court – Puppy Mill Free Reno/Sparks/Washoe

Northern Nevada’s growing reputation for getting away with (animal) murder

Reno, Sparks and Washoe County find themselves in the national spotlight from time-to-time. Sometimes with great news like the economic boon and rapid economic development after falling to worst place in the country for mortgage defaults.

But Reno gets equal bad publicity on the national front time-and-time again: for animal abuse.

Schneiders Torture and Kill Puppy, Practice Non-Standard Medicine on Dogs

The Schneider’s trial for abusing puppy mill store animals including neglecting one as it lay in the back suffering to death.

Sound familiar? KOLO TV reports over the past years including January 2014, Spring 2015 and late 2015 on conditions in puppy stores went far and wide and was one of the leading causes of getting the store in Meadowood Mall closed, a deal brokered by Billy Howard of Puppy Mill Free Reno.

Meadowood Mall Store — Dogs Dying Alone in Dark Back Room

In one KOLO report a young employee is in tears talking about the dogs dying alone in the hot back room: along, without aid, medicine, comfort to ease their pain. He said he continued to be employed there so he could help the puppies because the owners didn’t care.

The owner of the store agreed to stop selling puppies from puppy mills and gave a trial to being a supply store with adoptable animals featured from shelters and rescues, notably the Nevada Humane Society. [But activists had to use some strong arm tactics to get that far including escalating protests including inside the mall and 2 activists willing to handcuff themselves to the mall’s doors near the store after a letter-writing campaign to New York based Mall Managers.]

7 Dogs Dismembered, Beheaded By Young Man

Gruesome details emerged not long after of a former Reno High School Student President who used drug addiction as his defense when he acquired 7 puppies and recorded how he tortured, dismembered and beheaded them in a hotel room before being caught by authorities. The perpetrator admitted in court he grew up and loved hunting. The judge watched the videos and fought back tears. Luckily that sentence is strong: 28 years with possible parole in 12.

Young Man Taped Torturing Boyfriend’s Dog For An Hour Including Waterboarding

Early in 2019 an hour long video of a man torturing a chihuahua in Reno including punching her and waterboarding her in a shower stunned the nation. The dog’s mother may also have been killed. The perp was sentenced in early 2019 and might already be out on parole.

Will Reno make the national news again and again if there are stores open?

The only way to make sure this ends is to pass a ban on the sales of dogs and cats in the cities and counties. And we’d add rabbits, ferrets, pot-bellied pigs, long-lived birds, large reptiles and certain chicks (not dyed and in lots) and certain turtles with propensity to shell diseases.

Some think the anger at the Schneiders and the results of the trial will be all that’s needed, but we say

All Local Jurisdictions Should Ban the Sales of Dogs and Cats and Other Animals Formally

2020 State of the State: Bye-Bye Puppy Stores!

Have talked to a lot of elected officials over the past 4 months: one thing seems to be clear at the start of the new year: they all signal they are DONE with puppy stores.

To the person, they all think the trial will find the Schneiders guilty followed with the requisite closing of both stores they own.

Makes us uneasy as the trial could go either way. And frankly—it seems anyway—the more confident a party the more the surprise when the jury foreperson declares

“We the jury have found the defendants…
(pause…. drama….)
NOT guilty!”

Asked about such a contingency they all have declared, “Well, then we’ll have to see what steps we will have to take….”

Making it feel pretty certain that one way or another the stores will be closing, whether through ordinance such as in Reno or by the recent licensing requirement of the stores that could have Animal Services bear down on them in such a way the owners would cry “Uncle!”

Reno’s ban

Reno’s ban was unanimously voted by Council to include the current store on October 23rd after activists pitched a fit at the September 19th emergency meeting when staff told Council the current store would have to be exempted from the ban. Billy Howard spoke in public comment again at the conclusion of the meeting asking staff to cite what ordinance or state law precludes the current store from a ban and that we were going back to the problems of 2015 with staff being the “tail wagging the dog.” The community has wanted an end to puppy mill stores since 2013 and staff has made the appearance of countering that mandate from its inception.

