- Indiana, USA -
UPDATE: July 29, 2021
After a five-day trial, 58-year-old Dr. JOSEPH J. STUBBERS III (pictured below), was convicted by a jury in the Dearborn Superior Court II on Monday, July 26.
STUBBERS III was convicted on three counts of torturing or mutilating a vertebrate animal, all Level 6 Felonies.
Prosecutor Lynn M. Deddens said in a news release that the jury heard testimony from a child neighbor who witnessed the defendant hitting his dog in the head with a hammer.
Other witnesses were neighbors, Dearborn County Animal Control, local veterinarians and deputies from the Dearborn County Sheriff’s Department.
Deddens said that sentencing is scheduled for September 7, 2021, at 1:00 p.m. before the Honorable Sally McLaughlin.
~ Original story:
On Saturday, July 27, police were called about the welfare of a dog.
The caller said that Dr. JOSEPH J. STUBBERS III (pictured below), hit his 5-year-old pup with a hammer causing the furbaby to vomit. The caller’s minor son watched the whole scene and is still traumatized.
A different neighbor heard two shots. STUBBERS had shot twice his English Mastiff named Cooper.
Deputies got a search warrant and when they went to STUBBERS’ home on Laurel Valley Drive, they discovered spots of blood, a bottle of bleach on a trashcan, a hose turned on and two .40-caliber casings. One round was recovered with hair on it. Investigators followed the blood trail toward the front of the house, where they saw Cooper with his right eye ‘mutilated’ and had fresh blood coming out of it.
STUBBERS told deputies Cooper attacked him when he tried to get him out of his neighbor’s garage and he had to put him down, so he hit him with a hammer.
When a deputy told STUBBERS that Cooper was still alive, STUBBERS said Cooper had latched onto his arm earlier and he hit him on the head with a hammer in self-defense.
However, no marks were present on STUBBERS’ arm indicating an attack.
The furbaby was taken in by Dearborn County Animal Control and is being treated by local veterinarians.
STUBBERS was arrested on a felony cruelty to animals charge.
STUBBERS owns Fairfield Primary Care in Ohio.
Patch reports that according to his website, STUBBERS has owned and operated his internal medicine practice since 1993.
After his arrest, the website had apparently been removed and a notice saying the site was “down for maintenance” was in its place.
The prosecutor's office has forwarded the charges to the Ohio Medical Review Board.
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