Woman Prosecuted for Petting Dog

[General Phoenix]

Woman gets criminal record for petting dog

Associated Press — March 12, 2004

SAN JOSE, Calif. — All Tamar Sherman wanted to do was pet a dog and give it some water. Sherman's act left her with a criminal record.

A few months ago, Sherman was walking near her South San Jose home and encountered a dog left outside in the cold while its owners were inside.

Sherman, a member of a national group called Dogs Deserve Better, decided to pet the dog on a few occasions and once gave it water. That didn't please the dog's owner.

"When I went out there to fill up the dog bowl, this woman was standing in my back yard," attorney Ron Berki told the San Jose Mercury News. "My response was, 'Who … are you?' She told me, 'I'm here to pet your dog.'"

For that, Sherman pleaded guilty this week to two misdemeanors — trespassing and prowling — and was sentenced to 75 hours of community service and a year of probation. She also was ordered to stay at least 100 yards away from Berki's home.

"I just wanted to find out if a dog that seemed to be in distress was OK," Sherman told the paper. "I do not think my actions were a crime in comparison with abuse or neglect of animals."

Berki denies that his dog, Bailey, was abused or neglected, saying the dog sleeps inside with him every night.

"If Miss Sherman was so concerned about my dog, it would have been easy to come to my front door and speak to me directly," he said.

===============

And it seems to me like this lawyer saw an opportunity to get his name in the paper. All he had to do was tell her to leave the dog alone - instead he decides to screw up her life.

I hope the dog bites him...

[Kakaze]

I love this, "'If Miss Sherman was so concerned about my dog, it would have been easy to come to my front door and speak to me directly,' he said."

If the idiot was going to have her arrested for trespassing and prowling, chances are if she HAD gone to talk to him he would've slammed the door shut in her face while screaming at her to **** off and mind her own damn business.

Asshole.

[moovok]

That's what I was thinking. Americans! Always take it TOO FAR...!!! :P

[Thomas P]

It got in the paper because this 'animal group' made a big **** over it. Bottomline is the stupid witch was trespassing. The neighborhood she is in has 5-foot fences around the yards and there is no way she knew whether the dog had water. She had no right to go through to the guy's yard. Most dogs around here are out during the day. Would have served her right to have the dog chew her up.

[Chris B]

It got in the paper because this 'animal group' made a big **** over it. Bottomline is the stupid witch was trespassing. The neighborhood she is in has 5-foot fences around the yards and there is no way she knew whether the dog had water. She had no right to go through to the guy's yard. Most dogs around here are out during the day. Would have served her right to have the dog chew her up.

Another incident that wouldn't even have made it into courtin Germany *shakeshead*
we don't waste funds on petty shit like this.

[Thomas P]

Interesting observation, vB did a censor-edit on my use of the word FUSS yet allowed the word SHIT by Chris B. I'd look into that word list :D.

Yep, sick and tired that this stuff even gets to court. How stupid is someone to go into someone else's yard and not expect to get arrested. The lawyer should have just let the police smack her with a ticket but I don't know all the facts - she may have put up a fuss to go after the guy for 'animal cruelty'.

Oh wait - got to go now! My dog has been outside for 10 minutes now and may need that 2 gallon water jug refilled!

[General Phoenix]

Well that does change things, if there are fences in the yards. Typical "selective reporting" in that they made it sound like the dog was simply running around in an open yard.

I'll have to check out the censor list... :)

[Kakaze]

Why is there even a censor list in the first place?

[General Phoenix]

For this place, it's not really needed, save for a few particularly vulgar words. And, with my desire to encourage more writers to post their work (I'll be serializing a story of my own over the coming weeks) I may remove it altogether.

After all, our Mods need something to do - language should only be a problem if used to attack another person.

[Proximo]

Things like censor lists are usually installed by default with forum software. When I upgraded my own forum, I had to spend a few moments removing the new words it decided to add to the censor list again.

[Thomas P]

Yep, here in sunny Ca most houses have 5 foot redwood fences. Oddly, when you go into the more exclusive (but gated) communities they have iron or mesh fencing. I can only guess that is to show off the opulence of your property. (Actually they don't allow, for some reason, solid fencing in gated comm's around here.)

It made for a good filler story but seems to be such a waste of taxpayers money that it even went anywhere.

[moovok]

After all, our Mods need something to do - language should only be a problem if used to attack another person.

What what what? We have to do work? I just thought we got to sit in the VIP Lounge and drink milk and biccies whenever we liked...


:milk: :oreo:

[viperchick]

What what what? We have to do work? I just thought we got to sit in the VIP Lounge and drink milk and biccies whenever we liked...


:milk: :oreo: have a cold one this is the fleet ship BSG any cute boys here need my feet rubbed and a boy to set at my feetand be a good doggyboy wloof wloofany takers im blond 20 years old and go to school at iowastate
:kimba: :santa: :milk: :oreo: :milk: hope to see you in my launch bay haha

[General Phoenix]

Well, that was entertaining... :stunned:

[moovok]

I know, I didn't know what to take from it, weirded me out... wasn't sure whether to remove it, or leave it, or run and hide from it :)

[Chris B]

ther is a lot of sith ppl out there

[Proximo]

Hey, it's a girl asking for footrubs! How can that be wrong? ;)

[moovok]

Depends if they're a girl. Chick doesn't mean woman ALL the time. When I read it, I just pictured a huge hairy man, very bulky, that sorta make me rock in the corner and hope my mummy came :(

[Proximo]

That's... a very good point.

[starforce2]

you know, there was a burgler who sued because the house he was burglarizing had a faulty garage door which trapped him for 2 days and he won? I mean, how f***ed is that? It's like companies who need to put "container may be hot after microwaving" on theirsoup containers. People have no commone sense what so ever any more. Same goes for sueing fast food joints for making you fat. Please.