Connecticut Post interview with Irene...
Irene Hudobenko was interviewed by the CT Post yesterday. Here's her side of the story. Awesome article!! The New Haven Register will run her story in their paper tomorrow.
CT Post:
Bond decried in cruelty case
By KATE RAMUNNI Staff writer
Article Last Updated: 09/10/2008 12:47:41 AM EDT
DERBY -- A former Ansonia man charged with 10 counts of animal cruelty after a kitten died in his care will likely abuse more cats if released from jail, his accuser said Tuesday, enraged over a judge's decision to lower the suspect's bond.
Irene Hudobenko issued her warning a day after Derby Superior Court Judge Karen Nash Sequino slashed Jay Baldwin's bond in the animal-cruelty case from $10,000 to $5,000. She also took exception to a public defender's claim that the cat that died in Baldwin's care may have ingested rat poisoning.
"It's really hard to believe," Hudobenko said.
Hudobenko met Baldwin in May when he responded to an ad she posted looking for homes for several stray kittens. Baldwin adopted two of the kittens, one of which died several weeks later.
Once she learned the kitten had died, Hudobenko took the body to two different veterinarians, trying to find out what killed the cat. Both autopsies showed trauma to the kitten's head and neck, she said, with blood filling the eye, nose and mouth cavities.
But Baldwin's attorney, Jonathan Gable, told Sequino during a court hearing Monday that Baldwin says the kitten may have ingested rat poisoning. Gable said the kitten had bloody diarrhea for a week before its death and Baldwin informed Hudobenko of that fact -- something she vehemently denies.
"That is a boldface lie," she said. "He didn't call me about it the day before or the week before. This was all fabricated after he got arrested."
Neither autopsy mentioned any evidence of bloody diarrhea, she said. "And even if the kitten did get into rat poisoning, in no way would that cause neck trauma."
There are still nine other cats that Baldwin is accused of mistreating, Hudobenko said, several of which had to be euthanized after they were removed from his possession. "Did they all get into rat poisoning?" she asked.
Gable couldn't be reached for comment Tuesday. Baldwin remained jailed as of Tuesday afternoon.
If Baldwin posts bond, which his attorney said could happen this week, he'll likely get more cats, despite a condition that he not own any animals, Hudobenko said.
"Though this whole thing originally started out wanting him to pay for killing my kitten, it now goes beyond one cat or two cats," she said. "This goes for all the other kittens and all of the cats of his that are missing and future cats he will get his hands on when he gets out.
"I am afraid that he has so much anger inside him that God help the next animal he adopts," she said. "That really frightens me."
