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2 Plead Guilty


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2 plead guilty to letting dog maul their children
A Hillsboro couple face prison for the repeated attacks against their son, 8, and daughter, 7
Saturday, August 21, 2004
HOLLY DANKS
HILLSBORO -- A Hillsboro couple pleaded guilty Friday to felony assault charges for disciplining their two children over the past two years by letting a dog repeatedly attack them.


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Joyce M. Hoskins, 47, and her husband, David E. Hoskins, 46, both face as much as three years in prison.

Washington County Circuit Judge Marco A. Hernandez accepted their pleas to three counts each of felony fourth-degree assault and ordered them held without bail. They have been in the Washington County Jail since May 25.

The couple's children, a 7-year-old girl and an 8-year-old boy, are living in a foster home. Both children have been hospitalized in the past for injuries caused by the dog.

The 7-year-old dog, Nigel, has been euthanized. The dog was a mix of pit bull terrier, Doberman pinscher, German shepherd and Labrador retriever.

Voigt Barnhardt, a neighbor of the Hoskinses' in the 500 block of Southeast Walnut Street, said he and his wife called police March 19 when they heard the girl scream as she was leaving for school.

"There is no way to describe what we heard," Barnhardt said. "There was a kid crying and a dog ripping her to pieces. It was bloodcurdling."

The girl required stitches to close tears and puncture wounds to her arms, legs and back.

"In the incidents with the girl, the boy watched and tried to come to some aid," said Andrew Erwin, Washington County deputy district attorney.

During their investigation, police found that the dog previously had torn a chunk from the boy's ear. The children had other bite wounds that required various levels of treatment.

Hernandez said Friday that he would sentence Joyce Hoskins to no more than three years and two months in prison, based on the woman's limited mental abilities. That is the maximum set by state sentencing guidelines on a third conviction for that level of crime.

The judge made no such promise to David Hoskins.

Erwin said he would argue for more prison time for both, which is allowed if the judge finds aggravating factors.

The Hoskinses are scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 23.

Erwin said he was ready to produce witnesses who would have testified at trial that a veterinary clinic quarantined Nigel after he bit the boy in June 2003. The dog was to be euthanized, but Joyce Hoskins protested, and the dog was returned to her.

County animal control officials do not have authority to destroy an animal if the owner objects.

"She specifically had discussions with them about having an aggressive dog and the liabilities in keeping an aggressive dog," Erwin said.

Timothy Dunn, court-appointed attorney for Joyce Hoskins, said he would ask that she receive probation. Dunn said that would allow her "the opportunity to get help for her emotional and mental difficulties to enable her to parent."

Donald Watt, court-appointed attorney for David Hoskins, declined to comment on his client's plea or potential sentence until county probation workers complete a pre-sentence evaluation.

Erwin said by he was struck by the attacks' intentional nature.

"When you see a child bitten by a dog, you don't think of it being the parents letting it happen; you think of a dog getting loose," he said. "This is not a random act that you can blame on the dog."

Holly Danks: 503-221-4377; [email][email protected][/email]

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Oh my God those poor babies. See what is wrong with society here we are hoping people get that dogs are worth saving when our society doesn't even hold a value to children. They want to put these children back in the hands of a woman who did this to them. Children mean nothing they treat them like they are the parents property and we have to get the property back the parents no matter what the parents did. It's so sick either parent should never be allowed to set their eyes on these babies ever again.

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That is disgusting....even if the lady had "limited mental capacities" there were surely other people in the kids' lives who could have intervened....

also what about their school??? Don't you think if a dog bit off a "chunk" of a boy's ear, somebody at school knew about it?


:evil: :evil: :evil:

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It makes me sick that there is even a situation where that kind of thing happens. I can understand not putting a dog down when the bite occurs when the child is just as responsible (ie terrorizing the dog or being mean) but to purposely put the dogs on your child, that's just sick.

If she's so challenged they need to TEACH her to be a parent...where the hell were they 8 years ago when she had the FIRST child? Let alone the second.

People really suck sometimes....especially when I see cases where people lose their children over dirty houses or one spanking, but people like this get next to nothing done to them.

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actually Crested, jail would be better, simply because in a mental facility governed by the COunty or State, they could decide to let them out in three months, instead of three years, depending on if the resident pyschologist "thinks" he sees improvement....
:evil: :evil: :evil:

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