This is America . . . you can sue anyone for anything. He can say the dog bit him. He can say SHE bit him. He can say she sexually harassed him by grabbing his crotch. He can say she intentionally rammed him because she hates men. He can say she beat him senseless. He can say she’s paying guards in the prison to mistreat him. It doesn’t matter if it’s not true. He can still file the suit, and unless she wants to defend herself, she’ll have to pay a lawyer to answer his charges each and every time. Prisoners can be very inventive with a lot of time on their hands.
**betenoir **. I couldn’t have said it better myself. In fact, I was going to say nearly exactly what you said. Now all I have to say is: Yep. What betenoir said.
Actually, what I was suggesting was the loser paying the winner’s legal costs of having the action tossed out. (That’s the way it happens where I am. I realize that this is not the way is is done down your way.)
If he is suing her over what occurred when she bumped into him, doesn’t her auto insurance provide her with a lawyer to defend her. Also couldn’t she then turn around and counterclaim damges from his assault on her and damages to her property, i.e. Bichon Frise. I’m not familiar with California law but she might be able to get mental anguish or something similar.
3 years wasn’t really enough. It’s not “just the dog”.
The trouble with people like this, is that they usually START at things like this example of his road rage, and then they escalate.
For instance, men who beat women frequently start out hitting inaminate objects (walls, smashing dishes, etc) and then move on to getting in the woman’s face, then slapping. Cite? Any book, article, textbook chapter, on spousal abuse and/or anger management will support this.
It’s not likely that this guy was a perfectly sane human, who was suddenly and mysteriously driven by a bumper tap into the act of violence of throwing the dog into traffic.
Likely he’d long exhibited violent and out of control behaviour.
Oh geez…‘likely’ is not exactly, um…anything much is it. ‘People like this’ and ‘…men who beat women frequently…’ and ‘it’s not likely that…’ and “Likely he’d long exhibited [such] behaviour” is the terminology of the most pathetically substantiated post I’ve read in yonks. Got some cites for us CanvasShoes? I know this is the Pit, but your ‘argument’ lacks serious credibility by your gross misuse of generalisations and assumptions. Unless you are personally aquainted with the guy, how do you dare to suggest that he is likely to be any of the things you describe?
I have a slightly different perspective on this. A guy I work with was a suspect in the case before Burnett was caught. He ended up talking with the police and with the pet owner.
If what he tells me is true (and I have no reason to doubt him) she told him privately that while she missed the dog and was sorry it happened, it was “just a dog.” She indicated that the media and the public had made a much bigger issue out of this than she herself thought it was. The impression I got was that she went along with everyone on condemning the guy but people read more into her feelings than what was actually there.
Of course, I have no proof of this, so take it with a grain of salt.
Right from my post. Again, any textbook, article (Psychiatry today, etc), Text from anger management courses, etc etc regarding this type of behaviour and how it has been shown to be escalating behaviour in people who have anger management problems.
In addition, one of the cites was already included in the OP, regarding the perp being under investigation for similar incidences.
Good enough?
How bout
1.) “Women who love too much” Robin Norwood. Has several chapters on how people who have anger management problems escalate from punching walls to kicking dogs, to punching women’s faces.
2.) Psychology Today (at least 5 times a year they have articles regarding this very subject), but then I quoted that cite in my original post.
3.) Psy Text books, both Psy 101, abnormal psy and human development (McGraw Publishers, but could be the other guys too, I’m not at the school so don’t have them right in front of me).
I don’t do all my research on the web, does that mean they don’t count?
Oh, and I apologize for the use of the word “likely” I do technical writing for a living, and when I post to the board from work, especially during a break in writing some boring report on Perc levels in the lake, it carryies over from time to time.
Yeah. Maybe he’s a sweet, kind, loving, not-at-all dnegerous individual who threw a dog into oncoming traffic. Maybe the vicious bichon frise attacked him, and he was acting in self-defense. Maybe the dog was really depressed, and he committed suicide. Hey, maybe this never happened at all, and it was just a story invented by Dateline NBC to get people’s dander up, and you’re the only one smart enough to see through their lies.
Or maybe people make judgements based on available information and express their opinions about it here. People agree, people disagree, but everybody picks their battles according to what’s important to them. Apparently the rights of people who kill dogs is something near and dear to your heart. Good for you.
