Owner, 14, Recounts Dog’s Killing as Trial of City Meter Reader Opens

A 14-year-old boy, whose dog was killed when a meter reader hurled a metal bar into its skull, testified Tuesday that he asked the man why he had done it, and that the meter reader replied, “Maybe I felt like it.”

The youth, Tom Brown, recounted for a San Fernando Superior Court Jury how meter reader Eric B. DeGruy killed the barking animal in the Browns’ front yard in Sunland last July. DeGruy is being tried on a charge of cruelty to the animal.

The youth testified that the dog posed no threat to the meter reader.

“She was just standing there barking . . . and then he threw it,” Brown said, referring to a 10-inch metal pry bar that pierced the dog’s eye and had to be surgically removed from the dead dog’s skull. “He was going back to his car, and I asked him why he did it, and he said, ‘Maybe I felt like it.’ ”

Misdemeanor Count

DeGruy, 27, who works for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, is charged with a single misdemeanor count of cruelty to an animal for killing the dog, a 12-year-old beagle mix named Brandy. If convicted, he could receive up to a year in County Jail and a $5,000 fine, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Carol Straughn, who is prosecuting the case.

DeGruy’s case, believed to be the first of its kind in the city, raised the hackles of animal rights activists throughout Los Angeles, and they became even angrier when the City Council voted in September to provide up to $10,000 for DeGruy’s legal defense.

More than 20 representatives of animal rights groups crowded into the courtroom during the first day of the trial Tuesday to hear opening statements and testimony from two of Brandy’s owners and an investigator from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Denies Intent to Hurt Animal

DeGruy’s attorney, Larry Duzin, told jurors that DeGruy did not mean to harm Brandy when he threw the tool and was distraught about having killed the dog.

“In his panic and his anger, he threw the tool,” Duzin said. “He threw not to injure or kill, but to frighten. But, by tragedy, it struck the dog and killed it.”

DeGruy told Brown only that Brandy should have been on a leash, Duzin told the jury. The meter reader then left the scene to file a report on the incident.

Duzin said DeGruy reacted with fear when he heard Brandy coming at him because he had been forced to flee attacking dogs several times before. On two of those occasions, Guzin told the jury, DeGruy had to climb a fence and jump to safety, twice injuring his knee enough to require surgery and disable him for more than a month.

Degree of Force Noted

Prosecutor Straughn, however, said the tool was hurled with such force that it sank more than four inches into the dog’s skull.

“He knew what he was doing when he threw that thing,” Straughn said in an interview.

Woodland Hills animal rights activist Jan Sayre, 49, said during a break in Tuesday’s proceedings that she intends to attend the trial until its completion, which is expected by the end of the week.

“I think it’s marvelous that they’ve taken this to court because there have been endless shootings of dogs, and I think this would set an excellent example, particularly if he (DeGruy) gets sentenced to jail,” Sayre said. “This would prove that you can’t just go around killing animals.”