So we were walking
and I saw three dogs that were loose.
[announcer] Now on Tribunal Justice.
I mean, we put--picked up my dog
and they attacked both of us.
They had pretty much ripped his body to shreds.
[sobbing] They wouldn't stop.
I dropped to my knees and I just cried.
I said, "They're killing him."
That's on you.
You did that.
I don't think once you've told her directly to her face that you were sorry.
I mean, you're drilling me over here.
They murdered another dog.
["Ride of the Valkyries" plays]
[announcer] Today's case was filed in Galveston, Texas.
[Byrd] Your Honor, this is case number 2084 on the calendar
in the matter of Wilcox versus Ginn, Jr.
- Thank you, Byrd. - You're welcome, Judge.
Parties have been sworn in.
You may be seated.
Ms. Wilcox, you are suing the defendant for $10,000
for injuries and damages
that you maintain you sustained as a result of a dog attack.
Your dog, Gumbo,
was a one-year old Yorkie,
and Gumbo unfortunately had to be put down
as a result of the attack.
Let's see a picture of Gumbo.
That was Gumbo.
Very sorry for your loss.
Thank you.
[Judge Acker] Mr. Ginn, you maintain
that you do not owe the plaintiff anything.
In fact, you say that as a result of what happened,
you yourself lost two dogs, Dotty and Mack.
Let's see the pictures of Dotty and Mack, please?
Uh, you deny liability because you maintain that the dogs
had to be put down as a result of this attack?
- Correct. - The attack took place on September 13th.
You were walking Gumbo.
- Was Gumbo on a leash? - Yes, Your Honor, he was.
[Judge Acker] Tell us what happened.
Um, on that date, I normally walk Gumbo around 6:30, um, every day.
So we were walking, I was about maybe two blocks from my neighborhood.
So I was walking up that street headed back home,
and I saw three dogs that were at loose.
Nobody was watching them.
So I switched sides of the street twice.
Um, at that time, they did go up to my neighbor,
so I have Melissa here, um, they went up to her
and when I saw them go up to her, I immediately put--picked up my dog,
he was still on a leash and on a harness,
and that's when they came across the street
and they attacked both of us.
[Judge Acker] Why don't you take a minute? May I hear from your witness?
Could you just please state your name for the record?
Melissa Wilson.
[Judge Acker] You are the defendant's next door neighbor?
Correct. I've lived next door since 2021.
- Do you know the plaintiff? - [Melissa] Yes.
Cierra and I actually met the day Gumbo was attacked.
That was the first time we met.
Since then, we have kept in touch as casual acquaintances and...
Where do you live in relation to one another?
So we live about two blocks apart
and I live in one subdivision,
she lives in the newer part.
Uh, according to Ms. Wilcox's complaint,
the three dogs that were loose
had actually approached you first?
- Correct. - [Judge Acker] Now what did you witness
on September 13th?
So on September 13th, I was returning from open house
for my daughter's high school.
Um, my son had actually called
shortly before I got home to let me know
that, "Hey, the neighbor's dogs are loose.
Make sure that there was no chance that our dogs would get out."
I had four dogs.
So I arrived home, I walked up to my garage,
the dogs approached me,
I started talking to them to try and coax them back into their yard.
Um, I saw Cierra coming down from across the street.
I did yell to Cierra to pick up Gumbo, which she was already in the process.
At that point, the dogs darted and ran at Cierra,
and grabbed Gumbo out of her arms.
- And can I continue, Judge? - [Judge Acker] Please.
Um, so I was able to get him
and they pulled him out of my arms, two separate times.
After the second grab, I was unable to get him.
They had pretty much ripped his body to shreds.
His intestines were sitting on the sidewalk.
And there was nothing I could do, so I tried to reach in,
I had fell to my knees and at that time, I was actually bitten on my hand.
So now I have a scar that is always gonna be there.
[sobbing]
Excuse me.
Uh, so I tried to punch and kick the dogs and do whatever I could
to get them off of my dog.
They wouldn't stop.
I dropped to my knees and I just cried.
I said, "They're killing him."
Um, at that time, two of my neighbors actually,
they were by, so it was one guy came out of his house,
her husband came out,
and they had to physically get on top of these pit bulls
to stop them from attacking,
even after he--his intestines was on the ground, they were still going.
At any point during the attack, did you encounter the defendant?
No. I had never met him.
