Pastor asks for records relating to Vienna dog shooting to be sealed

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

GIRARD

Judge Jeffrey Adler of Girard Municipal Court heard arguments for and against records being sealed in the criminal case involving Pastor David Murphy, who shot and killed a neighbor’s dog in Vienna last year.

The judge said at the end of Thursday’s hearing he will take the case under advisement and make his decision later.

Murphy was charged with misdemeanor injuring animals last October after his neighbor reported that she found her black Labrador retriever, Tucker, badly wounded near Murphy’s house on Niles-Vienna Road.

She had Tucker euthanized at a veterinarian’s office as a result of a gunshot wound that severed the dog’s spine and left him paralyzed.

Murphy admitted he did fire at two dogs because they were near his chicken coop, acting aggressively, especially the Labrador.

But at Murphy’s second hearing, Atty. Michael Scala, the prosecutor, dismissed the charge. Murphy then paid $800 as “damages” to the dog’s owner.

At Thursday’s hearing, another prosecutor, Michael Bloom, asked Judge Adler to deny the records being sealed because of allegations that Murphy had killed other dogs. Bloom added that the allegations had never been proved, however.

Atty. Gary Rich, representing Murphy, said Murphy had “absolutely no [criminal] record,” a large family and had been pastor of Apostolic Bible Church of Niles for 26 years.

Judge Adler said he had found “nothing on the record, there is nothing I can seal.”

Rich said after the hearing he was asking for records related to the incident at law-enforcement agencies and at Girard Municipal Court to be sealed.

Murphy, after the hearing, told The Vindicator the reason he is asking for the records to be sealed is “because I didn’t break the law,” adding that any allegations that he shot other dogs besides Tucker are false.