Court Awards Town Custody of Dog Allegedly Stabbed by Owner

A court order handed down earlier today has awarded the town permanent custody of the dog allegedly stabbed by its East Haven owner last month.

"The plaintiff has met the burden of proof in establishing that Bailey was inured as a result of the conduct of the defendant," New Haven Superior Court Judge Angela Robinson wrote in her court order.

on warrant Sept. 28 by East Haven Police, and charged with cruelty to animals, filing a false report, interfering with a police officer and failure to vaccinate her dog for rabies.

Masella had that her dog, Bailey — an 11-year-old Boxer — had been stabbed while roaming around a park next to her Massachusetts Avenue home earlier that evening.

The responding officers reported Masella told them that a few minutes prior to their arrival, Bailey had yelped loudly and came running back to the house with a knife stuck in its chest.

Masella alleged that an ex-boyfriend was behind the attack on the dog in an attempt to threaten her prior to an upcoming court proceeding.

But into the incident led them to arrest not the ex-boyfriend, but Masella, as their main suspect in the animal stabbing case.

Today's court order was handed down by Judge Robinson following a custody hearing between the Town of East Haven and Masella at New Haven Superior Court yesterday

Benjamin D. Gettinger — a laywer with the New Haven-based Lynch, Traub, Keefe & Errante — represented the town during that hearing.

Gettinger told Patch this afternoon the town had already been awarded temporary custody of Bailey shortly after Masella's arrest.

But Judge Robinson's ruling now makes that temporary removal, permanent.

"It's a straight forward ruling," Gettinger said.

According to the order, during yesterday's hearing Masella presented "the testimony of a friend whom she claimed, for the first time, was an eyewitness to Bailey's return home from the park."

"In her verbal and written statements to the police on the day of the incident, the defendant never mentioned or disclosed that her firmed was present the evening that bailey was stabbed," Robinson stated in the order. "Her friend was not at the house when the police arrived to conduct the investigation. Neither the defendant nor her version of the facts was credible."

"In addition to the implausibility of the defendant's version, based upon her record, there are several reasons to doubt her veracity," Robinson stated.

Gettinger said the East Haven Animal Shelter will continue to care for Bailey, until she is eventually adopted out to a new family and home.

And animal control officers will make sure Bailey "goes to somebody that is more than suitable" to take good care of the animal, Gettinger said.

"They do a good job of that," he said.

He added, however, that this does not end the legal proceedings involved with the case.

"This only takes care of the ownership of the dog. She'll still have the criminal charges to confront," he said of Masella.