This is my first time today actually seeing him in person.
[Judge Acker] So your neighbors were able to intervene,
you got Gumbo to the vet,
and Gumbo sadly had to be put down.
[Cierra] Yes, Your Honor.
[Judge Acker] And Mr. Ginn,
the three dogs that were running loose were yours.
- Yes, ma'am. - [Judge Acker] And I think
it bears noting that you did have
some way of securing your home,
so as to keep the dogs inside, correct?
Can we see the picture, uh, exhibit five?
Doors are locked,
you've got three dogs,
two children, and they're both autistic?
- These--are both nonverbal? - Yeah, the--my oldest is--
uh, my stepson, he's nonverbal.
[Judge Acker] And you were very candid in your answer
about why the dogs got out.
Uh, you were giving one kid a bath.
- The other child gets away from you? - He's in the bathtub with me
and I turn around and then all of a sudden I see the garage--
that door with the key open,
and I started running through the house looking for my son automatically.
And then I get a knock at the door, my neighbor was like,
"Hey, your dog just killed her dog, unfortunately."
And so she was already gone at the scene.
[Judge Acker] All right.
So who was the child who was ultimately able to, uh, evade supervision?
- My son. - How old is he?
Uh, he's seven now, but he was, uh, five at the time.
How did he open the door?
Do you have like a push button garage door?
So I--my wife goes, hey, she's supposed to be home in 10 minutes
with the groceries, so my--me being my mistake,
I opened the garage up for her and then locked that door back.
So when my son, I guess, undid the key,
that's how the dogs got out.
Otherwise, if the garage door never would've been opened,
the dogs would've, uh, never gotten out.
You'd open the door in anticipation of your wife coming home.
Yeah.
And the way you describe it in your answer
is that the dogs followed him outside
because they were being protective of him.
Yes, ma'am.
[Judge Acker] Um, Dotty and Mack had to be put down.
They didn't have to. I still went in front of the judge
and, uh, he said once the dog gets a taste of blood,
you never know how they're gonna act.
So I voluntarily have them euthanized.
[Judge Acker] You decided to put them down.
Yes, ma'am.
[Judge Acker] But you described that as damages to you,
that offset whatever damage she endured.
Do I understand your defense?
Yes, ma'am.
The only way that really works as a legal matter
is if you can show that she was in some way negligent.
Then you could say, "Look, uh, I was negligent,
she was negligent.
Everybody lost here."
There's no evidence of that.
I mean, you weren't present during the attack, correct?
Correct.
[Judge Acker] So you have no basis to know whether or not,
you know, Gumbo was on leash, off leash,
you have no idea what was happening.
Correct.
[Judge Acker] And as sad as it is
to have to euthanize two animals, that's on you.
- You did that. - Yes, ma'am.
[announcer] Coming up on Tribunal Justice.
To blame your son and try to absolve yourself of responsibility,
to me, I find very troubling.
And it doesn't really show,
I think, your remorse here.
[dramatic musical sting]
[theme music plays]
[announcer] Cierra Wilcox is suing James Ginn, Jr.
for $10,000
after his pit bulls attacked her and her Yorkie Gumbo.
Cierra says Gumbo was ripped away from her
and torn open by his dogs who were roaming freely.
James says he's put his dogs down, so they're even.
You do also seem to falter
for not coming to you to try to resolve this issue.
Because I didn't know where she lived, but I knew that they were friends,
so I was, in my head, thinking maybe she'll stop by
because I wanted to work it outside of court without being sued.
- [Judge Acker] She didn't come to you... - [James] Right.
[Judge Acker] ... but you did know that she knew your next door neighbor.
[James] But the day of the incident,
she came over screaming at me afterwards,
cussing at me, and I kept saying, "I'm so sorry, ma'am. I'm so sorry."
And so I was already nervous about going back over to my next door neighbor.
But you knew that the plaintiff's dog had been killed by your dogs?
Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am.
I guess nervous about having to ask her friend,
uh, how to get ahold of her.
[Judge Acker] How long after the incident
did you end up putting down, uh, Dotty and Mack?
The very next day.
Uh, it's a very sad case all around.
- Judge DiMango? - [Judge DiMango] Uh, Mr. Ginn,
you didn't wanna go to the witness' home
to find out where the plaintiff lived,
to find out if her dog was okay,
because you were, what, afraid she was gonna bite you?
Really? You're a man.
