MELBOURNE, Fla – A Sebastian police officer and his attorneys were expecting to go to trial this week for the animal cruelty charges against the lawman in the death of his K9 partner.
According to News 6 partner Florida Today, instead, an appeal to a defense motion forced a delay of at least three months, Viera attorney Greg Eisenmenger said Thursday.
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Melbourne police and the State Attorney's Office charged Officer Eric Antosia, 41, with animal cruelty, a misdemeanor, after the K9, Diesel, was found dead in the officer's patrol car from heatstroke in April.
"My client has been on administrative leave" without pay, Eisenmenger said. "I feel badly for the city of Sebastian to have this case linger."
Attorneys for Antosia and the state started the week going through pre-trial motions at the Brevard County Courthouse in Viera. Eisenmenger said he expected to begin seating the jury Thursday.
However, the defense had filed a Daubert motion to challenge the testimony of an expert witness, veterinarian Dr. Angela Cail. Hearings for the motion were delayed twice because Cail was not available, Eisenmenger said.
Circuit Court Judge Kelly Ingram granted the motion Thursday, but the state filed an appeal, which can take three months to be held, Eisenmenger said.
"We are disappointed by the decision and have filed an appeal with the Circuit Court seeking to have Judge Ingram’s ruling overturned," the State Attorney's Office said in a statement Thursday. "Until the appeal is heard and decided, trial proceedings and speedy trial have been suspended in this case."
According to a Melbourne police report, Antosia went to a court proceeding April 28 and took Diesel with him.
"When he returned home, he forgot to remove his dog from the patrol vehicle. He shut the vehicle off and went inside his home," the report said. "The vehicle's windows were rolled up and since the vehicle was off, the air conditioner was also off."
Officials estimate the animal was left in the vehicle for several hours. National Weather Service officials reported the temperature was about 88 degrees for much of the afternoon.
Cail was the veterinarian who determined Diesel's cause of death as heatstroke.
In a hearing last month, Eisenmenger argued Antosia was using a police vehicle that was set up differently than his usual vehicle.
All Sebastian K-9 officers' vehicles are equipped with an alarm system called "Hot-N-Pop" that lowers the windows, sounds the horn, flashes the lights and pages the officer when temperatures reach 90 degrees, according to court records.
Antosia was assigned at the time of Diesel's death to Unit 84, but the incident occurred in Unit 15, the back-up K-9 unit, which is equipped with the same features as the four handlers’ regularly assigned vehicles, according to Sebastian Police Cmdr. John Blackledge.
A motion for dismissal that was denied last month argued the vehicle Antosia usually used did have the same alarm system, but the unit he was in was not set to sound the alarm when the car was off and it did not alert Antosia to remove his dog when the ignition was turned off.
Antosia had been a K-9 handler since 2001 and a police officer for more than 20 years, according to court records. Diesel was his second dog.