At the subsequent October 23rd meeting, the City Council was unanimous in including the current store in the ban. PMFR was in constant contact with staff liaison Angela Fuss during that period providing statistics on bans that included current stores and the average frequency of amortization, which was low: 1 month, with a number of recent bans effective immediately. That was then included by staff in the pitch to the council for the ban going forward.

Staff has until April 24th, 6 months from passage, to produce an ordinance (and its placement in code) for the Council to vote on, likely yet another unanimous vote. Bonnie Weber was against us when she was a county commissioner, citing the northern territories of Washoe County are adamantly against any kind of animal rights or even animal welfare protections, but remained silent during council comment period. Council Member Brekhus is a contentious player, but even she voted to include the current store under a ban which passed unanimously.

Timeline to passage

If staff is able to produce the ordinance by the deadline and doesn’t ask for an extension, Council will vote on the ordinance—which seems very likely to pass—then another period has to go by of either 2 weeks or 1 month for the second reading of the ordinance to become law. There’s another period of 2 weeks to 1 month where state law requires an ordinance change to be published in the local newspaper before the law can be enacted.

Activists have to be prepared that there may be a request for an extension because of the convoluted nature of Reno’s laws within the entanglement of the “Interlocal Agreement.” Humane Society of the United States lawyers have offered to produce an ordinance, but it cannot be the cookie-cutter version that was originally pioneered by local activist Dawn Armstrong in South Lake Tahoe in 2009. To get it right and without objection from Washoe County, that could take time. PMFR activists are involved in this process after Mayor Schieve directed staff to work with us on the matter.

Reno’s ban, therefore, could be enacted as early as May 22 or as late as July 1. And that’s with an “effective immediately” clause. If there’s a 1 to 6 month amortization period, the effective date could be pushed out to next fall.

PMFR activists have been working in the background to push for an effective immediately clause in the ordinance. It is the most common amortization as we have demonstrated through the data found on Puppy Mill Free.US.

Subscribe to our calendar and this blog for timeline updates.

Sparks

Sparks, by the way, is excluded in all this. They just simper at activists from the dais when asked to meet with them. The Libertarian juggernaut that is the Sparks Council is immovable. But when Schneiders are found guilty, the matter will, finally, be out of their hands. We’d sure like to see an ordinance there preventing any future stores from coming in and starting the whole mess 0ver again. Anyone who does any mild amount of research will come to the same conclusion:

There are no good puppy mill stores.

An awful lot of questions remain and we blanch at the cavalier attitude to a jury trial, especially after witnessing the Writ hearing where it was clear to all the DA of the day could have been stronger.

But the bottom line is as in our top line: Local officials are sick of the hot mess that are puppy stores and the community is marching to end them.

We all wish it would be sooner than later.

Of course you know the next move: Move the trial

Of course the clown liars are going to plead they won’t be able to get a fair and impartial jury in the local area due to all the news coverage, protests, blog posts, FB page firestorms, et.al.

And another reason to get these people out of dodge for the trial: the judge and Mike’s prima donna lawyer could have some bad blood. Judge Freeman was wife-murderer Darren Mack’s initial lawyer. Rick Cornell, Mike’s liar, er, lawyer, got Mack a retrial at a hearing based on his argument that Mack’s first lawyers—Judge Freeman among them—didn’t instruct him properly.

So, there is no doubt in my mind they will beg the court to let them try the case somewhere else. Will probably sue for a venue in the most rural part of Nevada they can hope for where puppy mills could be part of the landscape and sympathies may run with “victims of the animal rights/vegan agenda.”

Might try to head to Las Vegas, but there are long battles over puppy mill stores there with Las Vegas the only city in the country to have passed a ban only to retract it. Though they could pass it again and perhaps soon.

