Would You Want This Man Protecting and Serving Your Community?

http://www.thedailyjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080110/NEWS01/801100324/1002

Cop pleads guilty to dog neglect
Cotto resigns as part of plea deal
By TIM ZATZARINY Jr.
Staff Writer
tzatzariny@thedailyjournal.com

VINELAND -- A city police officer resigned Wednesday as part of a plea agreement in which he admitted to failing to provide proper veterinary care for a pit bull on his South Brewster Road property.

Richard Cotto, 31, pleaded guilty in Municipal Court on Wednesday afternoon to one count of animal cruelty.
Judge David Krell fined Cotto $250 and ordered him to pay $3,884 in restitution to the city for expenses incurred in caring for other pit bulls removed from his property in September. In exchange for Cotto's plea, Assistant Municipal Prosecutor Alfred Verderose agreed to dismiss four additional counts of animal cruelty against Cotto.
Cotto's resignation was a condition of the plea agreement, Verderose said.

At the start of Wednesday's hearing, Cotto's attorney, Daniel Replogle, told Krell the two sides had been unable to reach a compromise since a hearing last month. Krell was prepared to try the case when Cotto reconsidered and entered his plea in a barely audible voice.

Following his plea, the three-year department veteran and Replogle left the courtroom without comment.
Vineland police Lt. Robert Romano, the department's internal affairs officer, said following the hearing that Cotto faced a departmental hearing later this month at which the department would move to fire him.

By resigning, Cotto can now seek employment with other law enforcement agencies if he wishes, Romano said.
"I believe our police department wants to put this case behind us," Romano said.

Cotto's plea ended a case that began in September, when the Cumberland County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals signed complaints against the officer, charging him with five counts of failure to provide proper veterinary care for pit bulls on the property. SPCA investigators found 29 dogs on the property and seized 22. Six of those dogs had to be euthanized, said Bev Greco, executive director of the SPCA.

It was the fourth time in eight years the SPCA had charged Cotto with failing to care for his dogs. The SPCA has visited Cotto's property, where the officer bred and sold pit bulls, 20 times since 1999, Greco said.

"Only one time did he not have violations, which clearly shows he is unwilling to comply with the law," Greco said after the hearing.

Four dogs remained on the property Wednesday, and the SPCA will seek a court order to seize them, Greco said. Two of the dogs showed signs of parasites, a condition that is not being properly treated, she said.