Man gets ONLY 1 year in prison for snapping dog's spine

NY man who snapped dog's spine gets year in prison

Associated Press


WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - A New York man who killed his girlfriend's dog by snapping its spine has been sentenced to a year behind bars.

Twenty-one-year-old Jonathan King, of Yorktown, was sentenced Tuesday. King has admitted that he killed Libra, a Yorkshire terrier-Maltese mix, in April 2009 by yanking its collar hard enough to dislocate its head from its spine.
Prosecutors say King went to his girlfriend's house at a time when he knew no one would be home and killed the dog "with no justifiable purpose."

The dog's body was found behind a clothes dryer. King was identified when DNA analysis determined that blood found beneath the dog's claws was his.


Steven Levine, the father of the dog's owner, says the family considers King "a danger to our family, our community and our society."

Man gets 15 years for conspiracy to sell meth

'Ringleader' in meth bust accepts 15 years, wife eyes probation


Erin Taylor
Miner Staff Reporter

KINGMAN - Two more defendants, including one characterized as the leader of a major methamphetamine ring in Kingman, have taken plea deals in the "Operation Picture Perfect" case.

Jose J. Ochoa, 37, pled guilty Wednesday to four felony charges, including conspiracy to sell dangerous drugs, two counts of attempted transportation of dangerous drugs for sale and one count of money laundering in the second degree.

Under terms of the agreement, he will receive 15 years in prison.

Ochoa's wife, Deaney, 32, also pled guilty Wednesday to one count of felony conspiracy to sell dangerous drugs. She will receive supervised probation and could be sentenced to up to six months in prison.

County Attorney Greg McPhillips said Jose entered into the agreement on the pretext that his wife receive probation.

"While I think they're both culpable, I think he's more culpable," he said.

Of the 18 suspects arrested as part of "Operation Picture Perfect" in April 2008, 12, including the Ochoas, have accepted plea deals from the state. The remaining six defendants are set to go to trial March 2.

Jose Ochoa has been characterized as the ringleader of the group accused of bringing more than 520 pounds of methamphetamine into Kingman each year.

"Jose is the one most responsible for bringing in large amounts of methamphetamine," McPhillips said.

He added that the case is unusual not only because of the large number of defendants involved but because each person has a different level of involvement and some of the suspects have no previous criminal histories, which is a factor during sentencing.

Meth: The Overstated Addiction

Meth: The Overstated Addiction

By Margaret Dooley, outreach coordinator for the Drug Policy Alliance

The Department of Justice has declared today National Methamphetamine Awareness Day. What better way to observe it than taking a break from the hype?

Rather than repeating the popular fiction about methamphetamine (that use is skyrocketing, that only stepped up policing will counter the trend, and that addiction is untreatable), let's take a moment today to consider the evidence.

First, methamphetamine use is not prevalent. Although some 12 million Americans have tried methamphetamine, this is far fewer than the number who have tried inhalants (23 million), hallucinogens (34 million), cocaine (34 million), or marijuana (96 million).

Of those who have tried methamphetamine, only 1.5 million have used the drug in the last year; and only 583,000 have used it within the last 30 days.

There is no indication that methamphetamine use is increasing. The proportion of Americans who use methamphetamine on a monthly basis has hovered in the range of 0.2 percent-0.3 percent since 1999.

In fact, according to the 2005 Monitoring the Future survey, the percentage of high school seniors who reported using methamphetamine in the last year fell to a low of 2.5 percent in 2005. (Use of depressants, meanwhile, increased from a low of 2.8 percent in 1992 to around 7 percent in 2005.)

Second, policing is not "taking care" of methamphetamine. While limits on purchases of precursors have pushed many illicit labs out of our neighborhoods, the drug is still being manufactured -- just now it's across the border.

Indeed, methamphetamine is now as available and cheap as it has ever been. This comes as no surprise. As long as demand for an illegal drug exists, there will be supply to meet it.

While policing has failed to curtail use of methamphetamine, it has successfully overloaded our jails and prisons. In the 1980s-90s, California followed national trends by relying increasingly on punishment and prisons as its primary response to arrests for illicit drug use. The total number of people imprisoned in California for drug possession quadrupled between 1988 and 2000, peaking at 20,116.

