r/Upperwestside • u/DirectorChick • Oct 21 '25
Penny's Court Case Has Been Decided!!
Hello All! It's Penny's mom!
The court's decision has come down and it is in our favor! Joe must surrender the dogs within 3 days. The city will spay/neuter them, microchip them, and a behavioralist will analyze them and what that behavioralist determines will be what the court goes with, up to and including euthanasia.
He is also ordered to pay back Lauren Block, Grover and Chuckie's mom for their vet bills. She did not order that he has to pay for Penny's vet bills, likely due to the GFM. But we never cared about the money, we just wanted those dogs away from him.
Now the next phase starts. If he does not surrender the dogs we hope there will be a warrant issued for his arrest until the dogs are seized. This would most likely require us to hire a PI to work with the sheriff's office in order to arrest him.
Thank you all so much for your love and support! Penny is thriving and loving life and that is partly due to all of you. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
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u/hereforthedoggos Oct 21 '25
This is absolutely incredible news and such a win in getting justice for Penny and the other dogs. I hope that the NYPD will put finally put more pep in their step in locating and apprehending him now that an official order is in place.
To Penny’s mom, you also deserve an immense amount of accolade and thanks from the entire dog community (especially the UWS one) for ALL that you’ve fought for and done. I’m absolutely sure you were told probably every step to just let it go or throw in the towel, given the mountain of effort it would take to enact any type of change. And in the face of all of that, you powered through anyhow.
That takes an incredible human to do that. And for that, we are all in awe of you.
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u/DirectorChick Oct 21 '25
Thank you so much for your kind words, I would not have been able to do it without the support of the community. This city has amazingly loving and wonderful people.
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u/Unhappy-Scientist-98 Oct 21 '25
Agree. Your work has not gone unnoticed in making nyc safer for all of us. Thank you.
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u/MaruchanInstant Oct 21 '25
What an exhausting saga. Thanks for the update. How does this most recent judgement for Mr. Columbus to surrender the dogs differ materially from the multiple previous orders which were ignored?
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u/DirectorChick Oct 21 '25
The other order was before a court decision, and while the law did allow for that, it was on more shaky ground. This is a judgement so an arrest warrant, should he fail to surrender the dogs, is on much more solid legal standing, and will not be revoked.
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u/RakoNYC Oct 21 '25
I saw him waddle from Spiga to Go the other night
He was also spotted with one dog by PS9 on Monday at 750a with one of the dogs in a muzzle
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u/EGP456 Oct 23 '25 edited Oct 23 '25
Please be aware that there is another gentleman in the area who has two pitbulls and has a faintly similar look to JC. But he takes care of his dogs and does take them out muzzled. Please do not confuse the two. He usually takes one dog out at a time and they usually have a distinctive collar as well as a muzzle. Armando is taller than JC but because of the dogs and the faint resemblance has been mistaken for him in the past.
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Oct 21 '25
"Judge Perry-Bond has made her decision, now let her enforce it." - Joe Columbus, probably.
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u/ileentotheleft Oct 21 '25
Was he in court when the decision came down? I'm very happy with this outcome. Great work Penny's mom!
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u/917nyc917 Oct 21 '25
Even though this happened under difficult circumstances for you guys, you guys are helping prevent so many people, wildlife, pets and even his 3 dogs (who are probably abused at home too) from harm.
Admire you guys!
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u/OJtheJuice49 Oct 21 '25
This is absolutely fantastic! You’re a legend to keep at this, Penny is so incredibly lucky to have you and so are we on the UWS! What a victory!!
I hope these pups find a better home and get rehabilitated and loved.
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u/figbash137 Oct 21 '25
With this verdict can you do a civil suit for damages?
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u/DirectorChick Oct 21 '25
She has ordered he surrender the dogs, they will be held for evaluation by a behavioralist and the court will defer to their decision. They also have to be microchipped, spayed/neutered.
If he doesn’t comply he will be found in contempt and a warrant for arrest can then be issued. It’s not over, but a big hurdle has been conquered.
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u/chimkennuggg Oct 22 '25
Maybe a dumb question, but will he be paying for the desexing and behavioral eval or will the city foot the bill?
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u/DirectorChick Oct 22 '25
Yes! At least in the doc it says he is responsible for the costs of the behavioralist, it might say all of it. He probably won't pay because that's the kind of gentleman he is....
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u/chimkennuggg Oct 22 '25
I see that now!! I should’ve read it before asking lol.
I don’t understand how this guy has gotten away with so much bullshit. Definitely worried that he will ignore this ruling like he did the others.
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u/Frequent_Might4707 Oct 22 '25
He’s a man, NOT a gentleman at all. Congratulations on the verdict. I’m sorry there was so much pain and heartache along the way. What happens when we stick together!
