they were going just outside the courtroom, Ms. Atwood replied, “To get our dogs.”
Quickly back in the courtroom, this reporter heard Prosecutor Meadows inform Judge W. Dale Houff that a non-suit agreement in the petition on custody of the remaining 18 dogs had been reached between the Commonwealth and defense. With the prosecution and defense in agreement on the non-suit, Judge Houff accepted it as presented.
That agreement was that the Atwoods would regain possession of their five family dogs, three belonging to Kristie, and two to her son, with most of the remaining 13 being returned to the rescue groups the Atwoods had been fostering them from. Defense counsel Silek later explained to Royal Examiner that one of those 13 fostered dogs would be released to the custody of Atwood’s daughter, who had become especially attached to it during the fostering period. Kristie later confirmed that and said other family members, including her mother, were planning on adopting or fostering several other dogs they had become attached to.
The Warren County Courthouse was the scene of round 2 of the Atwood family vs. WCSO battle over custody of dogs seized by the sheriff’s office on June 30 and July 5. As they did in round 1 on July 12, as a result of an agreed-upon non-suit with the Commonwealth, the Atwood family appears to have been vindicated.
As explained in the Royal Examiner story on the July 12 non-suit resolution of the hearing on the initial WCSO petition for custody of the first dog seized June 30, the Atwoods have been fostering rescue dogs, some facing being put down due to their irreversible poor physical condition by the rescue groups having possession of them.
The first dog seized on June 30, a crippled Dachshund named Baby Girl, custody of which was at issue at the July 12 hearing, was returned to the rescue group it had been fostered from in that non-suit agreement. Defense counsel Silek indicated that in the wake of the legal uproar they found themselves in since the two-phased seizure of the 19 dogs in their possession, it had been the Atwoods decision not to seek re-possession of all 14 of their previously fostered dogs.
As noted in our story on the July 12 hearing on possession of Baby Girl, from the report of the involved deputy attached to the Commonwealth’s petition for the July 12 hearing, the Atwood family’s role in mentoring dogs, some crippled and handicapped, was not known at the time they were seized by the sheriff’s department. Rather, having failed to make contact with Ms. Atwood, it seemed the deputy may have inferred abuse or neglect as the cause of the animals conditions. As appeared to be the case on Wednesday when the hearing was continued to Friday’s docket, no involved sheriff’s office personnel were present for the July 21st hearing on custody of the remaining 18 dogs.
