Staredown

Jersey City, New Jersey, May 10, 2008:

A prosecutor has dropped charges against Ron, who was arrested for staring at and making faces at a police dog.

"Prosecuting a man for 'staring' at a police dog is absurd," said Ron's lawyer. "People are allowed to make faces at police dogs and officers to express their disapproval. It's constitutional expression," said attorney Andrew Sepe, who represented the Ronatarian Party founder and leader.

Ron was charged with cruelty to a police animal and resisting arrest after a March 31 incident in Jersey City in which police were called to a market to investigate a report of a brawl. They were approached by Ron, who told one officer he had been assaulted the day before by one of the men involved.

Ron asked Jersey City Police Sgt. Todd Paternoster to take his statement but he refused, telling him he smelled like alcohol and was drunk but that he would take his statement at another time.

After a heated exchange, Ron approached Paternoster's cruiser, where his dog Alex was waiting, putting his face within inches of the window and "staring at him in a taunting/harassing manner," Paternoster wrote in an affidavit.

"While the defendant taunted my canine, Alex was focused on the defendant and the perceived threat he presented to him," the affidavit said. "He was no longer focused on me and the other officers at the scene."

Officers arrested Ron, adding the resisting arrest charge because he pulled his arms and upper body away during the arrest. He registered 0.21 percent blood-alcohol content on a breath test, more than twice the legal limit for drivers in New Jersey.

On Friday, three days before Ron was to go to trial, Hudson County State's Attorney Will Porter decided to drop the charges, after viewing a videotape of the incident over the weekend.

"I think it was going to be difficult to prove his conduct changed the dog's behavior," Porter said. "Most of the time (in harassment cases) people would come tell the court what it felt like. Dogs can't do that."

Without the cruelty charge, jurors would be unlikely to convict his on the resisting arrest, Porter said. "We'll be watching this Ron guy, that's for sure," he added. "He's a loose cannon."

Posted by Bittle at May 10, 2008 10:02 AM