It was in response to this trend that California voters decided to change tactics. In 2000, 61 percent of California voters passed Proposition 36, the treatment-instead-of-incarceration law, which provides treatment to over 35,000 Californians convicted of nonviolent low-level drug offenses each year. Over half (53 percent) of Prop. 36 participants -- over 19,000 people -- enter treatment for methamphetamine abuse each year.

Prop. 36 has provided valuable evidence that methamphetamine addiction is quite treatable. According to state data on Prop. 36, methamphetamine users have a treatment completion rate of 35 percent, higher than users of cocaine/crack (32 percent) or heroin (29 percent). Although this was an important learning opportunity for policymakers, it was not news to treatment specialists. In fact, there have been at least twenty recent studies showing the efficacy of methamphetamine treatment.

The next step for policymakers is to provide treatment on demand, so that people suffering from addiction have access to treatment outside of the criminal justice system. It is both cheaper and better for public safety to provide treatment to those who need it sooner rather than later.

Other evidence shows that California's public health measures have not gone far enough. Although the Governor signed the Pharmacy Syringe Sale and Disease Prevention Act in 2004, well under half of California's 58 counties have implemented the program to allow nonprescription purchases of up to ten syringes at pharmacies. This is literally killing some of our state's most vulnerable residents.

According to the California Society of Addiction Medicine, 30-50 percent of those with newly identified HIV-infection use methamphetamine. Increasing the availability of sterile syringes through syringe exchange programs, pharmacies, and other outlets is proven to reduce unsafe injection practices, curtail transmission of HIV/AIDS and hepatitis, increase safe disposal of used syringes, and help intravenous drug users obtain drug education and treatment.

The truth about methamphetamine is that its use is not growing exponentially, that addiction is treatable, and that the risks it poses to public health can be mitigated.

Tennessee store owner charged with meth conspiracy

Store owner charged with meth conspiracy

Crossville Chronicle
By Michael R. Moser/Editor
April 29, 2010

CROSSVILLE — A multi-county, multi-agency investigation into trafficking of components used in the clandestine manufacture of methamphetamine has led to the door step of a Loudon County feed store owner who was indicted this week by a federal grand jury.


The investigation originated in Cumberland County and quickly led local investigators to adjoining counties. Sheriff's investigators then sought the help of federal agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Justice, and months of undercover operations culminated into the arrest this week.


Charged in the multi-county federal indictment is Eugene Allen Trent, 50, of Lenoir City.


He faces charges of conspiring to manufacture more than five hundred grams of methamphetamine, conspiring to distribute iodine knowing or having reasonable cause to believe it would be used to manufacture meth, and eight counts of distribution of iodine knowing or having reasonable cause to believe it would be used to manufacture methamphetamine.


"For the past three years or so, my investigators have told me that nearly all of the iodine they were finding in labs in our county were coming from the same place," Sheriff Butch Burgess said Thursday. "This caused us to take a second look at that aspect of the meth problem and investigators were able to trace the iodine sales back to the source."


Trent is scheduled to appear in court April 30 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan K. Lee in Chattanooga. A trial date has yet to be set, according to a press release issued by the Department of Justice.


If convicted on the methamphetamine conspiracy charge, Trent could be facing a statutory mandatory minimum sentence of ten years in prison, up to a maximum of life in prison, five years of supervised release, and a fine of $4 million and up to ten years in prison on each of the iodine charges.


U.S. District Attorney James R. (Russ) Dedrick applauded the efforts of the multi-jurisdictional and multi-agency investigation probe. In addition to DEA and Cumberland County sheriff's investigators, the Loudon, Rhea and Roane county sheriff's departments, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Tennessee Meth Task Force were involved in the investigation.


The probe has been ongoing for over the past year and it has involved numerous undercover purchases, two federal search warrants, numerous traffic stops and other investigation techniques developed by the Tennessee Meth Task Force, the press release stated.


The indictment, which remains sealed, also includes numerous other individuals in the Eastern District of Tennessee who have been charged with conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine and other related violations.


"There has been a resurgence of methamphetamine manufacturing in the Eastern District of Tennessee and the cooperative spirit of these sheriff's departments and other agencies is an excellent example of the type of effort needed to combat this very serious problem," Dedrick said in the release.


Assistant U.S. Attorney Perry H. Piper will represent the United States in prosecution of the case.


The Department of Justice, in the release, stated that the public should be reminded that an indictment constitutes only charges and that every person is presumed innocent until their guilt has been proven in court.