(Beth Clifton collage)
British perp in egregious XL Bully case got 20 months jail time max
CALGARY, Alberta, Canada––Denis Bagarić, 33, whose three pit bulls on June 5, 2022 killed 86-year-old Betty Ann “Rusty” Williams in a back alley behind their homes, was on May 6, 2024 fined $18,000 and prohibited from owning animals for 15 years, after pleading guilty on February 21, 2024 to City of Calgary bylaw violations including allowing animals to run at large and owning animals who attacked a person causing severe injury.
Denis Bagarić & his pit bulls.
(Instagram photo)
Bagarić continues trying to save pit bulls
Bagarić has admitted that one of his pit bulls, Smoki, killed Williams, and in February 2024 allowed that pit bull to be euthanized, but reportedly continues to argue that his other two pit bulls, Bossi and Cinnamon, are innocent.
All three pit bulls had escaped from Bagarić’s yard.
“All three surrounded Ms. Williams before her plea for help, which made her escaping the situation all the more difficult,” responded Calgary Court Justice Gordon Wong.
Betty Ann “Rusty” Williams, left, in the alley where three pit bulls killed her.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Put his own wishes over safety of community”
Wong stopped short of ordering that Bossi and Cinnamon be euthanized, since separate proceedings are underway to determine their fate.
However, Wong added, “To take no steps to euthanize all three immediately was irresponsible. [Bagarić] put his own wishes over the safety of the community.”
Bagarić and his partner, Talyn Calkins, were initially each charged with a dozen offenses. Bagarić pleaded guilty to the two offenses for which he was sentenced as part of a plea bargain, which included that all charges against Calkins were dropped.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Known to police
Bagarić has long been known to police. Reportedly born in Croatia, Bagarić apparently emigrated to Canada with his family in childhood.
Bagarić attended McCoy High School in Medicine Hat, Alberta, about 200 miles southeast of Calgary.
As a high school senior, Bagarić on January 29, 2007 at about 7:15 a.m rolled a 1990 BMW off the road in Kin Coulee Park in light snow, one day before the end of semester break.
The crash killed Bagarić’s passenger, 16-year-old Quinn Christine Tewsley-Schwabe.
Police reported that “a high rate of speed and alcohol appear to have played a factor in the crash,” according to James Neeley of the Medicine Hat News.
Bagarić himself was hospitalized with what Neeley described as “undisclosed non-life-threatening injuries.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
Drug bust
Two and a half years later, on December 29, 2009, Bagarić and co-accused Nicole Neilsen, along with two other men, were arrested in Medicine Hat in alleged possession of 83 grams of cocaine, nearly six pounds of marijuana, and an illegally possessed nine-millimeter semi-automatic firearm.
Pleading guilty in September 2010, Bagarić in December 2010 received a 90-day intermittent sentence (meaning that the time was not to be consecutively served) for possession of 300 grams of marijuana.
Bagarić by 2014 had become a heavily tattooed body-builder, reportedly employed as a welder in the Alberta oil fields.
![Denis Bagaric & pits]()
Sought to become pit bull “influencer”
A January 2, 2019 Medicine Hat News photo showed Bagarić and Ashley LaCosse of the local Anytime Fitness exercise gym walking pit bulls named Dibo and Kalle. Bagarić and LaCosse both appeared in several local Anytime Fitness promotional videos.
A web page posted by the India-based “media influencer” promotion company Viral Pitch indicated that Bagarić hoped to become an influencer on the topics of “DIBO pitbull pitbulls staffordshirebullterrier, pitbullpuppies puppies animals follow puppytreats instagood photography photooftheday Canada Balkan puppy puppylife family pitbullpuppy staffy staffshire @father_and_sons_bulliez.”
Bagarić in September 13, 2019 vocally conflicted with Medicine Hat police over their use of a knife to dispatch a fawn found in a heavily trafficked suburban neighborhood with one leg severed and two legs broken. Responding officers considered the location too busy for them to safely use a gun.
(See Owner charged in Calgary pit bull death case was known to police.)
Ray Lee Cockrell.
(Texarkana police photo)
Ray Lee Cockrell
While a fine of $18,000 and a 15-year ban on keeping animals amount to a significantly stiffer sentence than most pit bull owners get after their dogs kill or severely injure people, Bagarić got off with much lighter punishment than Ray Lee Cockrell, 60, of Texarkana, Texas, who on October 17, 2023 was sentenced to serve 35 years in prison, pay a fine of $7,000 for causing injury to a child, and pay a fine of $3,000 for allowing his pack of 12 to 15 dogs to attack a person.
The victim, a nine-year-old boy, “and some friends were walking back to his grandmother’s house after swimming when the attack occurred,” reported Field Walsh for TXK Today.
