Lady Victoria Eclectic Pagan's blog: "Rants..."

This morning, I rose up again at dawn to start my day with different things planned from the norm. I made it a point to go to the local court and provide support on behalf of Ella, a dog found dead and abandoned in a local residence and struck a chord in my heart. In the news at the following: http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080617/NEWS01/806170334 The defense attorney for a local Cocoa woman accused of moving out of her home and leaving her dog behind to starve to death wants nearly all the evidence in the case to be thrown out, arguing that police illegally searched the house. According to a motion filed by West Palm Beach attorney Andrew Stine, police shouldn't have entered Christine Abrams' home without a warrant unless there was reason to believe they or someone inside was in immediate danger, or that evidence was about to be destroyed. It was during that search that police found the decayed body of Abrams' German shepherd, Ella, locked in a crate in the living room, a bag of dog food mere feet away. Abrams, 30, faces up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine if convicted on two misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty. She has pleaded not guilty. "There was ample time to secure the home and then apply for a search warrant," Stine wrote. A scheduling hearing set for today was pushed back to June 27 so that it could be consolidated with a hearing on Stine's motion. But animal lovers said they still plan to rally at 8 a.m. today outside the Moore Justice Center in Viera. (I was there!) Their demand: Reject any plea negotiations for Abrams. The hearing delay "only helps our cause because it gives us more time to fire up people and get them organized," said rally organizer Nick Stack, 26, of Merritt Island. The case has drawn worldwide attention from activists who are urging prosecutors to pursue the harshest sentence possible for Abrams, who police said told them she abandoned her home because the water was turned off. She said she left Ella behind because the male friend she moved in with didn't like dogs, police said. When news first broke of Abrams' March 12 arrest, Stack and thousands of other animal lovers from Thailand to Texas signed petitions, created T-shirts and a Web site and flooded the state attorney's office with letters urging prosecutors to charge her with felony cruelty. They expressed outrage when prosecutors reduced the charges against Abrams to a misdemeanor, saying state statutes on animal cruelty are unclear. Their frustration intensified when court documents were released showing Ella's right leg was amputated in November, the result of what Abrams told a veterinarian was a leash that had wrapped around the dog's limb while she was away. Now, they hope their public outcry will urge the state to follow the lead of other prosecutors who gained felony convictions in similar cases. Police said they responded to Abrams' home to investigate a complaint by a neighbor, worried that he hadn't seen Abrams since Christmas. Officers saw flies swarming the window and Ella on her side in a cage in the living room. Suspecting "foul play," Cocoa detective Eric Austin said in a report that police broke into the home, then began a missing person investigation for Abrams, described by the neighbor as an attentive pet owner often seen playing and walking the dog. Police spent five hours calling area hospitals, jails, relatives and employers, only to find Abrams at her friend's home -- less than six miles away, police said. She'd moved there about two months earlier, they said. In an e-mailed statement, Wayne Holmes, chief of operations at the state attorney's office, said deprivation of food and water is a misdemeanor under state statute. To file a felony charge, prosecutors would have needed scientific evidence to establish the cause of death. But Ella's body had decomposed so badly a necropsy was impossible. I am not only outraged as to this motion, but also at the attorney who filed it and the legal system that needs to waste more tax dollars postponing and rescheduling another date on the calendar when there are other issues on the agenda in this clear cut and dry case. Our laws and legal system is so skewed and the only winners in anything are the lawyers. Sorry - this event put me in a sour mood and I do not mean to spread any negativity but would love some support right now and appreciate the vent.