And there’s the puppy store owner who tried to light the store on fire with 27 animals in it! So heading to Vegas for trial doesn’t seem like a wise trick. Somewhere along the Loneliest Road in America would be just about right, the only place they could get what they think is a “fair” trial. Somewhere between Eureka and Austin where the inbred hunting crowd is pissed off at animal rights activists for spoiling their fun.

Now of course they won’t bring that plea up for awhile, sometime into the middle of next Spring. And if the case has to move to a new venue, that could add months to the time the trial actually gets under way with jury selection.

And all the while the accused perps could have their mitts on puppies and kittens, doing who knows what to them, injecting them with “fluids” and vaporizing them in a desperate attempt to keep them at least 10% alive going out the door. Because once they are gone they are—in most cases if the Yelp reviews are to be believed—forgotten.

🤬

Good news though: Judge hasn’t budged on any of the other shenanigans the Schneiders’ liars have come up with. So hopefully he’ll make them stay here and take their medicine like they forced those poor dogs to do even though they themselves aren’t qualified as veterinarians!

Clown show of dismissing case against Schneiders is over

Technicality kings couldn’t budge the judge

Judge Freeman denied the Writ of Habeas Corpus asking suit against Schneiders be dropped.

Freeman took 13 business days to produce his ruling. Will be interesting to read the judge’s brief.

You’d think the Schneiders would consider new lawyers after the technicality kings couldn’t budge the judge. Though people accused of animal abuse don’t usually get to pick the cream of the legal representation crop, unless of course, they are pleading insanity. Which might be the best case for them anyway.

Judge denies request to throw out charges in puppy store case

King The community is still in disbelief the Schneiders thumbed their noses at a speedy trial, allowing them to continue to make profits off the backs of suffering animals through the impulse purchase holiday season.

The jury trial won’t even begin for another 4 months and 20 days! And then there will be jury selection which the clowns liars will stretch out to the bitter end, of course.

Puppy Mill Free Reno was born on 7/11/13. Here’s to hoping the trial will be over by our 7th anniversary.

In any case:

Puppies: 2
Schneiders: 0

Nearly ½ year until the Schneiders’ trial

The Reno community is outraged that the Schneiders and their lawyers WAIVED their right to a speedy trial!

Who on Earth doesn’t want a speedy trial?

People who are gaming the system so they can keep on selling puppies all through the impulse purchase holiday season, that’s who.

Of course their technicality-proficient lawyers, especially Tau-Schneider’s, have a knack for getting clients into retrial hearings by exploiting technicalities.

That’s what they are trying to do on 12/03/19 at 10:00a: get their clients off on a technicality of improper jury instructions. Yes, that old chestnut. Good luck!

If their lawyers aren’t able to make a strong enough case that their clients’ egregious charges should be dropped, we have a painfully long wait until these two accused animal torturers are put in front of a judge again.

And jury. How long will it take the clownish lawyers to go through the jury selection process. They’ve already accused no one in particular of prejudice against their clients for being black, though at the 11/09 hearing did not present any evidence for their outrageous claim. But we can expect more theatrics and drama from the opera singing lawyers that could extend the trial for who knows how long. All good, if the lawyers are able to extend the owners’ selling dogs even one more day. That’s what they are paid for.

Next court day of note is 5/11/2020 when the trial

f ~ i ~ n ~ a ~ l ~ l ~ y

proceeds.

We have a countdown clock on our site on the Home and Courtroom pages.

Cruelty to animals is now a federal crime

“The approval of this measure by the Congress and the president marks a new era in the codification of kindness to animals within federal law. For decades, a national anti-cruelty law was a dream for animal protectionists. Today, it is a reality.”
The penalty for violating the law can include fines, up to seven years in jail or both, according to the legislation.
Mother Nature Network

Writ to be heard 12/03/19

Tuesday, December 3, 2019, 10:00am

Second Judicial District Court
State of Nevada, Washoe County
75 Court Street, Reno, NV, 89501

Department 9
Chief Judge
Honorable
Scott N. Freeman

Lawyers for the accused were presenting the case that the owners should have all charges dropped when court was evacuated with the building reportedly under a bomb threat. The hearing was reset for 12/03/2019, 10a.

