Woman in dog attack case sold ecstasy to undercover officers
The woman who was looking after a dog when it attacked and seriously injured two of her grandchildren inside her home in Montreal North last week is awaiting a sentence in a case in which she recently pleaded guilty to selling ecstasy pills to undercover cops.
On Aug. 19, Frances Richardson, 62, was looking after a dog for someone she knew when it bit her four-year-old granddaughter on the head. According to the Montreal police report, Richardson took her granddaughter to a hospital and asked her daughter to look after her three other grandchildren, between the ages of 20 months and 11 years old, who were still inside her home.
The dog, described as an American pit bull, had been placed in between two doors at the entranceway but it somehow escaped and attacked her seven-year-old grandson. The boy suffered a fractured arm and several lacerations when the dog bit him.
The police report states that six people, including Richardson, were injured by the dog and that she was doing a favour for a pregnant woman who wanted to get rid of it and had made arrangements to have it sent to New Brunswick.
At the time, Richardson was scheduled to have a sentence hearing this week, at the Montreal courthouse, where she pleaded guilty in May to drug trafficking. On Monday, lawyers involved in the case informed Quebec Court Judge Robert Sansfaçon that they were not ready to proceed. The judge agreed to put off the hearing to a date in September.
On May 17, Richardson appeared before Sansfaçon and admitted she sold six ecstasy pills to two undercover cops within the space of a week. According to a summary of the case provided to the court by Richardson’s lawyer, Steeve Rancourt, the Montreal police began their investigation after receiving an anonymous phone call in August last year. The tip allowed one undercover cop to arrange to purchase four pills for $40 from Richardson, who was dealing out of her home.
During the same hearing in May, prosecutor Laurence Charbonneau-Emery highlighted how Richardson’s then-three-year-old granddaughter answered the door when the undercover cop came knocking. It is not clear if the girl who answered the door was the same child who required 16 stitches to close the wounds from the dog attack last week.
Rancourt said that a week after the first purchase was made, a second undercover cop was able to purchase two ecstasy pills from Richardson for $20.
The Montreal North borough ordered that the dog be euthanized, but last week the Montreal police obtained a court order that the canine be kept alive while it continues its investigation. On Monday, a Montreal police spokesperson said what happened inside Richardson’s home when the dog attacked is still under investigation.