WOBURN, MASS. (WHDH) - At just 3-years-old, Charlie the French bulldog should have had plenty of life ahead of him. However, a two-week training session became a death sentence for Bart Hanson’s dog, police said.
Josephine Ragland, a dog trainer Hanson hired, is accused of lying about Charlie’s death in order to keep collecting payments and lying to investigators.
28-year-old Ragland from Connecticut pleaded not guilty to the charges.
North Reading police began investigating when Ragland did not bring Charlie home in mid-September, as scheduled.
“Initially, the defendant,who at this point was going by the name Lily, had stated that she got in a car accident and the dog had jumped out of the car,” the prosecutor said.
Hanson said at that time, Ragland stopped answering their calls, and investigators said her story kept changing.
Police later found Charlie dead near a Connecticut highway. A necropsy did not show any blunt force trauma but did show signs of starvation.
“It’s very emotionally disconcerting for me, the fact that he literally could have just been left in a crate to die,” Hanson said.
Police said four other dogs in Ragland’s care at the time looked malnourished and were returned to their owners. She’s also been tied to a similar missing dog case in California.
Ragland and her lawyer declined to comment as they left court.
Hanson said this is just the beginning as he works with authorities in other states in hopes Ragland is charged with animal cruelty.
“I just don’t want this to happen again with this individual,” Hanson said.
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