Chiqilin

A Santa Cruz man has been charged with using a golf club to beat a barking 3-month-old puppy so badly it had to be euthanized.

Steven David Jackson, 36, is charged with malicious mischief under a statute that makes it a felony to intentionally "maim, mutilate, torture or wound'' an animal.

Jackson was summoned to court Thursday morning, but hasn't entered a plea. Assistant district attorney Bob Lee asked Judge Kathleen Akao to take Jackson into custody and set bail, but she declined. Jackson was released on the condition that he stay "at least 100 yards'' away from the dog's owner. He has until Aug. 16 to find an attorney.

Contacted by telephone, Jackson declined to comment.

Prosecutors said the incident happened June 10, 2001, at the mobile home park where Jackson lives and where the puppy, a 3-month-old Pomeranian named Chiqilin, also lived.

Here is what Lee said happened:

It was a Sunday. Jackson, upset at Chiqilin barking at his children, went into his mobile home and returned with an oversize, metal-headed Big Bertha driver. He swung at the dog twice, both times hitting it in the head.

Then, according to the prosecutor, he put Chiqilin, bleeding and battered but still breathing, in a plastic food container and took it to the manager of the trailer park. "Give this to whoever owns it,'' Lee quoted him as saying, "and tell them it was hit by a car.''

The manager did so. The owner took Chiqilin to a veterinarian, who found the dog having seizures and euthanized it.

Later hearing another version of Chiqilin's accident from a witness, the dog's owner summoned the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which investigated and then notified the district attorney's office. The notice to appear was mailed to Jackson on July 12.

Lee said late Thursday that he had not yet been in contact with the dog's owner, whom he did not identify.

The charge carries a possible prison sentence of up to three years, as well as a $20,000 fine

A man charged with killing a puppy with a golf club and intimidating the dog's owners has waived his right to a preliminary hearing.

Steven Jackson, 36, pleaded not guilty in August to animal cruelty resulting in the death of a 14-week-old Pomeranian puppy in June and to threatening the owners after they pursued charges against him.

The owners of the puppy, Cecilia Morales and roommate Lourdes Rivas, are neighbors of Jackson in Pine Knolls Mobile Home Park. Assistant Dist. Atty. Bob Lee said witnesses saw Jackson swing twice at the puppy's head with the golf club. Jackson allegedly put the puppy in a plastic container and took it to the trailer park office, where he told managers that someone had run over it in a car. The dog died several hours later of head injuries.

Jackson is scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 6. If convicted, he could face up to four years in prison.

A man accused of beating a puppy with a golf club pleaded not guilty to charges of animal cruelty and witness intimidation Tuesday in Santa Cruz County Superior Court. His attorney said the man, Steven David Jackson, might have hurt the dog "inadvertently.''

Prosecutors say Jackson, 37, hit the puppy -- a Pomeranian named Chiqilin -- twice with an oversize metal-headed Big Bertha brand driver in a burst of anger at its barking June 10. Then, they say, he placed it in a plastic food storage container and told the manager of the Santa Cruz mobile home park where both Jackson and the dog's owners live that it had been hit by a car.

The owners, Lourdes Rivas and Cecelia Morales, took the dog to a veterinarian, who euthanized it. Later they notified the humane society, which investigated and contacted police. Jackson was summoned to court in July, and later summoned again when Assistant District Attorney Bob Lee accused him of threatening Rivas and Morales.

In an odd twist, Jackson's attorney, Arthur Dudley, is also handling the appeal of Andrew Burnett, who was convicted in July of animal cruelty for throwing a small dog named Leo into traffic near San Jose Airport.

The two cases are nothing alike, said Dudley. "The Burnett case was like a road-rage type situation,'' he said, while the Jackson case involves "allegations of frustration . . . with a dog in a trailer park.''

The question is whether Jackson hit the dog intentionally, as opposed to just "shooing the dog away,'' said the attorney.

Jackson faces a possible sentence of three years, eight months on the two charges. The lawyers and the judge, Katherine Akao, will decide on a trial date Nov. 28. Lee said the trial would be in February at the earliest, though he added, "I doubt the case will go to trial.''

Dudley said he could not comment yet on possible lines of appeal for Burnett, having just received the trial record late last week. Burnett was sentenced to three years in prison for the death of Leo, and another eight months on two other charges unrelated to the dog case.

Contact David L. Beck at [email protected] or at (831) 423-0960.