Man gets jail time in dog attack


Own no dog bigger than a chihuahua, judge orders defendant.

staff report

YOUNGS- TOWN — The caretaker of a large pit-bull terrier that attacked a 10-year-old boy has been sentenced to 90 days in Mahoning County jail, fined $400 and placed on two years’ probation.

Judge Elizabeth Kobly of Youngstown Municipal Court also ordered Dustin Anglin, 23, of South Heights Avenue, not to own or possess any dog larger than a chihuahua.

When she sentenced him Thursday, Judge Kobly imposed the jail time for the misdemeanor charge of violating the city’s prohibition of pit-bull dogs, to which Anglin had pleaded no contest. It will be served at the same time as a two-month jail term Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed on Anglin for failure to confine a dangerous dog in the same September 2009 incident.

Anglin’s initial charge in common pleas court was failure to confine a vicious dog, which is a felony, but that charge was reduced there to the misdemeanor charge of failure to confine a dangerous dog before Anglin pleaded guilty and Judge Krichbaum imposed sentence last week.

The pit bull bit the boy on the leg at South Heights Avenue and Sheridan Road as he was walking to school, and the dog ran to Anglin’s house. Neighbors watched Anglin put the dog back in his home before leaving in his car, police said.

“He’s accepted that he’s going to serve his sentence and be sure that this doesn’t happen again,” defense lawyer James Melone said of his client.

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