Justice for Puppy Doe
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| MAR 6, 2018 — The long awaited, much delayed trial of the man accused of torturing Kiya, aka: "Puppy Doe" begins tomorrow in Dedham, Massachusetts. Read more here: http://www.patriotledger.com/news/20180305/as-puppy-doe-trial-starts-court-braces-for-protests |
Puppy Doe trial starts, could last 3 weeks
Posted Mar 5, 2018
One of the most anticipated animal cruelty cases in the country got under way Tuesday morning at Norfolk Superior Court without the street protests many had expected.
DEDHAM — Most people in the jury pool had heard of the Puppy Doe case, and many said they already had negative feelings against the man accused of torturing a young pit bull to death in Quincy five years ago.
Jury selection began Tuesday morning for the trial of Radoslaw Czerkawski, who is charged with brutally beating the female puppy to death, and the proceedings are expected to last three weeks.
Czerkawski, a Polish national now behind bars on two unrelated convictions, is standing trial on 12 counts of animal cruelty and one count of misleading police stemming from the abuse of the young female dog who would come to be known in local and national headlines as Puppy Doe.
“The trial probably will take 2½ to three weeks,” Judge Beverly Cannone told the prospective jurors Tuesday morning in Norfolk County Superior Court.
On Tuesday, the judge listed 50 witnesses who may take the stand during the Puppy doe trial, including several Quincy police officers, animal officers and shelter workers.
The judge and attorneys spent the day Tuesday winnowing down the jury pool, intending on impaneling 16 jurors. The jury-selection process will continue Wednesday, with the trial beginning Thursday.
Cannone asked all the jurors several questions to begin the selection process. First, she asked how many potential jurors had heard of the case. Of the approximately 60 prospective jurors, 36 said they had heard of it. Fifteen said they already had formed opinions on this case, and 10 said they may have biases against Czerkawski.
The case has drawn international attention and regular sidewalk demonstrations, prompting Cannone to prohibit any protests within 500 feet of the Norfolk County Superior Court in Dedham. No protestors were visible around the courthouse on Tuesday, and just a few members of the public who we’re n’t in the jury pool sat in the back of the courtroom.
Czerkawski sat quietly in a black suit and Dijon-mustard-colored shirt at the defense table, mostly staring ahead into space as the lawyers and judge worked out who would sit on the jury. His Polish-language interpreter, who will translate the whole trial for him, sat to his left, occasionally whispering in his ear as the lawyers huddled near the judge’s bench.
Prosecutors say Czerkawski was living with 95-year-old Janina Stock as her caregiver in June 2013, when he responded to a craigslist.org advertisement for a pit bull puppy initially named Kiya. Prosecutors say that same dog was found two months later in a Whitwell Street park with injuries so severe that veterinarians later decided she had to be destroyed.
Czerkawski, who authorities say was in the country illegally, is already serving sentences totaling six to 10 years for stealing from Stock and from a church in New Bedford. He is due to be released from prison in 2021 but could seek parole as early as next spring.
The Puppy Doe case was scheduled to go to trial last July, but one of Assistant District Attorney Tracey Cusick’s retina became detached ion[sic] the days before the trial and required emergency surgery to save sight in that eye. Following successful surgery, Cusick, who specializes in animal-cruelty cases, remains on the case.
Then the trial was due to begin in October, but again was postponed after Czerkawski suffered a back injury in prison.
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