Annoyance Case Questions Sorted Out : Every Dog Has Its Day in Canine Court

Most defendants are contrite once they’re finally dragged into court, but this was the first time anyone could remember the suspect crawling onto the judge’s lap.

Of course, Cricket wasn’t your usual suspect, just a Bedlington terrier who barks too often. And Matthew Margolis wasn’t really a judge, just an animal trainer hearing evidence.

Welcome to Canine Court, initiated Tuesday by the Los Angeles city attorney’s office in an effort to segregate an annoying number of annoying-dog cases from the criminal court system.

In Canine Court dogs are summoned along with their owners.

“It’s important for me to hear the dog’s side,” said Margolis, who has written several books with titles such as “When Good Dogs Do Bad Things.”

Sitting behind a desk on a raised platform in a Westside government building and wearing an open-collared black sport shirt and black slacks, Margolis tried to put all parties at ease.

“I speak both English and dogese,” he said.

With that, Margolis, who is donating his time to the once-a-month experiment, tried to sort out questions beyond the reach of the criminal justice system: Why does Rover howl? How often? And what will it take to make him stop?

The doggie judge has neither bite nor bark. He can’t impose his judgment or suggestions upon a dog owner. He is simply doing what a hearing officer would normally do, holding a conference with both sides before the city attorney’s office decides whether it should file misdemeanor charges--in these cases, for violations of noise or leash laws. (Dog attack cases will continue to be handled as regular criminal cases.)

“I think he’ll draw conclusions that perhaps an untrained eye could not,” said Connie Seim, a hearing officer in the West Los Angeles Municipal Court, where the experiment is being conducted.

Seim then called the first case on the docket: Cricket, her pal Courtney and a third terrier owned by Kenneth J. Rout, who lives in the Hollywood Hills. For years, the barking of the dogs has exasperated Rout’s neighbor, Tim Street-Porter, and the woman who lives in an apartment above Rout, Kathy Axelrod. Street-Porter once sprayed a hose at the dogs to quiet them. Axelrod once dumped a container of water on them from above.

Barking Explained

During the hearing, Rout and Street-Porter sat two seats apart without looking at each other.

The barking is “completely ‘round the clock,” Street-Porter complained to Margolis.

“They don’t idly bark,” Rout answered. “They bark at things.”

Street-Porter’s wife had brought a written log. It indicated there were 15 to 20 barking episodes a day.

Margolis probed. He asked Rout why the dogs were kept outside at night.

“It’s what they’re used to,” Rout said.

“Do you think they care?” the judge asked. “You’re better off having them inside.”

He asked Rout if the dogs are housebroken.

“Not necessarily,” Rout said.

Margolis told Rout that he would give him a technique for housebreaking his dogs. And he suggested that Rout enroll his dogs in a “reconditioning” program offered at a local park.

“They bark because they think it’s OK to bark,” Margolis said. “You’ve never said ‘No.’ Most people do not train their dogs. They just have the ability to love them and feed them.” These dog owners, he said, simply “roll up a newspaper (and) say, ‘What did you do?’ “What’s the dog supposed to do, say, ‘I barked’?”

Rout agreed to try Margolis’ recommendations.

The judge, stroking Cricket, who had strayed from its owner and crept onto his lap, asked Street-Porter whether that solution would satisfy him. This was a key moment in easing the city attorney’s workload. The office receives between 1,200 and 1,700 complaints a year from people like Street-Porter, and about 10% of them wind up going to court, eating up days of an already badly clogged system.

Skeptically, Street-Porter said he would be satisfied. Margolis promised that he would follow up and make sure Rout complied. So did hearing officer Seim.

There were supposed to be seven other cases on Tuesday’s agenda, but two of them ended prematurely. Rather than participate in the hearing process, two dog owners who had been summoned to appear put their dogs to sleep.

“It kind of makes us sick,” Seim said. “That they’d do anything but deal with the problem. What do they think happens here--do they think they’re going to the penitentiary?”

A dog owner who is prosecuted and sentenced for violating noise or leash laws faces the standard misdemeanor fine, which can be as large as $1,000 or six months in jail or both.

After Cricket had crawled off Margolis’ lap and left, Bernard Ehrig of West Los Angeles came forth to complain about the barking of a German shepherd owned by his neighbor, Dr. Sylvester E. Sailes. Unfortunately, neither Sailes nor his dog was there, and because Canine Court does not have subpoena power, the only recourse was to reschedule the hearing and mail another summons. If Sailes does not respond, the city attorney’s office would make its decision on prosecution based solely on Ehrig’s evidence.

A neighbor of Ehrig’s, Leslie Richter, brought with him a taped recording of the dog and told Margolis that the noise had convinced one homeowner to move.

Ehrig told Margolis that he had, on occasion, looked over the fence and yelled at the dog to be quiet.

“ ‘Shaddup’ doesn’t work,” Margolis said. “Neither does ‘Shhhh.’ It never has.”

Margolis would never have begun dispensing such wisdom in this forum had not the presiding judge of West Los Angeles Municipal Court, Sherman Smith, gone looking for a trainer for his dog. He saw Margolis’ business ad in a magazine.

In talking to Margolis, Smith mentioned the hassles of trying to sort out barking-dog cases. Margolis mentioned that he did some informal mediation last year for the Beverly Hills city attorney’s office, sans dogs. Smith suggested a Los Angeles pilot program, and the city attorney’s office agreed. Margolis is the sole mediator.

“The courts just don’t have the expertise for this,” Smith said.

After watching Margolis handle the case of Cricket et al , hearing officer Seim said she was sold on the new program--and glad to be rid of the chore of resolving dog disputes.

“Am I relieved?” she said, nodding toward Margolis. “If I can get that guy to Trader Vic’s, I pay.”