Sandy Hook

Sandy Hook

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Woman pleads "impaired mental condition" caused her to tape dog to fridge

Abby Toll,20, claimed in Boulder County District that she suffered from an "impaired mental condition" which caused her to tape her boyfriend's dog to the refrigerator.  She pleaded that the condition should excuse her behavior, according to the Boulder Daily Camera.

Toll's defense attorney George Kokus has argued that his client should be allowed to use the mental defense at trial because she was an “ongoing victim of domestic violence,” putting her in a mental state that either justifies, excuses or mitigates her actions.

For someone to plead an impaired mental condition means, in essence, that the person admits to doing the criminal act but was incapable of knowing what he or she was doing at the time of an alleged crime, according to deputy district attorney David Cheval.

The judge has ordered a mental evaluation.

Toll is accused of binding her boyfriend's 2-year-old shiba inu, Rex, in hair bands and packing tape and sticking him upside-down to a refrigerator during a fight. Her boyfriend, Bryan Beck, also was charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty.

He pleaded guilty in July and was given a one-year deferred sentence and 50 hours of community service. One of the conditions of Beck's sentence prohibits him from having contact with Toll or his former dog — which has been adopted by another family.

2 comments:

  1. I wonder if you can claim Republicanism as a mental condition. Mitt Romney once attached his dog (in a cage) to the top of his car for a long-distance drive. If that case blew over, this one could too.

    If she didn't want the dog running around in the house she should have just put it in the yard (shiba inu translates as "lawn dog").

    Or, she could claim she heard a helicopter overhead and was afraid it was Sarah Palin who might mistake the dog for a wolf.

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  2. Funny.

    I didn't know that about Romney. I'm not surprised to hear it though. Wonder how it impacted on the dog's eyes and ears.

    Most college kids in Boulder live in apartments. Boulder, imo, is a small NYC - very congested.

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