By Julia Shipley
A New York Supreme Court judge on Friday issued a warrant for the arrest of Joseph Columbus, the owner of the two pit bulls that attacked Penny the chihuahua on the Upper West Side at the beginning of May. Judge Phaedra Perry-Bond also found Columbus in contempt of court. A hearing on that charge is scheduled for Tuesday June 17.
The judge’s rulings came during a court proceeding Friday where Columbus was represented by lawyer Ikiesha Al-Shabazz. Al-Shabazz said her client was not present because he was in the hospital. Earlier this week, after Judge Perry-Bond ordered that police take custody of the dogs, police visited Columbus’s residence but did not find either the pit bulls or their owner.
The reason for this, the lawyer said, was that Columbus left his residence at 6:05 a.m. on Tuesday before the police arrived to seize his animals.
The ruling from the judge demanding that Columbus hand over the pit bulls to police comes after a court order in March of 2025 requiring Columbus to muzzle his dogs. That order was a response to a January attack in Central Park by the pit bulls, which resulted in the death of one other dog.
Despite the order, “the Defendant (Columbus) made no effort to muzzle the two dogs after the January incident,” read Tuesday’s court notice.
In May, the same pit bulls attacked Penny the chihuahua, who survived serious injuries. Owner Lauren Claus has pushed hard for action, with considerable support from the community and from Lauren Block, owner of the dog who was killed by the pit bulls in Central Park in January.
Meanwhile, in defiance of a second court order, the dogs have still not been turned in.
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Good. The dogs get removed and the owner gets arrested. I hope he rots in jail.
“Meanwhile, in defiance of a second court order, the dogs have still not been turned in.” And the guy’s supposedly in the hospital.
Rot’s in jail for contempt of court? Lol new to NYC are you?
As expected.
I’m sure the NYPD will enforce the warrant. Well, not.
The city can send a social worker to pick up the dogs
This is the degeneracy I and many others have been ranting about. No more thumbing your nose at the law with no consequences. NYPD do your job now. Oh and then stop people from smoking weed and cigarettes on the platforms!
NYC once had a great Police Department, Liberals destroy everything they touch.
not the liberals , its the progressives and socialists who are destroying nyc
lol.I guess you forgot when Republican Rudy Giuliani was mayor there were over 7000 murders.And he still had time for cross dressing.
Silliest thing to throw this into politics. Unsubstantiated. It’s neither Liberal or Conservative. It’s ALL of our problem….
Thank you for saying that!
You obviously don’t do much research, do you? you simply prefer to snipe at Democrats, even when they have little or nothing to do with the situation. The truth (based on ACTUAL research) is that even under Bloomberg (a Republican masquerading as a Democrat), the NYPD started to shrink due to natural attrition. That attrition was exacerbated by the pandemic (not caused by a mayor of either Party), and we lost more officers due to the pandemic than for any other reason. Some died, some retired, many attritted based on other reasons as well. And the NYPD was aware well in advance that this was going to happen, based on the ages of police officers, the lack of two graduating classes due to the pandemic, and other reasons.
You might actually learn something if you did some research, but apparently your need to “own the libs” is so strong that facts and evidence have no place in your thought process.
The pandemic? Yea totally had nothing to with the riots. LOL
That’s why we need to vote for the communists candidate running for Mayor. Get out there and Vote Comrade!
I need to research the NYPD and why nobody wants to join the anymore??? LOL I retired after 22 years in the NYPD. But please tell me more about what you read on the internet.
I’m actually quite relieved that you are no longer an officer; clearly you have been overtaken by your emotions. I hope retirement helps you heal.
As for statistics – I’d be interested to know how the statistics Ian cites can distinguish among the causes of attrition during the pandemic given that the George Floyd murder and resulting protests and fury at the police (whether they acknowledged the murder or not) happened at the same time.
We would be lost without the police. The police need to remember who they serve.
Protests? You mean riots. I bet you weren’t even in the city. I was working frontline at a hospital.
You don’t know me from Adam, I did not just show up on this publication yesterday. I don’t disrespect people, I love the UWS I was a Detective there for many years. I have investigated the most horrible crimes on the UWS in recent history. But You are happy to see me go, well so am I. I used to be so proud of my city. When I took the test to join the New Yorks Finest 12,000 people took the test. Now it’s a job few people want, Orange County NY no longer recognizes NYPD hires because of the recently hired cops’ low standards, Retirement is great hopefully NYC will be a safe place for me to visit.
One fewer racist thug on the streets with a badge and a gun at least.
Yes, and how about those Mets!
What a disgusting thing to say
Well, now we’re getting somewhere with this!
So, Columbus went to a hospital, did he? What happened — a dog bite?
If in hospital there should certainly be documentation .
Joseph Columbus the owner of the pitbull’s just called President Trump for a pardon !
So, Joseph Columbus Lawyer is Aiding and Abetting, he can be charged for the same crime the person he is hiding has done.
She.
Thank you for the update! Much appreciated.
Across the street from an elementary school. Even worse.
The longer this guy stalls, the worse his sentence should be. Stalling should not be rewarded. He sounds like a miserable, horrible person. So sad how he ruined these poor dogs. He needs to turn himself in and the dogs. Then he can rot in hell.
Yes, that he ruined the dogs is very sad.