Big frickin’ waste of time, but their Liars have to at least make a pretense of earning the big sums they command.

Rick Cornell, according to his website, has made a career out of getting people off or into retrials based on technicalities, including getting murderer Darren Mack a hearing for a retrial on the technicality that his lawyers didn’t do their job. Guess who that lawyer was? That’s right, none other than the judge in this case, Judge Freeman.

You won’t need much memory jogging to remember who Darren Mack is if you were anywhere in Northern Nevada in the Spring/Summer of 2006.

Darren Mack became the subject of an international manhunt in June 2006 after being charged with the stabbing death of his 39-year-old estranged wife, Charla Mack, in the garage of their Reno, Nevada home. Mack was also suspected of, and later charged with, the sniper shooting of Family Court Judge Chuck Weller, who was handling the couple’s acrimonious divorce. Charla Mack was murdered after 9:00 a.m. on June 12, 2006, and Judge Weller was shot around 11:05 a.m. the same day.^[1] Judge Weller spent time recovering,^[2] and returned to his courtroom on August 16.^[3]
Wikipedia

Mack Those who remember the case might relive the horror associated with these reprehensible deeds as it was said at the time that the Macks’ young daughter was in the condominium while her mother was brutally and viciously stabbed to death. The word on everyone’s lips at the time: there doesn’t seem to be any way the child would not have heard her mother begging for mercy, crying out in pain and soon falling silent.

Not sure what happened with his daughter next, but within 1-2 hours Mack shot the divorce judge in sniper-fashion, aiming at his courthouse window from the parking lot structure in downtown Reno. And then this pathetic excuse for a spoiled brat took off for Puerta Vallarta. He was arrested at a resort lounge/bar swimming pool, cocktail in hand? Seems Mack thought he was going to get away with it all, especially with his family’s wealth and connections. Not so fast, p.o.s.

Cornell What kind of a bucket of nasty juice would help someone like that get a retrial hearing? Ah, what some will do for the sound of clinking coin. And the Mack Family has considerable wealth, having run the Palace Pawn & Jewelry Shop in the heart of the downtown casino district for decades, preying and profiting off of those with a gambling jones.

Cornell is defending Leilani, the one accused of murdering a puppy. Our guess is Leilani will switch lawyers when it comes down to the trial as maneuvering through a courtroom defense is not Cornell’s specialty. As in the Mack retrial, he got the technicality accepted, but he did not litigate the (unsuccessful) retrial itself. Nor does his website indicate he’s done much of that, and certainly not in his later career. In fact, he’s done a lot more opera singing than court time, or so it seems from his vanity website.

King Cornell and King are trying their best to get the case dismissed on technicalities, but, so far, their whiny pleas about how the DA and the State did everything wrong is pretty pathetic even from a novice court room observer’s point of view. “But your honnnor….” Eye roll.

Schneider’s lawyer, Carter King, has erased his history from the Internet. Not a habit of highly successful people…. What is he hiding, one wonders? Public has no way of tracking his success rate. Which usually means there isn’t one. Unless you count, of course, his 1 star rating on Yelp.

Not knowing who Mr. King was at the time, several activists have told us they thought he was a street person when they were approached aggressively by him during a filming of activists by a local news station outside the Reno City Council.

Carter King was smoking heavily, dressed shabbily, and all three remarked on the smell of alcohol on his breath. He came in close to interfere with the chanting being filmed and nearly burned a female by waving his cancer stick close to her face. Well, no one says a lawyer has to be dignified or even sober to do their job…..

See the Court Docs section to read the writ. Quotes some of the evidence presented to Grand Jury. Guaranteed to make your blood boil.