“With just the incidents reported to the sheriff’s office,” the arrest affidavit said, “Ray Cockrell’s dogs have been identified as the animals that have chased livestock, were aggressive to humans, have killed a neighbor’s dog and have now caused a terrible injury to a 9-year-old.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
Attacked horses
Wrote Walsh, “Deputies who feared they would be mauled shot at a group of 12 to 15 dogs on Cockrell’s property on August 25, 2022, after responding to a call about a man and his mother being intimidated by the animals.
“A man riding a scooter near Cockrell’s house on August 13, 2022 reported the dogs came at him, getting hold of his pants but not making contact with his skin,” Walsh continued. “While deputies were responding to that call, they received a report that a horse in the area had been attacked, resulting in punctures and cuts to the animal’s back legs.
“The horse owner made a prior report on July 13, 2022, after two of their animals suffered dog bite injuries to their necks and legs, the affidavit said.
Alex Donald Jackson
Stiffest U.S. sentence since 2016
“A neighbor of Cockrell’s complained on July 12, 2022, just a day before the first report of attacks on horses,” Walsh continued, “that one of his dogs was killed after five of Cockrell’s dogs got into a pen on his property.”
The Cockrell sentence appears to be the stiffest for a dog attack issued since Alex Donald Jackson got 15 years after being convicted in 2016 of second-degree murder for causing the death of 63-year-old Pamela Devitt.
Jackson’s pit bulls, running at large, fatally mauled Devitt on May 9, 2013, in Littlerock, California.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Perverting the course of justice”
In England, Woolwich Crown Court Judge Philip Shorrock on February 9, 2024 sentenced Danielle Roberts, 42, to 20 months in prison for perverting the course of justice and being in charge of a dangerously out-of-control dog which caused injury.
Stiff by British standards, the sentence was nonetheless well short of what many observers thought Roberts should have gotten.
The victim, a 10-year-old girl, was visiting Roberts’ daughter at their home in Erith. Roberts herself “was out shopping,” reported Josh Bolton for the News Shopper.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Sort that girl out!”
“When her panicked daughter phoned to tell her about the attack, Roberts said ‘sort that girl out or we’ll be in trouble,’” Bolton summarized of court testimony.
“The seriously injured young girl was then told to hide in the bathroom from police, who had been called by a neighbor,” Bolton continued.
“Seeing the huge XL Bully [who mauled the girl] outside the house covered in blood, the troubled neighbor phoned the police,” Bolton explained.
“Roberts initially refused to let police inside the house until the injured girl staggered downstairs and called out ‘Help me!’” Bolton wrote.
“As she drifted in and out of consciousness, the girl told officers, ‘If I die, tell my parents I love them.’”
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Belonged to boyfriend”
Roberts testified that the XL Bully “belonged to her then-boyfriend, who was keeping it at her house until he could get rid of his other XL Bully, which lived at his home,” Bolton recounted.
Responded Judge Philip Shorrock, “It is common knowledge, and has been for some while, that American XL Bullies have an unpredictable streak in their temperament, that shows itself from time to time when they attack people without warning.
“Anybody who reads the newspaper, watches television, or listens to the radio, knows this.”
Roberts will become eligible for parole after serving ten months. She is barred from keeping dogs for five years.
(Beth Clifton collage)
Why do mothers keep boyfriends’ pit bulls?
Holly Dodd, 22, of Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, on November 1, 2023 escaped with a much lighter sentence in a similar case. Dodd also “was looking after her boyfriend’s XL Bully when it escaped the house and bit a seven-year-old girl in a savage attack,” reported Emily Davies for the Daily Mail.
Dodd, “who had been searching for ice-cream money for her child and the victim, eventually pulled the dog off the bleeding child,” wrote Davies.
Dodd rushed the injured girl to a hospital and called police, asking them to take the XL Bully away. Dodd was fined £500 for violating the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991.
The fine “will be paid by her boyfriend, the dog’s owner,” Davies added.
(Beth Clifton collage)
70,000 XL Bullies at large
The Dodd case occurred before the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 was amended, effective January 1, 2024, to add XL Bullies to a list of banned breeds already including American Pit Bull Terrier, Dogo Argentino, Fila Brasiliero, and Japanese Tosa.
Dog attacks in the United Kingdom have continued at an unprecedented pace despite the XL Bully ban––and about half have been by illegally kept XL Bullies.
“Officials have confirmed there are seven times more XL Bullies in the UK than previously estimated,” reported Hollie Bone for the Daily Mirror on April 24, 2024.
Beth, Merritt, & Teddy Clifton.
“The Department for the Environment & Rural Affairs originally believed there were around 10,000,” Bone said, “but more than 55,000 were registered for a ban exemption certificate.
“A further 15,000 to 20,000 XL Bullies are thought to be unregistered, bringing the total estimate to around 70,000,” Bone said.
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