Judge delays putting down Garner dogs that killed 7-year-old

Wake County Superior Court Judge Vince Rozier granted a preliminary injunction on Thursday that would bar the Town of Garner from putting down a pair of dogs that killed a 7-year-old child and injured her mother.

The dogs – Athena, 3, and Blitzen, 8 – will remain in the custody of the Wake County Animal Center. The dogs have been at the shelter since the April 27 attack.

The delay was granted for 60 days, when the issue will be revisited. Rozier said he hoped the parties can come to some agreement within the 60 days, but if not, they will come back to court and revisit the injunction.

Last week, owners Joseph and Amanda White went to court to seek a temporary restraining order to keep the dogs alive while they make their case for the dogs' return to their care.

Jayden Henderson was killed by dogs, and her mother, Heather Trevaskis, was injured. The pair were playing with the dogs while the owners, their then-neighbors, were out of town. The Town of Garner deemed the dogs dangerous and denied the Whites a dangerous dog permit that would have allowed them to keep the animals.

Trevaskis is a master control operator for WRAL-TV.

William Plyler, the attorney for Trevaskis and her husband, Dave Henderson, said if the injunction were granted, that it would severely damage them.

"They are going through extreme emotional distress right now," Plyler told the court. "Their 7-year-old daughter was mauled and killed. [It would be] salt in the wound that is already there."

The Whites' attorney, John Kirby, argued that there were no "real winners in a case like this."

"This is not between the Whites and Heather and Dave. It's between the dog owners and the Town of Garner," said Kirby. "The harm from denying our motion is extreme."

Henderson and Trevaskis were in the courtroom for the latest hearing.

"It was very hard to be here and to listen to everything, but it was very important to witness everything," said Trevaskis.

In their suit against the town, the Whites allege that Trevaskis and Jayden didn't have permission to play with the dogs. It states they "advised Mr. Henderson that out of an abundance of caution, no children were to play with the dogs during this time" and "Neither Heather nor Jayden had played with the dogs prior to the Plaintiffs' trip."

Henderson directly contradicts that in his affidavit filed last week, writing, "Joe White asked me whether my family and I would be willing to play with the dogs and throw the ball for the dogs in the Whites’ fenced-in backyard during the daytime throughout the Whites’ vacation. I told Joe White I would be glad to do this. Joe White never told me that no children were allowed to play with the dogs during this time, and I never agreed to any such instruction, as no such instruction was given."

Trevaskis shared a text exchange with WRAL News that shows photos of Jayden playing with one of the dogs and Amanda White replying, "Thank you guys for playing with them."

Plyler asked the judge to allow his clients to intervene in the case Thursday.

"He did let us make a victim impact statement and we felt it was important that he hear the matter from our client's perspective," said Plyler.

The Whites moved to Franklin County in June, and they are asking that, after a trial, the dogs be returned to them. But, during Thursday's hearing, the Town of Garner's lawyer Terri Jones said the Whites had not yet sold their property in Garner.

In the lawsuit, they claim to "have spoken with municipal officials in Franklin County regarding relocating the dogs to Franklin County, and the Franklin County officials have informed the Plaintiffs that this can be done and does not violate any ordinances or laws in Franklin County, providing that the Plaintiffs have an appropriate enclosure for the dogs, and that the dogs not leave this enclosure."

Boyd Sturges, Franklin County attorney, told WRAL News that the Whites did consult the county, but there is no agreement.

"We told them that we were not going to be cooperating, that we were, of course, going to afford them their due process rights, and we were going to follow the letter of the law as to the ordinance and state law as to dangerous dogs, but our position has been and remains that these are dangerous dogs, and we are certainly not going to encourage dangerous dogs to come into our county if we have any legal recourse to stop it,” he said.

The Franklin County ordinance requires the Whites to put the dogs in a shelter until it could be determined if they meet the requirements of local law.

"We don’t want dangerous dogs in our county," Sturges said. "We are following it quite closely and taking it quite seriously."