The State - News from April 16, 1989

The family of a toddler mauled to death by a pit bull in 1987 won a $3.5-million judgment from the dog’s owner and his former landlady, but the family acknowledged little likelihood of collecting much money. The family filed the lawsuit a month after the death of Jimmy Soto, 2 1/2, in June, 1987, charging that the dog’s owner, Michael Patrick Berry, showed “wanton and willful” negligence in controlling the animal and that his former landlady, Har Y. Gong, did nothing to protect the family, despite requests to have the dog’s area fenced. Berry, 39, was ordered by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge David Leahy to pay $3.35 million of the total award in the civil suit. Gong of Morgan Hill, agreed to pay the child’s family $205,000. Berry has been charged with second-degree murder in the boy’s death.