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In Fluvanna County, Virginia, a judge decided that dogs seized from a man’s property are going to be allowed to be entered into evidence in his upcoming dog fighting trial.
Brenton Mathis is up against eight felony dog fighting charges, ten misdemeanor animal cruelty charges, and one felony possession of a firearm charge. There is also a civil suit being brought against him by the state. The state wants to use ten pit bulls taken in a raid from his home on the tenth of January, 2013 as evidence against him in the trial. His lawyer filed a motion to have this not happen, but that petition to the court was denied by a judge during a pretrial hearing on Friday.
“Obviously we were disappointed that the court dismissed the suppression motion, but we’ll see what happens next,” said Terry Hughes who is Mathis’ lawyer.
According to state police reports, Mathis’ property was searched after a tip was received by police from someone that is close to the family. Mathis’ lawyer is claiming investigators were misleading during their search of his home.
“We thought it was an invasion of privacy to take his dogs and take urine, take blood, and all that from the dogs and all that, but the court made it’s ruling on a premises issue so,” said Hughes.
The reports state the dogs have scars and injuries indicative of having been in a fight or two. They are currently being cared for by the Fluvanna County SPCA.
Another hearing is set to resume on the 27th of June, 2014. The actual trial is set to begin the 8th of August, 2014 in Fluvanna County Court.
