NAUGATUCK — A Stratford man alleges in a lawsuit that Naugatuck police improperly gave away his dog after he was found drunk with the animal behind a fast food restaurant in June.
The lawsuit was filed earlier this month against a prominent business owner whose attorney acknowledged that she took custody of the dog and has not returned it.
Marc Gerte, a home improvement contractor living at 859 East Broadway in Stratford, said the dog, a yellow Labrador retriever named Jamie Lee, was taken from him by police and given to Jean Dobbin of Dobbin Management, a condominium property management firm.
Gerte acknowledges that on June 18 police found him drunk with his dog behind the KFC restaurant on Bridge Street.
He was transported to the hospital, and returned to the Naugatuck Police Department eight hours later to pick up his dog, he said.
At that time, he said, he was told to take up the matter with the animal control division, but when he arrived there, an official told him the records showed the dog was given to Dobbin.
The Naugatuck Police Department, in a written statement, declined to discuss what it had done with Gerte’s dog after the incident behind the KFC in June, citing Gerte’s pending lawsuit.
However, it said it is not uncommon for officers to place animals in the care of trusted acquaintances when owners are incapacitated, and otherwise, these animals are sent to the borough’s animal control facility.
“Every attempt is made to place pets outside of the animal control facility whenever possible as this is largely the preference of most pet owners,” according to the written statement. “The Naugatuck PD generally does all it can to accommodate requests from pet owners to house their animals where they will be most comfortable.”
Reports obtained from the Naugatuck Police Department indicate that on Sept. 26, Gerte had gone to Jean Dobbin’s place of business on Porter Avenue and demanded the dog back.
The report further indicates that while Gerte offered the dog’s medical records as proof of ownership, unnamed “other officers” were determined to already be investigating that case. The dog, according to the report, remained with Dobbin.
Naugatuck police did not provide an incident report filed by those “other officers.” The Republican-American had requested any documentation the department had regarding the disposition of the dog.
Gerte claimed in an interview that a Naugatuck police officer, who is a personal friend of the Dobbin family, told him he “did not deserve” the dog and would “never get it back.”
Dobbin deferred all comment to her attorney, Gregory Thomas, of the Derby-based firm Cohen & Thomas.
“It’s our position she’s the rightful owner and she was awarded the dog,” Thomas said.
However, Thomas said he’s “still investigating” exactly who awarded the dog to Dobbin and under what legal means.
He also said he is investigating what Gerte might have said that could have led to the current custody situation.
“We’re still looking into what he may have said regarding his own dog about the care of the dog,” Thomas said.
However, both the police report and the incident report filed by EMS after the June incident suggest what little Gerte spoke at that time was incoherent due to his intoxication.
The EMS report contains the phrases, “Police informed crew [patient] was unable to function or communicate,” and “Crew was only able to get [patient’s] name from the [patient].”
Dobbin’s son, Josh Dobbin, said Gerte has a history of not caring for the dog, and that it has been found unkempt and roaming free while its owner was intoxicated.
Gerte, he said, had rented a business property next door to Dobbin’s office and was “illegally using it as a flophouse,” entertaining a variety of “scraggy looking,” drug-abusing guests.
On one occasion, Josh Dobbin said, worried acquaintances burst the door down and found him passed out and naked next to a dead man.
The police report filed for that incident shows it occurred on Feb. 29, and that Gerte “was incoherent and appeared to be highly intoxicated.” When asked how much he had consumed, according to the report, Gerte answered, “Until I ran out.”
It was then, Josh Dobbin said, that Gerte first asked Jean Dobbin to care for the dog.
Gerte, however, said he asked Dobbin to care for the dog that day because he had been rushed to the hospital for pneumonia that led to sepsis.
When he returned and asked for the dog back, he said, he found Jean Dobbin had given the dog to Josh Dobbin, who later brought the dog back and offered to buy it. Gerte said he rebuffed the offer.
“I said, ‘You can’t buy my dog. Are you crazy? It’s my kid,’” Gerte said. “He couldn’t buy my dog, so the next chance he and this cop had, they stole it.”
Josh Dobbin said his mother “arranged to take custody” of the dog after the incident behind the KFC, but did not detail what that arrangement was.
He said his family has since bonded with the dog.
New York-based attorney Richard Bruce Rosenthal, considered a national authority on pet law, said the apparent placement of the dog with Dobbin seems to be improper.
“The government has defined animals as property, whether you agree with it or not ideologically,” Rosenthal said.
“Do I think the man should have a dog? No, probably not. But you simply can’t take the dog,” he said, likening the legal status of the dog to that of a classic car. “If you don’t do maintenance on the car, you can’t just say, ‘You’re abusing that beautiful classic, so we’re taking it.’”
To some degree, he said, the feelings of animals are considered legally, but if there were evidence the dog was being abused or neglected, he said, there are proper legal avenues to be followed to remove the dog from its owner.
In the small claims lawsuit, Gerte seeks $5,000 for “pain, suffering, lost time at work, damages to personal property,” and “investigation hours.”
He also has filed an application for an emergency ex parte temporary injunction for custody of the dog.
He said the next court date is Oct. 31 at 11 a.m.
