By Malaika Fraley
Contra Costa Times

RICHMOND — A Richmond landlord charged with beating a tenant’s miniature pinscher and then keeping the injured dog in a tightly sealed garbage bag overnight has been ordered to trial on two counts of felony animal abuse.

Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Barbara Hinton also ordered Sharon Sayler, 65, to have no unsupervised contact with animals after learning during a preliminary hearing Monday that Sayler has been volunteering at a humane society charity store in Siskiyou County, and recently worked at an animal shelter there.

Sayler was previously ordered to stay away from the Richmond four-plex she owns and where she had been living next door to Saul Hernandez and Felicia Minor, working parents who own the pinscher, Taz.

Six months after the attack, Taz is blind, uncoordinated from brain damage and extremely skittish, the couple testified at the preliminary hearing.

“I couldn’t understand why she did it, not only to our dog, but to us,” Minor testified. She said Sayler never complained about Taz and was on good terms with her family.

“She told me for no particular reason she had a serious dislike for (Taz),” Sgt. Lori Curran testified.

Sayler said in her police interview that she had fantasies about killing dogs in the past, and had on several occasions chased Taz in an attempt to harm him, according to Curran. When she caught Taz on Jan. 28, Sayler said she held the 9-pound dog down with one hand, and used a thick tree branch to “bash” him more than 10 times in the head with the other. “She said it was an error in judgment and she would be willing to compensate the owners for any costs,” Curran said.

Hernandez tearfully testified how, when he found Taz missing after returning home from celebrating his daughter’s first birthday, he questioned Sayler. She admitted she had “disposed of” the dog, but refused to give details.

The next day, Hernandez followed Sayler to Wildcat Canyon Regional Park. He said she had just put on rubber gloves and retrieved a garbage bag from her trunk when he confronted her, causing her to flee and lead him on a 45-minute car chase. He said Sayler drove onto a sidewalk, knocking down garbage cans, and ran several red lights before stopping at a San Pablo hospital and running inside.

It was in the hospital parking lot that police forced open the trunk and pulled out the plastic bag filled with blood, sweat and the badly injured pup, gasping for air.

Sayler’s attorney argued Monday that the charges should be reduced to misdemeanors because Sayler has no previous criminal record and has long been a community philanthropist. The judge cited Sayler’s apparent lack of remorse as a factor for keeping the charges as felonies.

contracostatimes

U.S. Chamber of Commerce & Deceit in Mold Litigation

TRUTH OUT Sharon Kramer Letter To Andrew Saxon MOLD ISSUE

National Apartment Association Tells Its Members MOLD CAUSES DEATH; Tells Courts It Doesn’t With The Help of US Chamber and UCLA

Thank You National Apartment Association. I will do my best to get this very important information out ASAP to numerous owners, investors, huge property management companies (e.g., Riverstone Residential), attorneys, and judges, AND, of course, to the MANY people who are currently living in MOLD-INFESTED APARTMENT COMPLEXES right now! katy

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Truth About Mold – the most up to date, accurate, and reliable information on Toxic Mold

Sociological Issues Relating to Mold: The Mold Wars

“Changes in construction methods have caused US buildings to become perfect petri dishes for mold and bacteria to flourish when water is added. Instead of warning the public and teaching physicians that the buildings were causing illness; in 2003 the US Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, a think-tank, and a workers comp physician trade organization mass marketed an unscientific nonsequitor to the courts to disclaim the adverse health effects to stave off liability for financial stakeholders of moldy buildings. Although publicly exposed many times over the years, the deceit lingers in US courts to this very day.”

Sharon Noonan Kramer

Information about Riverstone Residential, the Louisiana Housing Finance Agency, and the owners of Jefferson Lakes Apartments in Baton Rouge, Louisiana allowing tenants to be exposed to extreme amounts of toxins from molds by intentionally concealing evidence

Irrefutable evidence indicates that Riverstone Residential, Guarantee Service Team of Professionals, & plaintiffs’ attorney, J Arthur Smith III, must have agreed to exclude evidence that would have shown the owners of Jefferson Lakes Apartments & Riverstone Residential had knowledge of the severe MOLD INFESTATION at the complex before we moved in

Riverstone Residential Litigation

Mold Inspection Reports

Photos of Mold in Apartment

Attorney Malpractice

Links to Riverstone Residential Mold and Illegal Business Practice Complaints and More!