You Are Served

 The lab regularly receives necropsy submissions from animal rescue groups, county and city shelters/animal control, law enforcement, vets, and owners that involve suspected abuse. I've been subpoenaed five times at work in cases that have made it as far as a trial. 

In all of these cases, I'd already been contacted by the prosecutor's office and was expecting the subpoenas, which come by email, but it's still a shock when they pop up. 

In one case, once the defendant took one look at the four witnesses lined up to testify for the prosecution, including me (I did the necropsy), another vet who treated the animal before it died, and two people from the rescue group, he asked for a plea deal right away. Showing up is important!

In another case, I testified in a county courthouse in northeast Arkansas. That was a simple trial in front of a judge. The evidence from necropsy was compelling--the same poison was found in vomit near the dog's head and in stomach contents from the dog. The guy was convicted.

Earlier this month, I testified in my first jury trial. Animal abuse was recently elevated to a felony charge in Arkansas, and the prosecutors worked really hard on this case. After doing the necropsy, I spent a couple of hours on phone calls with them, then another hour-long in-person meeting for trial prep. 

Trial day arrives. I was the eighth of eight witnesses for the prosecution. It was late in the day by the time I was called in, and everyone was tired. I was questioned for over 45 minutes! I was really stressed going in, but the prosecuting team's prep was good, and I think I did a good job of explaining emotionally difficult and technically complicated things to the jury. The prosecution used as evidence some of the necropsy photos that I sent to them. Even for me, it was jarring to see the photos splashed up on a giant flat screen beside me. I know the jury was shocked. I even acknowledged in a couple of my remarks that I knew it was hard to look at photographs like that. I was prepared. I am good at my job. It was still a relief to be dismissed. 

The prosecution team texted me the next morning--jury voted to convict, defendant sentenced to serve 2.5 years. 

Veterinarians deal with death every day. Nothing is routine--each case brings its own burdens. Animal abuse cases are particularly hard on the entire team. I didn't expect that being an expert witness would be part of my job here at the lab. But I made this career change in order to do more meaningful work, and sitting in a court room talking about difficult topics is just one of the meaningful things that I do now.