VIEW FROM THE
BENCH
Hon. Judge A.A. Fradsham
The news magazine The Week carried a story in the April 22, 2011, edition about one Ryan Stephen of Mason, Ohio who was arrested by a local police officer for the offence of teasing a police dog. Though I am sure that most of you came across this story as part of your “current awareness” efforts to keep up with important, new cases in the law, let me provide some further detail for those who have not yet reached this item in their stack of “stuff to read”.
The Daily Mail in the U.K. also carried the story, and reported that on one Sunday morning this Spring, Officer Walker of the Mason, Ohio constabulary was called to “a car crash at a pub”. While Constable Walker was out of his patrol car conducting said investigation, he heard police dog “Timber”, who had been left in the police cruiser (apparently being too young to go into the pub), barking excessively. Constable Walker went back to his patrol unit, and found Mr. Stephen outside the police car “barking and hissing” at “Timber”. It would seem that Mr. Stephen was somewhat under the influence of intoxicating substances. Mason, Ohio must be quite the place: on Sunday morning, a time often associated with peace and quiet and hangovers, a police officer is called to investigate a motor vehicle accident “at a pub”, and a local citizen is drunk enough to engage in a barking debate with a dog. The town might consider engaging in some group alcohol abuse counselling. The Daily Mail article reported that when the two footed officer confronted Stephen on behalf of the four footed officer, “[Stephen] walked away and ignored commands to stop.” Commands to stop. I have this mental image of the officer yelling “heel”, and Mr. Stephen continuing on, thereby thoroughly scuttling his chances of winning “best of breed”.
By Hon. Judge A.A. Fradsham
Now, on the face of it, I agree that barking at a dog seems a wee bit odd. To some, it might qualify for the description “barking mad”. Sorry, I couldn’t resist. However, is barking at a dog any more odd than asking a dog things such as “Are you a good dog?” and “Aren’t you a handsome boy?” and the like. The chances of a person stumbling upon some combination of barking noises which actually make sense to the dog are probably not much worse than the dog understanding silly questions asked in a baby voice. Which is more likely to annoy/tease a dog: speaking patent nonsense to a dog in a human language, or speaking to a dog in a form which appears to be the dog’s first language? I am aware that my argument fails to address why Mr. Stephens also hissed at Timber. Maybe it wasn’t a hiss at all; maybe it was a dog-type lisp. Mr. Stephens was asked why he was barking at the dog. He replied that “the dog started it”. Could be. Perhaps “Timber” was born in New York City, and, as Mr. Stephen stumbled by the police car, Timber barked at him, “ Hey Mac, ya drunken bum, get outta here!” Mr. Stephen may have then felt honour bound to respond with an appropriate reply uttered in “barkenese”. The argument between them simply escalated from there. It is to be noted for the defence that it was the volume of Timber’s barking, and not Mr. Stephen’s barking, which attracted Constable Walker’s attention. Seems to me that it was Timber who was creating the disturbance. I am sure that these issues will be fully explored when Mr. Stephen appears at the local Mason, Ohio court. Not so sadly, my circuit does not stretch that far, so others of my training will have to resolve this dog fight. However, there is a much larger issue in play here. If this charge of barking at Timber sticks, that might mean judges can be charged if they bark (or hiss) at lawyers who are late, or prolix, or illogical. If so, the volume of those charges alone would irreparably clog up the courts. I do hope our colleagues in Ohio consider the full implications of a guilty verdict.
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