So sad because the dogs will be euthanized. It sounds very much like a case of nature vs. nurture, with him being the nurturer.
Pit Bulls are vicious, two Pit Bulls unleashed in an apartment hallway killed a woman several years ago in San Francisco. The owners were arrested tried and convicted.
The dogs should be put down and the owner arrested plus financially libel for damages to the owner. ASAP.
No, pit bulls are NOT inherently vicious. They must be trained to be that way, and the methods people use to train them to be dangerous are cruel and damaging. The owner of these dogs should be charged with animal cruelty as well as anything else he can be charged with.
It’s the owner Not the dogs.
The dogs were breed in the Uk. They were known as “Nanny Dogs”.
Do your research
Pit bulls are NOT inherently vicious! It’s the owner that made them that way.
How do you explain multiple cases of pitbulls raised from babyhood in safe, loving homes that just snap one day for no reason and chew a child’s face off?
It’s the breed. Pitbulls were created as fighting dogs and their entire biology supports that goal.
It depends on the owner. This is the fault of the owner, not the dogs. I’ve known many a pitbull in my time. They are big sweet babies if raised right.
They were not pitties. They were presa canarios bred to be attack dogs. The owners ran a breeding training business. Not all pitties are dangerous. The humans who raise them to be aggressive are the problem.
The dogs may be fine with an appropriate owner. Please don’t generalize.
That is a discriminatory statement. You cant just make assumptions that all pitbulls are vicious because thats not true. The dogs to be put down is not how that works
Everyone is racing to ignorant extremes. All pit bulls are not evil. But they tend to have very aggressive tendencies that can often be unleashed, so a disproportionate percentage of them (but again, not all of them) are dangerous.
Personally, this is not a chance I am willing to take. I don’t think all pit bulls should be destroyed. But this is a risk I’m not willing to take. If the breed were made to die out through spaying and neutering (thanks, Bob Barker!), the world would be a better place.
One detail that is not clear/does not make sense to me. Were both dogs on leash? If so, how did this happen? I used to have a dog reactive pit bull and I always had her on leash and put her on a very short leash when passing other dogs, even putting my body in between to avoid a confrontation. Of course things were made difficult if the other dog was off leash and I had to yell at the owner.
yes, all dogs were on a leash. Penny was standing on the corner waiting to cross the street and so was these two Pitbulls and the pitbulls turned around and attacked Penny, and all the people trying to stop this brutal attack.. and the owners of the pitbull disregarded everybody screaming and seemed not to try to stop their dogs from attacking this little Chihuahua
Not that I’m protecting the owner of the pitbull’s. I’m extremely against what happened, but….. as a dog owner myself, when I see a pitbull or even two Pitbulls or any aggressive kind of dog on the corner waiting to cross the street, I would normally walk my dog to the opposite corner to avoid them of any kind of problem or even stand back 10/15 feet and don’t make any kind of eye contact with that disturbed individual, but keep aware, because you may have to cross the street to avoid him and there dog(s).
In this world you must use your “common sense” ahead of time as you navigate through this life.
I would not take a chance, it was quite obvious that he is a disturbed individual just by the look of him.
…And it’s just not in New York City, It’s even more so any where outside of New York City these type of disturbed individuals live.
There are several videos of the incident on many social media platforms and on the internet.
Wow, a really, really bad person. Police should have responded and taken owners and dogs into custody immediately! Now they are out there able to harm again.
This is so expected. Suddenly the folks that desire a revolving door at Ricker’s and bail reform want heavy handed justice and law and order. Amazing.
So true.
Many of us are capable of being very angry at a person (and I am at this guy, he’s already caused one innocent dog’s death and he’s about to cause two more) and still think they deserve to be treated fairly by the justice system. We don’t believe the state exists to act out our spasms of emotion, but rather channel them into orderly justice.
If you feel strongly about this, like I do, please vote in the Democratic primary for Patrick Timmons instead of Alvin Bragg. We have a Democratic challenger who’s up to the job.
Rikers is a hell hole. Unworthy of a civilized country. That is a wholly separate question from what is fair punishment for what crime.
These dog owners are a menace to the City. I live on W 97th and Columbus Ave.
It’s a disgrace that no dog owners are not fined for letting their dogs poop on the sidewalks and never pick the poop up.
Back in the day you had to curb your dog and pick up after your dog or you were fined.
Our neighborhood is a cesspool. And garbage on the sidewalks everywhere.
Shucks it sure looks like defunding law enforcement worked!
Pitt bulls need to be outlawed in the City.
Such a horrible story. It’s because of people like this vicious owner that pit bulls unfairly have a bad reputation and, of course these dogs need to be surrendered.
All for the want of a couple of muzzles, hope he’s regretting his arrogance now that he’s on the lam.
If he was on the lam they would be looking for him. They definitely are not they are just going to wait until something else happens or he gets pulled over, nypd is soft on joe columbus.
Joe Columbus had already been ordered to muzzle the pit bulls and walk them separately outdoors. He also had thousands of dollars in fines. Columbus did not follow the order nor pay any fines.
New York will be a much better place with enforcement of the laws we have.
God forbid, the loss enforcement here is called racist.
“Law enforcement “ I meant
Maybe ICE got him.
Goodbye, Columbus!