NEWPORT NEWS — A judge on Wednesday tossed a felony charge against the owner of two large dogs that attacked four neighbors on Sept 1.
Four people were hospitalized with significant bite and puncture wounds after Robert Keith Packer’s dogs — of the Dogos Argentinos breed — attacked them just after 8 p.m. in the city’s Hidenwood section.
Packer became known after the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol in Washington. Photographs of Packer wearing a “Camp Auschwitz” sweatshirt inside the U.S. Capitol building went viral, referring to the World War II Nazi death camp in Poland.
He was one of the more than 1,000 people pardoned by President Trump who had been prosecuted for their roles in the riot.
Robert Keith Packer, a Newport News resident who wore a Camp Auschwitz shirt at the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, was sentenced to 75 days of imprisonment on Thursday.
But at a probable cause hearing in the dog attack case Wednesday, General District Judge Charisse Mullen said prosecutors failed to show how the dogs got out.
That fact, the judge said, is crucial to the felony charge of “failing to control a dog, leading to an attack on another,” a count punishable by up to five years in prison. Under the law, she noted, someone must commit a “willful act or omission” that causes the animals to run loose.
“The court is being asked to draw a conclusion about how the dogs got out,” Mullen said. “That’s jumping to a conclusion, and the court is not allowed to do that.”
Moreover, Mullen ruled there was likewise no evidence presented showing that Packer had shown “reckless disregard for human life” in his actions or omissions — also a crucial element of the felony count.
Five misdemeanor counts are still pending against Packer, 61, of Newport News.
Robert Keith Packer, 60, was arrested Thursday and charged with a felony and five misdemeanors following Monday night’s dog attack.
One of Packer’s neighbors, Pamela Ritchson, testified Wednesday that she decided to take a walk after dinner that Labor Day.
But then two large dogs began coming toward her on Barbour Drive. She tried to take cover behind a neighbor’s recycling bin.
“They jumped on me and I fell to the pavement,” Ritchson testified, saying the dogs bit her on her face, shoulder, arms and legs.
Two other neighbors — John Stover III and Derek Race — were in their car returning home from dinner when they saw the dogs attacking Ritchson.
“She was on the ground face-down and was being mauled by two dogs,” Stover testified.
Race sounded the car’s horn to try to startle the dogs, with Stover getting out to help Ritchson. But then the dogs began attacking him, too, causing deep cuts to his legs and elbow.
Race then got out of the car to help Stover.
“I tried to assist him and get him back into the car, and then they tried to attack me,” Race testified. “They tried to bring me down to the ground.”
The bites tore flesh from Race’s left leg, causing him to need a skin graft later.
Meantime, Angela Miller was in her bedroom when she heard the screaming. She looked out her window, seeing Ritchson on the ground and the dogs attacking Stover. She called 911.
“I grabbed a baseball bat,” she said, saying she struck one of the dogs with it. “He kind of looked at me, like ‘That’s all you got?’”
That’s when the dogs knocked her to the ground and began biting her head, arms and shoulder. “I jumped up and ran in my house as fast as I could.”
Miller was in the hospital for six days; Ritchson was in the hospital for four days; and the two men had briefer stays.
On the night of the dog attack, Packer willingly gave up his intact male dog, Sid, to authorities, telling an animal control officer he was “no longer on Sid’s side.”
That followed a May incident in which Sid attacked another dog as a woman was walking her yellow Lab down the street.
But Animal Welfare Officer Katherine Mroczkowski said Packer initially refused to give up his female dog, Zeenie, saying he didn’t think she was involved. He finally relented after officers put Packer in handcuffs and threatened to search his home unless he gave that canine up too.
At a court hearing in September, a judge declared Sid and Zeenie to be “vicious dogs,” allowing the animals to be euthanized.
During Wednesday’s hearing, Packer’s lawyer, Stephen Dunnigan, asked each of the testifying neighbors if they knew how the dogs got out. They all said no. He asked them if they had ever seen the dogs attacking people when they were seen running loose previously. Again they said no.
In urging Mullen to toss the felony count, Dunnigan noted that the charge requires “a willful act or omission” — such as the dog owner opening a gate to let them out or intentionally failing to close the gate upon the dogs’ return.
“We don’t have any evidence whatsoever,” Dunnigan said. “All we know is the dogs got out … there has to be some evidence that he did something.”
But prosecutor Jacqueline Edwards asserted that as the dogs’ owner, Packer “was in charge of them and was responsible for controlling them” — that it was his actions or inactions that caused the dangerous dogs to be running loose and attacking neighbors.
Moreover, Edwards said there was a pending court case against Packer at the time about the September incident, which should have been a warning to Packer “that his dogs were an issue.”
After considering the matter in her chambers for about 20 minutes, Mullen sided with Dunnigan, even as she noted the neighbors’ injuries were “some of the worst I’ve seen” from a dog attack.
“I have sympathy for the victims,” she said.
Mullen did not rule on five misdemeanor charges — three counts of allowing a dog to run at large to attack another and two counts of failing to obtain a license. Together those charges carry the potential for 18 months in jail and fines of up to $1,000.
It hasn’t yet been determined whether Mullen will rule on those charges based on the evidence presented Wednesday or whether a new hearing will be held.
A third option is that prosecutors could drop the misdemeanor charges and attempt to resurrect all counts — including the felony — by seeking direct indictments in Circuit Court. A status hearing is slated for Jan. 16.
Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, pdujardin@dailypress.com
