Former Texas mayor fighting off charges of stealing dog

Fending off demands for the dog’s return by his original owners, Rudy and Shelly Cavasos Gutierrez, Judge Richard C Terrell of District Court ruled last week that a pet, unlike property that can be returned to the likely owner pending adjudication, is not subject to a writ of attachment and may remain with the sisters until a hearing on April 24.

Rudy Gutierrez, 39, a handyman, said that his children were heartbroken but that from the start the family had been stymied by the mayor’s power. “We’re starting to figure the ways of the political world,” he said.

Saenz-Lopez, breaking a long silence, said in an interview last week with her sister in their lawyer’s office that she had acted to save the flea-infested dog from imminent death. “I made up my mind,” she said, “this is where I draw the line.”

She said she had no regrets. “If we can’t be the voice of the people any more, let us be the voice of animals.”

Her lawyer, Homero Canales, wearing a black T-shirt with the words “No Culpable” — Spanish for “Not Guilty” — quibbled slightly. “You could have handled it better,” he said.

Garcia looked surprised. “Thank you, counsellor,” she said.

Puddles/Panchito had no comment. But he sniffed around Canales’ desk and lifted a leg. The drama began last July when the Gutierrezes were leaving for an annual long weekend at a water park in the Texas Hill Country. They parked Puddles, whom they had bought for their son Joseph and three other children for $500 the previous February, with Saenz-Lopez and her husband, Paco, a retired police officer.

The dog was suffering the dire effects of a severe household flea infestation, treated with strong chemicals, that left him in need of a $700 transfusion the family could not afford. Still, the Gutierrezes said, the dog was rallying, and they left medicine and food for him. But when they called to check on him, said Shelly Gutierrez, 37, a licensed vocational nurse, Saenz-Lopez reported that Puddles had died and been buried in the backyard.

“Joseph took it hard; he cried,” Rudy Gutierrez said. But he said he was dubious. His suspicions grew stronger, he said, after the family returned and he heard a familiar bark from the house next door. Rudy Gutierrez said that Saenz-Lopez would not return his calls and that police officials had rebuffed his complaints.

Last week, Canales characterised the sisters’ untruths as “white lies”, adding, “There’s no malice in these lies.” The case, which has made headlines around the world, has left the sisters pariahs here and given Alice a new claim to fame 60 years after a suspiciously full ballot box in Precinct 13 gave Lyndon B Johnson a disputed primary victory, setting him on the road to political stardom.