You could've gone right across the street and said,
"How is your friend?" From a distance.
- But you didn't do that, did you? - No, ma'am.
[Judge DiMango] Have your dogs ever bit any dog or anyone else?
No, ma'am.
- [Judge DiMango] Never? - [James] Never.
[Judge DiMango] How long have you had your dogs?
[James] Uh, Dotty, almost three years.
Mack, two-and-a-half years.
And Nova, eight months.
Nova, is that the dog that ran away and you never got back?
Yeah. Yeah, we couldn't find her.
[Judge DiMango] Never could find Nova?
No, because I guess when the incident happened, she took off,
like, the type of dog that she is, uh...
[Judge DiMango] What kind of dog was she?
American Bully.
I'm pretty positive somebody picked her up
because she's an expensive dog, so...
[Judge DiMango] Okay. I mean, that's a possibility.
But let's look at your negligence
to see whether or not we could hold you responsible.
And I do wanna tell you that in Texas,
you could be criminally responsible.
- Do you know that, Ms. Wilcox? - Yes, Judge.
I actually did reach out to an attorney to talk about the case,
but it was--they said because I wasn't injured enough
that it wouldn't be a good case to have.
Yeah, because in order to hold him criminally responsible,
you, not the dogs, but you would have to have sustained serious physical injury.
Can we put up a picture of Ms. Wilcox's injuries and that would be 02?
And I know what you meant before,
the scar is not so much that it's a scar,
it's just that it's a reminder every day of what happened here.
So those were the injuries.
So under the law, he couldn't be found criminally responsible
since you did not sustain serious physical injury.
Correct.
[Judge DiMango] Um, so I do wanna go back.
Now you say that you had both of your children
in the bathroom while you were giving
the older boy a shower.
- Is that correct? - Yes, ma'am.
He's in there with you?
At some point, you get a call from your wife
saying, "Hey, I'm coming home from the store in 10 minutes.
Unlock the garage." Correct?
This is before the showers,
that she called me and said, "I'm gonna be home.
Can you open the garage door so I can carry groceries in?"
So you go at that point and you open it for her.
Now from the garage into your home is another door.
The one on the far right, the white door?
[James] Yes, ma'am.
[Judge DiMango] And that door has a lock on it, correct?
- [James] Yes, ma'am. - [Judge DiMango] With a key?
- [James] Yes, ma'am. - [Judge DiMango] Did you lock that door?
- Yes, ma'am, I did. - [Judge DiMango] No, you didn't.
You know why you didn't?
Because that would defeat the whole purpose of you opening up the door
so she could get in with the groceries.
Okay.
So now you are still in the shower,
your son is missing.
By the time you get to the outside,
she's gone according to you.
So all of this time,
you're telling me you can't find a five-year-old?
How many rooms do you have in your house?
He was actually right in the neighbor's driveway playing.
[Judge DiMango] That's my point.
This took a long time before you took any action.
He walks out, he's outside, he's playing.
Your dogs are roaming the street.
To me, that's pretty gross negligence.
This is not, "Oh, my God.
All of this transpired in a matter of seconds or minutes."
This is over a 15-minute time period.
You know that.
But to blame your son and try to absolve yourself of responsibility,
to me, I find very troubling.
And it doesn't really show,
- I think your remorse here. - Oh, okay.
Because I don't think once you've told her directly to her face that you were sorry.
Have you?
Well, as in today?
No, I haven't.
Don't you think you should?
Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry.
[Judge DiMango] That's it?
I mean, you're drilling me over here.
[Judge DiMango] I am drilling you
because it's an upsetting situation and you had...
- [James] I know it is. - ... a responsibility here.
- [James] I know. - And the fact that you had
to put your dogs down is it's sad, yes,
but the bottom line is here, they murdered another dog.
[Judge Acker] Judge Levy.
We haven't heard anything about damages.
You're suing for $10,000, ma'am?
Yes, Judge.
[Judge Levy] So tell me about those damages.
So I did, um, have to pay a vet bill
when Gumbo went in, it was about 300--about $400.
And you provided those to us before you came in today, did you not?
Yes, I did, Judge.
[Judge Levy] So we have $400 for the vet bill
to put his intestines back in because he was still alive.
[Cierra] Right.
Um, I also went to the ER on my own also.
I had to, uh, get stitched
and have x-rays done on my hand
and on my arm as well
to make sure I didn't have any fractures,
any injuries like that.
