Attorneys for UB players in dog cruelty case raise concerns
Joseph Terranova is concerned that Zach Pilarcek was kicked off the University at Buffalo football team without much due process or fact-finding surrounding an incident of reported animal cruelty that has drawn national attention to his client, one of two former players kicked off the UB football team.
Robert R. Fogg is concerned about the role social media played in the distribution of a video that shows Blake Hiligh, also on the UB football team, hitting his family’s dog with a belt.
Pilarcek and Hiligh face animal cruelty charges that are connected to a video allegedly filmed by Pilarcek, 20, that he shared on social media. The Buffalo News reviewed the video, which shows a man who appears to be Hiligh, 19, repeatedly smacking a dog with a belt, first on top of a torn couch, and then in a different area of a living room. A caption on the top of the video reads, “1h ago by Zach P.”
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Pilarcek and Hiligh were arraigned last week in Amherst Town Court. Each face a misdemeanor charge of overdriving, torturing and injuring animals with a failure to provide proper sustenance. Hiligh’s next appearance is scheduled for July 27 in Amherst Town Court. Pilarcek is scheduled to appear Aug. 3.
Terranova represents Pilarcek, and Fogg represents Hiligh. Pilarcek and Hiligh were dismissed from the football team last month after UB coach Maurice Linguist obtained and watched the video. The defense attorneys spoke with The Buffalo News, but declined to make their clients available for comment.
Two University of Buffalo football players have been arrested after allegedly beating a miniature poodle with a leather belt, in an incident that was captured on video and shared to Snapchat. Blake Hiligh, 19, and Zachary Pilarcek, 20, are now facing multiple charges including overdriving, torturing and injuring animals, said Erie County District attorney John Flynn. According to Flynn’s …
“My problem is, why are you filming it,” Fogg said. “Blake wasn’t doing this to be filmed, he was doing this as a disciplinary thing. His friend decided to film it and post it.
“This is a pivotal learning moment, but the real lesson is, don’t put things out on social media, especially when we’re talking about athletes. Anybody will perceive anything you do and put it in any kind of light. You have to keep the team and the school above reproach. Social media is the tool in which you could fumble and fall on everything.”
Terranova said the video was posted to and circulated on Snapchat, and that a former classmate of Hiligh’s from the Binghamton area gave the video to Linguist and the UB football program.
Two sources told The News that Linguist showed the video to his players during a team meeting.
“I thought that was really over the top,” Terranova said of the dismissals. “In our legal system, you’re presumed innocent until proven otherwise. To me, that indicates sort of a paranoid attitude on the part of the university. I don’t know what they’re thinking there. In the realm of what some athletes have been accused of, this is way down on the list, in terms of seriousness.
UB’s athletic department and football program dismissed the players from the football team earlier this month, after learning of the incident and initially suspending them.
“I find it puzzling UB is so protective of the program that they terminate someone from the team before there’s any proven facts.”
UB declined further comment through an athletic department spokesperson, and referred back to a statement from Linguist last week regarding the dismissals of Pilarcek and Hiligh.
The video has drawn national attention – something that Terranova said came as a surprise – as outlets such as People.com, TMZ, CBSSports.com, Sports Illustrated and Fox News have published aggregated stories about the players and the reported crime.
“He understands the severity of this, but not the vast popularity,” Fogg said. “This got more coverage than the gunshots and the bad drivers. But if that’s what we want to talk about, any coverage from anything, it’s an issue, and let’s talk about it.”
The video has also drawn a rebuke from PETA, the animal advocacy group. In a letter to Erie County District attorney John Flynn, the organization asked Flynn that if Hiligh and Pilarcek are convicted of the misdemeanor charges, they face up to one year in jail, the maximum sentence allowable, undergo psychiatric intervention and attend anger management classes at their own expense and that the sentencing bars both from either owning or harboring animals for as long as possible.
The SPCA Serving Erie County said in a statement that it received an anonymous email June 13 with a video in which Pilarcek spoke off camera about how a dog damaged a couch in the apartment he shares with Hiligh on Sweet Home Road, and said he would film the punishment of the dog, a four-year-old miniature poodle named Kobe. In the video, Hiligh then beat the dog with what appears to be a leather belt.
Both were charged June 14, after the SPCA Serving Erie County took custody of the dog. The SPCA said the University at Buffalo Police received similar incident reports and fully cooperated with the SPCA investigation. Kobe is now in the care of the SPCA at an undisclosed location.
Fogg said Kobe belongs to Hiligh’s family in Virginia, and that Hiligh brought him to Western New York to keep him company. Fogg answered in the negative when asked if Hiligh ever physically disciplined the dog.
“The dog is usually taken care of by mom and dad,” Fogg said.
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