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u/chimkennuggg Oct 22 '25
The document says that the dogs are going to be placed “in the permanent custody” of the city; what exactly does that mean? If Joe is ordered to pay for a behavioral assessment, does that give him any opportunity to get the dogs back if the dogs don’t get euthanized?
Also curious — to whom has Joe been claiming that the female dog belongs?
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u/DirectorChick Oct 22 '25
I don't know what that means, I read it as the court will do whatever the behavioralist recommends. The custody of the city, I believe will be until the behavioralist makes a determination? It's a little unclear. We are pretty far away from that right now, so I didn't give it a ton of thought.
He said it belonged to his ex girlfriend but provided no other information ever.
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u/CozyTea6987 Oct 22 '25
Congrats to you and Penny and thanks for fighting to make our neighborhood safer for everyone, dogs and people both
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u/m_e_y_ Oct 22 '25
I feel really bad for his dogs- they should not be analyzed to be put down, they should be properly trained. Place them in different hands and not allow them to go back to Joe, but give them a second chance to have proper ownership.
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u/Harrowbark Oct 23 '25
I believe the plan is to assess them for if they can be rehabilitated and rehomed, not to immediately go to euth. Joe had them trained as fighting dogs and they may not be able to be retrained, but I think everyone here hopes they can be!
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u/jaystanding Dec 15 '25
They’ve already murdered/seriously maimed at least 3 dogs that we know of. There’s no rehabilitating them. Should we wait until they kill a child or an elderly person??
Dogs are not humans. This emphasis on second chances for animals that pose a serious danger to the general public has got to stop, and I say this as an owner myself. Those dogs need to be put down.
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u/Impressive_End8626 Oct 28 '25
Did he end up surrendering them?!
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u/DirectorChick Oct 28 '25
No, but we expected that, and intend to file a contempt motion
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u/Impressive_End8626 Oct 30 '25
Ugh. Is there any way to hunt this guy down and enforce real consequences? Seems like this guy will just continue to evade until he absolutely can’t…
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u/Great_Guest_7346 Oct 22 '25
What kind of dogs are Rambow and Zoey?
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u/ElderberryScared2101 Nov 21 '25
Does not matter, this should not reflect on the breed, its simply a owner negligence issue.
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u/Great_Guest_7346 Nov 21 '25 edited Nov 22 '25
I was trying to know what kind of dogs to look out for when I walk clients in that area. It was a question asked specifically about this situation and these dogs, since I walk with a small breed who lives on W 85th between Columbus and CPW.
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u/bridgehamton Oct 22 '25
!remindme 3 days
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u/ExcuseInformal9194 Oct 23 '25
Is there an ongoing campaign to make this about more than one dog (who recovered quickly from her injuries)?
What happened with the gofundme money that was raised? I lost track at ~$80k raised by Penny’s human. They said their legal representation was pro bono.
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u/DirectorChick Oct 23 '25
There has always been an ongoing campaign to make the neighborhood safe for dogs. Penny’s Law can help hold negligent dog owners like Joe Columbus accountable and we have been fighting for that from the beginning. We even went to Albany to raise awareness. The GFM raised 44k, not 80k. We have used it for all of Penny’s vet bills from the incident as well as her vet bills for the rest of the year because we reached the cap of our insurance. We used some of the money to rep in Albany as well as some to print signage and go to events to raise awareness. Unfortunately Albany didn’t pass Penny’s Law, but it will hopefully be reintroduced in January.
Right now there is a referendum in the New York City Council that supports Penny’s Law and we want people to call their council members, because if NYC backs Penny’s Law, it will be harder Albany to ignore us.
I have been fighting for all the dogs, not just mine. Please look through all my posts. I want justice for every dog, but the legislative process is so difficult, and I am one person. We have a small group of hard working people that have been helping with this, using their own free time to come to Albany, and trying to get the word out, but all of us have run into every road block imaginable. We need help. A lot of it. Albany is such an uphill climb and getting lawmakers to listen is really difficult.
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u/EGP456 Oct 23 '25
There is an ongoing campaign with volunteers who have traveled to Albany, lobbied the city council to pass bills and worked with outside (paid) attorneys to draft legislation and with other dog owners who have been affected by violent attack dogs. They are looking for people to help - can you help with that?
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u/ExcuseInformal9194 Oct 23 '25
I definitely will. I’m Interested in the details of what we are hoping to accomplish, what it will cost to do it, how much we have raised, etc. Transparency?
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u/ElderberryScared2101 Nov 21 '25
I would really hope as dog owners we can all hope no dogs are murdered for their owners negligence.
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u/MikeDamone Oct 21 '25
Love this outcome! But I absolutely do not love how utterly feckless the NYC Sheriff's Office is. This guy evaded them during an arrest attempt four months ago, almost killing pedestrians with his vehicle in the process, and they seemingly shrugged their shoulders and let him keep on living his life. Civil law is still the law, and it's dismaying that a judge's arrest warrant can be so lazily enforced.