South Bay : Dog Missing, but Suspect Is Found Guilty

To all those critics who say the jury system has gone to the dogs, consider this:

A South Bay jury deliberated for several hours Monday before finding Edie Warwick guilty of theft in connection with the disappearance of Cassie, a Lawndale family’s black-and-white mutt.

Warwick, 42, a former Lawndale planning commissioner, was sentenced Tuesday to six months in County Jail and three years of probation and fined $500 for the misdemeanor crime. South Bay Municipal Judge Josh Fredricks agreed to reduce her jail time to 30 days if she brings the dog to court Thursday.

An earlier trial ended in February when jurors deadlocked 10 to 2 in favor of conviction.

Cassie has been missing since late September, after Warwick refused to return the dog to Joseph and Vicky French, who live a few blocks away.

Warwick found the dog and placed an ad in a local newspaper looking for her owners. But when the Frenches came to retrieve their dog, Warwick refused to hand her over, saying she doubted that the Frenches were the real owners.

The plot thickened a few days later when Warwick reported that the dog had disappeared from her back yard. A Torrance kennel worker later told sheriff’s deputies that a woman resembling Warwick had boarded the dog at the kennel for four days. The kennel register was signed by Cruelly Derille, an apparent reference to Cruella De Vil, the villain in Disney’s “101 Dalmatians.”

Warwick, who claims the dog was stolen from her back yard, was subsequently removed from her post as planning commissioner and closed down her child care service.