Cardiologist Pleads Guilty to Shooting Neighbor’s Dogs in Potter Valley

This is a press release from the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office.

Benjamin Hanna Meyer,

With potential jurors gathering in the basement of the Ukiah courthouse in response to jury summons, upstairs on the top floor of the building a Ukiah cardiologist waived his right to the jury trial that was to begin Monday morning (April 22) and withdrew his earlier not guilty pleas and denials in a dog killing case.

Defendant Benjamin Hanna Meyer, age 67, of Potter Valley, entered guilty pleas to two separate counts of unlawfully and maliciously killing one of his neighbor’s dogs, and unlawfully and maliciously maiming another, both counts as felonies. The defendant also admitted that he personally used a firearm in the commission of the attack.

The dogs were shot just outside the neighbor’s residence while both dogs were confined in their separate doghouses inside locked pens. While nobody witnessed it and there was no physical evidence of any involvement by the dogs, the defendant had claimed he thought it possible that the dogs had somehow contributed to the death of his horse found earlier trapped in a cattle guard on the neighbor’s property.

Dr. Meyer was ordered to return to court for formal sentencing at 9 a.m. June 12 in Department H of the Ukiah courthouse.

The prosecutor who has been handling this matter and prepared the case for trial is Assistant District Attorney Dale P. Trigg. The investigating law enforcement agencies were the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and the District Attorney’s own investigators.

Mendocino County Superior Court Judge John Behnke accepted the defendant’s guilty pleas and the firearm use. Judge Behnke will be the sentencing judge.