A 58-year-old Hilo woman with no permanent address is accused of abusing a pet puppy and interfering with police when they arrested her and took the animal from her.
Leilani Vaughn is charged with second-degree cruelty to animals and obstructing government operations, both misdemeanors carrying a maximum sentence of a year in jail upon conviction.
According to court documents filed by police, at 8:24 a.m. Monday, a woman complainant called to report seeing a woman beating up a dog near the intersection of Kanoelehua Avenue and Kuawa Street in Hilo. The reporting witness — who wasn’t named in the documents — reportedly showed police cellphone video of Vaughn “beating, slapping and hanging the puppy by the leash.”
The video also allegedly shows Vaughn “placing the puppy’s leash between a PVC pipe and wooden post and pulling on the leash to choke the puppy.”
Officers reportedly made contact with Vaughn near 88 Kanoelehua Ave. and observed her shaking the head of a small brown puppy “violently left and right,” pulling the puppy along the ground by its leash. Documents state she “appeared to be choking the puppy.”
Vaughn allegedly gave officers the name “Leilani Kumunalu,” but officers later determined her legal name to be Vaughn.
When told an officer had observed her roughing up the puppy, Vaughn, according to documents, “stated that we were lying and making up stories.”
Officers also physically removed the puppy from Vaughn, who allegedly grabbed the dog’s leash, pulled it, and told officers they weren’t taking the puppy from her.
Documents state the puppy was turned over to county Animal Control.
At Vaughn’s initial court appearance Tuesday, Deputy Public Defender Jared Auna asked Hilo District Judge Jeffrey Hawk to free her on supervised release, a form of cashless bail. Auna told the judge that Vaughn “wishes to be given full information on who has made these false allegations against her.”
“It was mentioned in the (probable cause affidavit) that there is a reporting party, but … there’s no information as to who this is,” Auna said. “She’s also making a separate request for the return of her puppy, that she loves, that she has taken care of, that has been — according to her — stolen by the Hawaii Police Department. She also was pushed or assaulted by the Hawaii Police Department in its interactions.”
Deputy Prosecutor Georgia Berrenberg told Hawk, “The state is not opposed to her release.”
“The state is opposed to the return of the animal and is also asking the court to consider a condition that, during the … case, that Ms. Vaughn not have possession or ownership of a dog,” Berrenberg said.
Auna countered that “it might be considered to be unconstitutional to prohibit her from raising other pets.”
“I don’t know of any case law that can prohibit a person from pursuit of happiness in raising a pet,” he argued.
The judge said the bail report “suggests that supervised release is the least restrictive set of conditions that’ll ensure the defendant’s appearance and protect the public.”
After reading a list of conditions under which Vaughn was to be released, Hawk added, “I am not going to put any restrictions on the ownership or possession of any animals. I am going to deny that request by the prosecutor.”
“As for the name of the person making the complaint, that will be included in the discovery, the police reports,” the judge told Vaughn. “… Your attorney will handle that for you. As for the request for the return of the dog, I’m not going to grant that. I’d be more inclined to grant something like that at the end of the case, depending upon how the case turns out.”
Vaughn was instructed to return to court at 1:30 p.m. May 28.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
