Legal wrangling continues in fatal dog attack case

A West Hawaii couple facing petty misdemeanor charges for a fatal dog mauling that occurred more than two years ago in Ocean View has filed separate motions to dismiss their cases in Kona District Court.

Frank Miller, court-appointed counsel for Kalani Burgher, filed a motion alleging prejudicial pre-charging delays and violations of Burgher’s right to a speedy trial. A hearing about the motion is scheduled for 3 p.m. Friday before Kona District Judge Kimberly Tsuchiya.

William Reece, court-appointed counsel for Keli Toyama, filed a motion on similar grounds Friday. It’s scheduled to be heard by Tsuchiya at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 14.

Burgher, 34, and Toyama, 46, each face a single charge of failing to control dangerous dogs.

They were charged July 31, 2024, and are accused of owning the four dogs that fatally mauled 71-year-old Bob Northrop on Aug. 1, 2023, on Outrigger Drive in Ocean View. They were charged via penal summons booking — a legal procedure in which charges are filed and pressed without an arrest and police booking prior to court hearings.

The charges carry maximum penalties of 30 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Police say the dogs’ owners relinquished all four animals plus a litter of 10 puppies to county Animal Control agents after the attack. Northrup’s daughter, Shannon Matson, said she was told the dogs have been euthanized.

Family members of Northrop have publicly said Burgher and Toyama should face felony charges, but county Prosecutor Kelden Waltjen told the Tribune-Herald in January he wasn’t able to charge the pair under a state law passed last year making negligent failure to control a dangerous dog a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison, because the incident occurred before that law went into effect.

Both motions cite a year’s passage between the date of the alleged offense and the filing of a complaint. They also allege prejudicial delays between the filing of the complaint and trial dates for the defendants — in Burgher’s case, 865 days until Dec. 11, 2025, and for Toyama, 854 days to her original court date of Oct. 24, 2025. That date, which has passed, has been reset to Dec. 18, to allow the court to hear her motion to dismiss.

Tsuchiya was set to hear the motion to dismiss in Toyama’s case on Oct. 16, but Reece told the judge he had forgotten to file the motion prior to the hearing and apologized.

Both motions also cite delays in finding court-appointed attorneys — almost 10 months in Toyama’s case and more than 11 months for Burgher, who needed a private attorney appointed after the Office of Public Defender declared it had a conflict of interest. Waltjen told the Tribune-Herald in January the island has a shortage of criminal defense lawyers.

The autopsy report, which was attached to both motions, found the cause of death as multiple injuries and the manner of death as an accident.

The report said that when medics arrived, Northrop “was found unresponsive and with a weak carotid pulse,” and the estimated blood loss at the scene was between 1,500 and 2,000 cubic centimeters.

According to Healthline.com, the average person between 150-180 pounds has between 4,000 and 5,000 cubic centimeters of blood.

“Shortly after being placed into the ambulance, (Northrop) went into cardiac arrest,” the report states. “Resuscitation was performed, and tourniquets were applied to both arms. After about 25-30 minutes of unsuccessful CPR, resuscitation was ceased.”

Both motions also mention possible loss of evidence in the case, specifically swabs taken of Northrup’s blood during the autopsy for toxicology testing. The swabs were examined by a Pennsylvania laboratory, which found 350 nanograms of methamphetamine per millileter of blood.

The report, attached to both motions, states, “Blood levels of 200-600 ng/mL have been reported in methamphetamine abusers who exhibited violent and irrational behavior. High doses of methamphetamine can also elicit restlessness, confusion, hallucinations, circulatory collapse and convulsions.”

The report from NMS LABS described the finding as “an unconfirmed screen” and recommended screening by “a more definitive technique.”

Both motions said the swabs were discarded 13 months later when no arrangements were made by authorities to keep the evidence and the defendants awaited counsel. Both motions say the accused suffer psychological distress due to the delay.

Tsuchiya has granted Burgher’s request for the court to cover fees and costs for an expert witness.

Burgher’s motion for dismissal said he has been subjected “to constant harassment from one or more family members of the deceased. For example, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald printed a headline quoting one of them calling the incident a ‘homicide.’”

“Here, the defendant’s ‘anxiety and concern’ was maximized by the first unexplained one-year delay (in charging) and then an additional one-year delay due to the Judiciary’s failure to find private counsel,” the motion stated.

The state on Monday filed a memorandum in opposition to Burgher’s motion to dismiss.

“Defendant asserts that if the time between an alleged event and the filing of a complaint exceeds six months that that amounts to a presumptively prejudicial delay. Such an assertion is not an accurate summary of the law and there are no grounds upon which the court could dismiss this matter due to the alleged pre-filing delay,” the state’s memo states.

Honolulu attorney Michael Green on July 3 filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Hilo Circuit Court seeking unspecified monetary damages on behalf of Matson and her sister, Anna Schamber. The litigation names Burgher and Toyama, Jordin Trevena-Garon — owner of the home the couple rented on Outrigger Drive — and the county as defendants.

According to the lawsuit, the dogs — alleged to be three pit-bull mixes and one purebred Staffordshire bull terrier — “were known to be dangerous dogs prior to August 1, 2023, by the dogs’ owners, neighbors and the county.”

“Upon information and belief, this property is not fenced and the dogs are allowed to roam freely,” the complaint states. It also alleges that Burgher and Toyama “had a history of owning dangerous dogs” on both the Big Island and Maui.

The suit claims that in 2022, a year prior to Northrup’s fatal mauling, another individual referred to by the initials M.M. was attacked on Outrigger Drive near Tiki Lane by “a group of four to five dogs which was led by a darker-colored pit-bull mix dog.”

The pit-bull mix allegedly “bit down on M.M.’s right leg” and M.M. escaped by fighting back. M.M. reportedly called 911, and both police and county medics responded.

“Upon information and belief, county did not conduct any investigation into the dog attack against M.M. and no remedial action was taken to ensure that pedestrians on Outrigger Drive was safe,” the suit alleges. “As a result, these dangerous dogs were allowed to continue to roam freely on and off the property which resulted in the attack on and subsequent death of Robert Northrop.”

The county Corporation Counsel has filed a motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ claims against it.

The motion, which is scheduled to be heard Nov. 12 by Judge Henry Nakamoto, said the civil complaint “cites no statute or ordinance as the source of the county’s alleged duty to protect pedestrians from dangerous dogs. And nothing in (state and county laws) suggest animal control officers had any duty to plaintiffs.”

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.