How much were those bills?
Um, I don't have the price on those, Judge.
- [Judge Levy] Why not? - Uh, so I am active duty military,
so I lot of my insurance is taken care of that way.
Okay.
Um, I also had to pay for therapy,
so that's something that I did for about a year.
Um, I started going to therapy like two months after the incident.
Um, I also had to pay a pet care.
So I normally--the pet care you start it
when you go in like on a January,
but you have to pay for a whole year.
I called the very next day and said,
"Hey, you know, my dog is no longer here."
And they said, "Well, ma'am, you're still gonna have to pay the fee
that you owe." So that was about 600 bucks.
Yeah. Sorry about your loss.
But now not only is your dog dead,
but you have to pay the remaining amount owed
on that pet care insurance.
- Yes, Your Honor. - [Judge Levy] Right.
The company with a heart. Got it.
That was about $600 left that I had to pay.
[Judge Levy] Yup. And you gave us records on that as well, did you not?
Yes, Your Honor.
How much did Gumbo cost?
- [Cierra] Uh, he was $500. - [Judge Levy] Okay.
[Cierra] So I have that listed as well.
[Judge Levy] Yup, we have that.
- What else? - Uh, emotional distress,
so it's not really amount that I could put
on what I've been through
and I can't even--every time I go home,
I have to pass by his house.
So the memory comes up every time I go home.
I barely get sleep now.
Sometimes I just go into a blank stare
and it's just my mind remembering everything that happened,
what I could have done.
Maybe if I turned to another sidewalk
then it would've been different.
But it's nothing I can do now.
Essentially after this happened, I was looking to sell my house
and get out of the neighborhood because I just couldn't endure
having to pass by their house
and just get frustrated every time
because like he said,
I had yet to hear from him any apology or anything like that.
[Judge Levy] Well, hold on.
Ms. Wilcox, what he said was that--and I wrote it down
that he wanted to work it out.
That's what you told Judge Acker, right?
Yes, sir.
But you didn't know where she lived.
- Yes, sir. - [Judge Levy] Really?
You couldn't think of any way
besides going to the witness's house
to figure out where Ms. Wilcox lived?
[announcer] Coming up on Tribunal Justice.
You come to court really with no defense.
You came to court pointing the finger at the victim.
How do you feel about having done that?
[dramatic musical sting]
[theme music plays]
[announcer] Cierra Wilcox and her Yorkie Gumbo
were viciously attacked by pit bulls while on a walk.
Cierra is suing the dogs' owner James Ginn, Jr.
for bills and therapy.
James says his dogs were just protecting his autistic son
and that he's lost all of his dogs due to this tragic event.
You couldn't think of any way
besides going to the witness's house
to figure out where Ms. Wilcox lived?
No, sir.
[Judge Levy] Really? Couldn't think of that?
And you said, ma'am, before, Ms. Wilcox, that you tried to hire a lawyer.
- Yes, Your Honor. - But you said that you couldn’t find one
in all of Texas
because you weren't badly injured enough.
- Right. - The lawyer said,
"Eh, you know, it's not worth my time."
- Right? - Yes, Your Honor.
And you knew that, didn't you?
- No. - [Judge Levy] Yes, you did.
- Okay. - [Judge Levy] Of course you did.
Because you said in your answer
that in March of 2023,
I started receiving letters from plaintiff's attorney.
Because you hired an attorney
and they agreed to represent you,
but not by filing a case by trying to get him to give up money
and they would take a third of whatever they got out of him, right?
- Right. - [Judge Levy] Yeah.
But what happened when you got those letters in March of 2023?
They had me contact our insurance adjuster.
And the insurance adjuster went in contact with the lawyer.
And then I heard nothing.
Right. Because you were renting your house, right?
Renting to own. Yes.
And you're renting your home and you have insurance for your stuff.
So you have homeowner's insurance, right?
If your roof leaks and it ruins your couch, you get money.
But instead of being the responsible pet owner, right,
to have insurance for your dogs
in case they get out and kill another animal,
bite another person,
that you choose not to pay for.
And that's the reason why there was no insurance coverage
for the plaintiff or her dog, right?
Yeah, exactly.
Because you chose not to pay
the extra $14 a year in a premium
it would've cost for that.
That sounds like a good way to spend
14 extra dollars for pet insurance...
