Todays hearing was interesting. The summary is that the hearing was postponed. The long story is that I was still at the Department of Agriculture for about an hour. Essentially, when the Wanzers went to mediation, they signed over ownership of Luca to a trust set up by Richard Rosenthal, an attorney for TLP. The agreement made at the mediation was pending signatures. The town officials didnt sign the agreement that the attorneys came up with at the mediation. However, the transfer of ownership from the Wanzers to the Trust was still completed. At the mediation, the Wanzers were informed that they would need a CT licensed attorney at future hearings (Rosenthal is licensed in New York). The appeal was filed by the Wanzers before they signed over ownership to the trust set up by Rosenthal. It appears as though the appeal should have been re-filed by the trust at that time, because in giving up ownership, the Wanzers also gave up their right to appeal. So does the appeal need re-filed? The appealing party showed up late. And Rosenthal and the CT attorney tried to introduce themselves as co-counsel. They were informed Rosenthal couldnt even be considered co-counsel unless he was licensed in CT and he isnt. So, really the appeal needs to be filed by the trust, with Rosenthal being there merely as the person who set up the trust, and the CT attorney being the legal representation for the trust (with the trust being the dog owner/appealing party). So, in a weird way, the CT attorney is now representing the NY attorney, Rosenthal isnt co-counsel. The CT attorney said that if he was not allowed to use Rosenthal as co-counsel that he needed more time to prepare, and it was granted. The only witnesses that were called today were Jennifer Raymond and Donald Wanzer, both just to say who they were, that they acknowledged they no longer owned the dog, and had given up their right to appeal. Don was losing his temper because I guess he hadnt realized giving up ownership also meant giving up right to appeal. He kept getting counseled on the stand, and the Plainville attorney had to keep objecting. Especially since the counsel that was being given wasnt even from someone that counted as counsel in CT. So, the party had a quick discussion outside, Don came back and said he no longer had the right to appeal, and then Jennifer took her turn and tearfully did the same. TLP seemed to be trying to make the whole thing as confusing as possible. Sort of a confuse and conquer strategy. It seemed a little successful because the commissioner was hoping the case would get resolved outside of court (seemingly so he wouldnt have to sort through the details), but the town of Plainville assured me there was no possibility of that. In other news, it appears the Wanzers have moved to Bristol (which oddly enough has been an area I have been running a lot in order to avoid the Wanzers house). The police recently responded to a dog bite at their former address and was surprised it was no longer inhabited by the Wanzers, but by someone running a dog rescue. So, probably still not the best residence to run by. :/
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 17:40:20 +0000
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