Cheri Thurston

was summoned

for allowing her black poodle to

run at large.
By Terry Karkos
Staff Writer

BETHEL – Trouble is brewing in paradise, says Osman “Ozzie” Hart, Bethel’s animal control officer.

Hart believes he landed in the dog house with Town Manager Scott Cole over a routine canine summons issued last October to Paradise Road resident Cheri Thurston. It was a summons that Cole wanted to have dismissed, Hart says.

“Once I write a summons, I don’t make them go away,” Hart said Tuesday morning. “If someone does away with a summons, that’s a Class D crime. It’s still a Class D crime if someone orders you to do it. The state would pull my certificates if I did that.”

Cole acknowledged Tuesday morning that he did ask Hart to drop the summons based on information he had at that time from an engineer who reportedly witnessed the Oct. 1 incident.

“I maintain to this day that the Thurston summons was inappropriate,” Cole said. “It was not a legitimate action of law enforcement.”

Thurston eventually pleaded guilty as charged in Rumford District Court four months ago, and paid a fine of approximately $72, Cole said.

The incident began Oct. 1, 2002, when Hart summoned Thurston for allowing her black poodle to run at large.

On that date, Hart said Police Chief Darren M. Tripp notified him about a black poodle and another dark-colored dog running loose on Paradise Road.

According to the Oct. 1 police report, Hart caught the other dog, a brown hound owned by another Paradise Road resident, but couldn’t catch the poodle.

Hart admitted entering Thurston’s yard to speak to her, but failed to find anyone at home. Later, he returned with Bethel officer Rusty Daley and summoned her.

Thurston then complained to Cole about Hart’s conduct, noting that the summons was “unfair.”

“With all town employees, poor job performance will lead to disciplinary actions. As town manager, it’s part of my job to field citizen complaints about town employees.

“If a given employee finds himself or herself in that category – poor job performance – they can expect disciplinary actions that could lead up to termination. But despite Ozzie’s paranoia, I have no concern with him,” Cole said.

Hart, however, firmly believes otherwise, saying that his days with Bethel are numbered.

At first, Cole said he thought circumstances surrounding the incident “were very questionable,” but he didn’t believe Thurston.

That’s why Cole said he asked inspecting engineer Michael Roether, who had been working on Oct. 1 with the town’s Paradise Road sewer main project.

Roether reported that both dogs “were very friendly and in and out of their yards.” He backed up Hart’s claim that upon arrival, Hart captured the hound, but failed to catch the poodle, which ran back into its yard.

That’s when Roether observed Hart drive his truck into the Thurston’s driveway and enter the garage, “which is usually open…Then I observed the ACO coaxing the dog from inside the garage and leading him across the street…He then sat in the yard across the street and tried to coax the dog to come close enough so he could capture him,” Roether stated.

That, however, failed when the poodle returned to its yard and Hart subsequently left, Roether added.

Hart denied that he tried to encourage the dog to leave its yard.

“I went into the yard to speak to its owner and then walked back out. I did go over and sit on the lawn (across the street) and that’s when the dog came out. I didn’t coax the dog,” Hart said.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com