Crown requests 18 months in jail for Saint John man whose dogs attacked people

Prosecutors want at least 18 months of jail time for a Saint John man whose dogs attacked four people on the lower west side.

Michael Edmond Kirby, 59, was found guilty of four counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm in the summer of 2022. He was also previously fined $5,000 for bylaw infractions related to the same attacks.

The charges stem from three separate occasions where his dogs escaped and attacked people in 2018, including an elderly man and a 14-year-old on his way to school.

Crown prosecutor Elaina Campbell said 18 months "is still at the low range" considering other cases of criminal negligence causing bodily harm. She said the fact that one of the victims was a child should also be counted as a reason for tougher punishment.

Defence lawyer Charles Bryant is asking the judge for conditional release and probation.

"A community-based sentence is appropriate," he said. "Actual jail is substantially disproportionate to Mr. Kirby and the gravity of these offences."

Bryant said the fine, the public scrutiny, and the stigma associated with the publicity all send a message to other dog owners that failing to control their dogs will result in serious consequences.

Kirby was charged after five separate incidents in four days between June and December 2018. The victims ranged from a 14-year-old boy on his way to school to an elderly man out for a stroll in his lower west side neighborhood.

Injuries resulting from the attacks range from abrasions and several bites to psychological trauma and suffering.

In finding him guilty in the summer of 2022, Justice Arthur Doyle said that by Aug. 22, 2018, the date of the first charge against him, Kirby was aware of his dogs' "propensity to attack" people and knew, or ought to have known, they were a danger to innocent passersby.

On Thursday, Doyle said he plans to deliver his sentence at 2 p.m. Friday.

The judge asked Kirby if he had anything to say before he delivers his sentence.

Kirby stood up and said he's been bitten by dogs several times in the past and he sympathizes with the victims.

"I sympathize with the pain and trauma that they've been through. It's nothing you ever want to have your dogs do to another person," he said.

"The fact that they did that, I bear the responsibility for that."

Kirby's case appears to be uncommon. The Crown, defence and the judge all said they were unable to find previous cases with similar circumstances. That means there are fewer previous decisions that Doyle can refer to when deciding his sentence.

There are criminal negligence cases involving weapons, drugs and gunpowder, but rarely, if at all, were there such cases involving dogs. In court, Bryant said most other cases involving dog bites were dealt with in provincial courts, through bylaws, or civil lawsuits where people were ordered to pay for damages.

Request to stay proceedings

Last week Bryant filed a Charter challenge because of delays in the case, saying that Kirby's Charter right to a timely trial was not respected since he was first charged in 2018. The judge dismissed this application because he said the delays were out of the Crown's control, COVID-19 for example, or were either caused by or consented to by the defence.

Doyle did accept that Kirby was held for more than 24 hours before he was charged, which is against criminal procedure. Doyle said he will consider this and add a "proportional sentence reduction" as a remedy. He did not say how long the sentence reduction would be.

The incidents involved various numbers of Kirby's dogs. Two were Louisiana Catahoula leopard dogs and two were Catahoula-Labrador mixes.

According to the American Kennel Club's website, the Louisiana Catahoula leopard dog "requires firm guidance and early socialization, as they can be independent, territorial, and protective."

Kirby got two more dogs during the time frame of the attacks. By the time he was arrested in December 2018, he had six dogs. Five were destroyed, and one was found dead in Kirby's residence when the dogs were seized two days after his arrest.