Randolph, NJ man gets PTI for shooting noisy pet African Grey parrot to death

[Donna]

Follow up from last year: What a joke PTI??

A 67-old Randolph man has been accepted into a special probation program in Morris County for shooting his family's 20-year-old African Grey parrot to death with a pellet gun last year.

Dennis Zeglin was admitted last Wednesday by Superior Court Judge Thomas V. Manahan into the county's Pre-Trial Intervention program for first-time offenders. If he successfully serves three years on probation, an animal cruelty charge will be dismissed and he will not have a conviction on his record.

Under the PTI terms, Zeglin also must complete 100 hours of community service assisting a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals or another organization that provides humane care to creatures. He also must comply with alcohol counseling and pay $1,000 for services and investigation done by the animal control officer for Randolph.

Zeglin declined to comment Monday. Defense attorney Stephen Fletcher could not be reached. He previously has said that Zeglin was intoxicated when he shot "Mikey" on June 7, 2009, because the parrot distracted him with its squawks as Zeglin watched a NASCAR race on television.

Zeglin's wife heard the shots and called police when she saw the bird had been shot.

Zeglin willingly turned over the pellet gun, a Daisy Powerline Model 93, to police and immediately started intensive counseling for alcoholism, Fletcher has said. He has said his client was extremely remorseful over the death of the parrot that had been in the household for two decades.

Morris County Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi said the decision to let Zeglin go into PTI was made after careful consideration and proof that Zeglin was rehabilitating himself from alcohol dependency.

''While deterrence is always a consideration, so too is the fact that this defendant has taken significant steps to rehabilitate himself on his own. He is extremely remorseful,'' Bianchi said.

Besides the other PTI conditions, Zeglin has to forfeit any weapons he owns and his firearms ID card.

[valhalla]

I thought I remembered this from last year.  I think a more "fitting" sentence would have been 2 weeks at Graystone!   

[MAK]

    A little buckshot in his posterior would be even more fitting!    

PS

[Bobbie Ireland]

   A little buckshot in his posterior would be even more fitting!    

PS

I think the posters on the Forum should be allowed to set his punishment. THEN he'd see! (Or maybe not...)

[valhalla]

   A little buckshot in his posterior would be even more fitting!    

PS

Graystone is the old nut-house in Morris County.

[Donna]

   A little buckshot in his posterior would be even more fitting!    

PS

Graystone is the old nut-house in Morris County.

and it's still in business, sometimes the crazies escape!  That place is creepy, I'll have to go take some pics.

[Bobbie Ireland]

   A little buckshot in his posterior would be even more fitting!    

PS

Graystone is the old nut-house in Morris County.

and it's still in business, sometimes the crazies escape!  That place is creepy, I'll have to go take some pics.

Take some pix, Donna? Now, just how are you going to do that... unless, of course...

[Donna]

   A little buckshot in his posterior would be even more fitting!    

PS

Graystone is the old nut-house in Morris County.

and it's still in business, sometimes the crazies escape!  That place is creepy, I'll have to go take some pics.

Take some pix, Donna? Now, just how are you going to do that... unless, of course...

~~~~I LEAVE THE HOUSE~~~~

[Bobbie Ireland]

   A little buckshot in his posterior would be even more fitting!    

PS

Graystone is the old nut-house in Morris County.

and it's still in business, sometimes the crazies escape!  That place is creepy, I'll have to go take some pics.

Take some pix, Donna? Now, just how are you going to do that... unless, of course...

~~~~I LEAVE THE HOUSE~~~~

Noooooo! Unless... you have an inside track! Hahahahah!

[Tokira]

On a hunch, I Googled Greystone...
Bingo, it's yet another of the magnificent old Kirkbride asylums, many of which have been destroyed or at least abandoned, and falling into ruin.
http://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/buildings/greystonepark/
When I was in Nursing School, I had my Psychiatric Nursing rotation at the Danvers State Hospital, which is on the list at http://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/buildings/
The concept was innovative, and the buildings beautiful.  Sadly, too many were allowed to deteriorate after closing, and will never be duplicated.
Carol
WV

[Donna]

On a hunch, I Googled Greystone...
Bingo, it's yet another of the magnificent old Kirkbride asylums, many of which have been destroyed or at least abandoned, and falling into ruin.
http://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/buildings/greystonepark/
When I was in Nursing School, I had my Psychiatric Nursing rotation at the Danvers State Hospital, which is on the list at http://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/buildings/
The concept was innovative, and the buildings beautiful.  Sadly, too many were allowed to deteriorate after closing, and will never be duplicated.
Carol
WV

Over Population

In just four years after Greystone opened, it was already accommodating around 800 patients in a facility designed for 600. . Then, on September 8, 2005, the New Jersey Health Care Facilities Financing Authority closed a $186,565,000 bond issue on behalf of the State of New Jersey Department of Human Services for the completion of a new, 43,000 m² (460,000 ft²) Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital, which is scheduled to be open in October 2007, still with a shortage of about 75 beds.

The decision to close Greystone in 2000 came about not only because of concerns for the aging buildings, but also due to the recent negative press it was receiving. Specifically, accounts of sexual assault in a hospital elevator, patients committing suicide, patients becoming pregnant, and a twice-convicted rapist escaping did not help Greystone's public image. The last patients left Greystone's Kirkbride building (the main building) in 1988 and, for the most part, the building remained unused.

The current Greystone campus covers over a square mile and consists of 43 buildings.

Ground was ceremonially broken on November 16, 2005, for the new psychiatric hospital on the Greystone campus. The expected date of opening was October 2007. The new hospital is two-thirds the size of the Kirkbride building and can house about 450 patients, with another 100 patients living in hospital-run cottages on the grounds around the main building.

[valhalla]

Actually, I love those beautiful old buildings (on the outside), but I do believe that the inside holds all of the sadness within those walls.  Graystone was a threat location when we were bad as kids - "behave or I'll send you to Graystone".  Carol, that is a beautiful pictorial.

[Tokira]

Actually, I love those beautiful old buildings (on the outside), but I do believe that the inside holds all of the sadness within those walls.  Graystone was a threat location when we were bad as kids - "behave or I'll send you to Graystone".  Carol, that is a beautiful pictorial.

Similarly, Danvers was where WE might have to go.  I thoroughly enjoyed my three months training there, and my heart breaks to see what a ruin it was allowed to become.  As Student Nurses, we didn't work in the "back wards", though we did get the occasional tour.  We had huge key rings, and of course had to try the keys every time we found a locked door in one of the tunnels.  We found a lot we couldn't open.  The patient artwork was incredible, it's a shame more was not preserved.  Some photos are here and there online.  The "infirmary" for any Student Nurse was two rooms just inside the main entrance in the central Admin Building.  It was all beautiful polished wood paneling, curved staircases, huge windows, etc.  I spent two nights there with a sore throat once.  Now and then I spend way too late in the evening chasing photos of the place online.
They tore down all but a piece of the Admin Building to build condos, sigh...
Carol
richer for the experience

[Bird Crazy]

there was a state hospital in the city I grew up in the buildings were beautiful. They are all torn down now.  better for the patients but less pleasing to the eye.

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~asylums/massillon_oh/index.html

[Donna]

there was a state hospital in the city I grew up in the buildings were beautiful. They are all torn down now.  better for the patients but less pleasing to the eye.

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~asylums/massillon_oh/index.html

Old buildings are fantastic...thanks BC. This one's a beauty.