By Doug Ireland
From: Eagle Tribune
BRENTWOOD — A Plaistow woman accused of torturing two dogs is seeking to have statements she made to police thrown out as evidence before she goes to trial in November.
Jamie Labbe, 34, of 182 Plaistow Road is accused of torturing two German shepherds in Sandown by forcing objects down their throats, killing one of the dogs.
Labbe was indicted in June by a Rockingham Superior Court grand jury on five counts of cruelty to animals and a single count of criminal mischief. Her trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 14.
She has pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released on $30,000 cash bail.
Labbe and her lawyer, Thomas Gleason, recently filed a request with the court to have her statements to Sandown police suppressed, according to court documents.
Labbe was living with her boyfriend, Kurt Krohn, on North Road in Sandown when she was arrested in April on charges of abusing his two dogs. Krohn has declined to comment on the case. While being interrogated by Sandown police, Labbe claims she was forced to speak against her will.
Labbe said she was reluctant to speak because she was upset and had taken the painkiller Vicodin after breaking her tailbone.
“The reason I eventually gave a statement to police was because I believed that if I didn’t admit to wrongdoing, whether true or not, I would not be admitted bail and I would be going to jail,” Labbe wrote in her request. “I was very upset, in a lot of pain and very afraid of going to jail.”
Gleason said yesterday he could not comment on his client’s request before the case goes to trial.
Sandown police Chief Joseph Gordon stands behind his force. He said it is not unusual for suspects to ask that their statements be suppressed. “The suppression of evidence is a normal part of the court process,” Gordon said.
Two of the five counts against Labbe allege she tortured a dog named Pebbles by forcing a metal clamp and 6-inch pipe down the animal’s throat.
The three other counts of cruelty to animals allege Labbe abused the second German shepherd, Magic, by forcing a cigarette lighter, shower head and 4-inch metal bolt down the dog’s throat.
The two dogs were taken to Brushwood Veterinary Clinic in Atkinson. Pebbles was later transferred to MSPCA-Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston for emergency surgery, but died after the pipe became lodged in her trachea. Magic needed stomach surgery to remove the objects and later recovered.
The criminal mischief count alleges Labbe is responsible for $1,500 in costs as a result of veterinary care and Pebbles’ death.
Robin Serratore, an office manager and technician at Brush, had said it was the worse case of abuse she had seen in her 10 years at the clinic and five years in animal control.
“It’s the saddest and sickest thing you have ever seen in your life,” Serratore said at the time. “It’s terrible.”
Read more: Eagle-Tribune
