Judge sends man who hit dog to jail

SKOWHEGAN – A Somerset County judge has ruled that Keith Cordice, 28, of Canaan will spend the next 15 months in prison for violating his probation by committing a new crime when he struck a dog with a walking stick in June.

The attack resulted in permanent blindness for the dog.

A probable cause hearing on charges of aggravated animal cruelty and cruelty to animals is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 4, in Skowhegan District Court. Cordice has told police he struck the dog twice with the stick after the yellow Labrador retriever repeatedly jumped in and out of Cordice’s parked car.

The dog, Bud, was found more than a week after the attack, bleeding, blinded and dazed, wandering in a trash-filled gravel pit five miles from Cordice’s home. The dog is owned by Carl Clarke of Canaan, who does not know Cordice.

In his ruling, Justice Joseph Jabar left one year of Cordice’s probation intact, allowing him to be required to undergo anger management counseling during that period.

During Cordice’s daylong probation revocation hearing on Sept. 2, Jabar stopped short of determining that the attack was “depraved and indifferent,” despite testimony from a veterinarian that the injuries were of the same intensity as if a car or a hammer had struck the dog in the head.

Somerset County District Attorney Evert N. Fowle said that while he had hoped Cordice would serve three years behind bars, the sentence underscores the seriousness of the crime.

“People should understand that Keith Cordice did not get a slap on the wrist. This is one of the harshest punishments ever handed out for cruelty to animals,” Fowle said.

In 2002, Cordice was sentenced to four years in prison, all suspended, for felony burglary, according to Fowle. He later served a year in prison for reckless conduct and assault in 2003. It was the three years’ probation on those charges that were at stake during last week’s sentencing.

During the hearing last week, Assistant District Attorney James Mitchell told Jabar that striking the dog was the fourth violent incident Cordice has been involved in while on probation.

In 2003, Cordice was charged with reckless conduct after he allegedly followed a brother and sister home from Wal-Mart in Palmyra and head-butted the 16-year-old brother, breaking his nose, said Mitchell. Cordice reportedly then got into his car and drove toward the sister, who ended up on the hood of his car, said Mitchell.

In December 2003, Cordice was found guilty of assault and reckless conduct after an incident involving his wife and two children. Mitchell said Cordice struck his wife several times and also smashed the driver’s side window of her car, causing flying glass to cut his wife, glass to strike his 4-year-old son in the front seat and flying glass to shoot into the back seat, where his 1-year-old son was located.

During the sentencing, Jabar noted that Cordice suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar disorder and has a difficult time dealing with anger and rage.

Jabar also required that Cordice take his prescribed medication while on probation.