- [James] Correct. - [Judge Levy] ... doesn't it?
You're right.
So you have no excuse.
No, sir.
[Judge Levy] I have nothing further.
[Judge Acker] Ms. Wilcox, Judge Levy went over your damages,
but just so we're clear,
the largest component of your claim,
$8,324 for emotional distress.
I think that you gave pretty detailed testimony to Judge Levy
about why you're suing for that amount.
Uh, Mr. Ginn, you are the defendant here.
You've come to court really with no defense.
You came to court pointing the finger at the victim.
How do you feel about having done that?
Not very good.
[Judge Acker] Not very good.
I don't have anything further.
Then we're gonna retire to deliberate and you can resume your seat.
[Byrd] The court now stands in recess.
This case will be recalled.
Parties are excused.
[dramatic musical sting]
This is the type of case that really screams out
for a summary judgment motion.
Summary judgment as, uh, you folks certainly know,
you can assume that everything the other side says is true.
So I look at the defendant,
I assume everything that he says is true.
Um, you know what?
He just opened the door to let the wife in
or I assume everything that he says is true
and he still loses
because there's no doubt that, one,
either he knew the dogs were dangerous
and he's, uh, strictly liable for them.
Or two, he was absolutely grossly negligent.
His kid gets out, the dogs get out,
the dogs kill the plaintiff's dog.
I mean, there's no way to avoid liability.
I think she's entitled to everything.
It's an easy $10,000 verdict from my standpoint.
And interestingly in Texas, you know,
the maximum is 20,000 at small claims court.
It's not even 10,000. So she really wasn't greedy.
But our court maximum is 10,000.
And I believe he left the doors open
and that's why the child walked out that way.
What he did was gross negligence in my view.
Under those circumstances,
she clearly sustained emotional distress.
And normally it wouldn't be easy for me,
but just the description of it was giving me emotional distress
and all the other she's demonstrated by proof in our records,
she is entitled to the balance 10,000.
- Easy. - [Judge Acker] Uh-huh.
Can you imagine--just stop for a second
and just put yourself in her position
when this incident happened.
She picks up her dog.
She's afraid that she or her little dog will be attacked
and then they start coming at her that whole time.
And then they're on her.
And then one of them grabs the dog right out of her arms,
gets it to the ground, and starts chewing on it.
She's fighting and the other dogs are all joining in
and she then is able to get the dog back in her arms to protect Gumbo.
And then another one of the dogs, if not the same dog,
grabs it again and then just splits it...
- Knocks her down. - Knocks her down.
And then that's how she did get bit on her hand by the other dog.
She doesn't know whether she's gonna get mauled.
All she knows is that she sees her dog with his intestines out
lying in the street. $8,300 bucks in emotional distress,
every day of the week.
Twice on Sunday. He's got to pay it.
The whole thing 10 grand.
- All right then. We're unanimous. - All right.
- Vigorously unanimous. - Vigorously unanimous.
[dramatic musical sting]
[Byrd] Court is back in session.
Parties are reminded you're still under oath.
- [Judge Acker] Thank you, Byrd. - [Byrd] Uh-hmm.
We've deliberated and we've reached a unanimous verdict.
I mean, sir, you have no legal defense.
We are quite unanimous in our verdict.
The plaintiff is entitled to every dime.
And I'll note again that the big part of this verdict
is the $8,300 in emotional distress.
We would've given you more if we could
because nobody should have to live through that.
Nobody should have to see their dog killed in front of them
and then scooping up intestines on the sidewalk.
The least you owe her is an apology.
But we're gonna order you to pay her the $10,000.
That's the verdict of the court.
Good luck to you and, uh, be well.
Try to take care of yourself.
- [gavel bangs] - Thank you, Your Honor.
[Byrd] This case has concluded.
Parties are excused. You may step out.
[theme music plays]
Affected everybody.
The whole--the whole event is a--is a tragedy.
I think more therapy is gonna be a big thing that I'm gonna be able to do.
I didn't realize that it, um, caused her so much emotional pain for that.
I really am sorry, whether she believes it or not.
I do. I'm glad I can see some type of, um, accountability held,
so I do accept his apology now.
I'm just sorry it ever happened.
Nobody deserves to have that happen to their dog or to them.
I'm probably not gonna have dogs anymore.
[announcer] Are you being sued?
Let Tribunal Justice decide your case.
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["Ride of the Valkyries" plays]