In a case that may test criminal liability for dog owners, a Vermont woman faces charges including manslaughter after police said her pit bull killed her father after injuring two other people in earlier attacks.
Janna Campbell, 43, pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Chittenden County Superior criminal court in Burlington to a felony count of voluntary manslaughter. That charge stems from the death of her father, Stephen Campbell, 76, in March at a home they shared in Essex Town.
She also entered not guilty pleas to misdemeanor charges of reckless endangerment in separate attacks on others in January by her 117-pound, 2-year-old pit bull named Jack.
The dog was euthanized after the deadly attack on her father.
Neither Janna Campbell nor her attorney could be reached Thursday for comment.
Robert Sand, a Vermont Law and Graduate School professor and former Windsor County state’s attorney, said he was not aware of any previous cases in Vermont where a person had been criminally charged with voluntary manslaughter stemming from a deadly dog attack.
Since he was not involved in Campbell’s case or the investigation into it, he said, he couldn’t comment on it specifically.
But in any such case, he said, “Certainly, one of the critical questions is going to be what kind of prior notice or awareness did the dog owner have of aggressive behavior.”
“The notion that death results from someone keeping or maintaining a situation that poses a grave risk of harm does not offend any sensibility of mine,” he said, adding: “What charge to bring, I think, is a very challenging question.”
Sand said several factors, including any alleged negligence, play a part in answering that question.
“Gross negligence, which is what would be required to bump up a charge to manslaughter, or a more serious charge than just some negligent act, requires a gross or substantial deviation from a reasonable standard of care,” he said.
“If a dog owner is not on notice that their pet is aggressive and essentially out of the blue causes harm to another, it’s hard to say that that was any kind of deviation from a reasonable standard of care, which to me says it would be challenging to bring a criminal charge under those circumstances,” he said. “Once a person is on notice that their dog is aggressive, that changes the equation considerably.”
In 2015, a different kind of animal — a bull — was at the center of a manslaughter case brought against a Killington man.
The man was charged with involuntary manslaughter after his escaped bull, an 1,800-pound Scottish Highlander, caused a fatal crash on Route 4 in Killington. The man eventually pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of reckless endangerment and avoided jail.
According to charging documents in that case, the man had repeatedly been made aware that his bulls were getting loose from his property.
In the current case involving the dog, Essex Police Cpl. Brett Williger wrote in an affidavit filed in support of the charges that Janna Campbell’s actions showed an “inability or unwillingness” to control the canine.
“Janna Campbell’s lack of preventive action was more than ordinary carelessness and rose to the level of criminal negligence due to her bias towards Jack or willful blindness towards the danger Jack posed,” Williger wrote.
“She continuously disregarded the preventable risks that Jack posed and therefore recklessly endangered the general public and more specifically Stephen Campbell as a vulnerable adult with dementia by allowing a dangerous dog to cohabitate with him, which ultimately caused Stephen’s death,” the corporal added.
Janna Campbell was released on conditions after her arraignment, including that she not own any new dogs.
The attack leading to her father’s death took place March 10. Williger wrote in the affidavit that Janna Campbell told police the dog had picked up one of her father’s shoes from the floor and that her father, who had dementia, struck Jack with the other shoe.
She said the dog then lunged at her father and attacked him, Williger wrote. “I tried so hard to stop Jack,” Campbell told Williger, according to the affidavit.
An autopsy showed that Stephen Campbell suffered numerous bites to his neck, face and arms, Williger wrote.
The affidavit said the dog had injured two other people in separate attacks in January — a person delivering Meals on Wheels and a home healthcare worker.
Both people needed stitches to close dog bite wounds, according to the affidavit.
During a “potential vicious dog” hearing in February, according to the affidavit, the Essex Town Select Board put several restrictions on the dog, including training requirements and that he wear a muzzle when outside.
If convicted of all three charges, Campbell faces up to 15 years in prison. The next hearing in the case is set for Aug. 26.
