Man’s appeal in cat-rape case turned down
FREEHOLD – The Asbury Park man accused of repeatedly raping, torturing and killing his pet cat Thursday lost an appeal of his rejection into a program that would have allowed him to avoid prosecution for the crimes.
Superior Court Judge Christie L. Bevacqua rejected arguments by the attorney for Bani Mezquititla that prosecutors abused their discretion in barring him from entry into the court’s pretrial intervention program.
“This court does not find that the state’s determination that he is not a proper candidate for PTI (pretrial intervention) is a patent and gross abuse of discretion,” Bevacqua said at Mezquititla’s appeal hearing.
Defense attorney William Wackowski argued to the judge that Mezquititla, 19, needs mental health treatment, not prison, and should be afforded entry into the court diversionary program, which places certain defendants under supervision for a period of time instead of prosecuting them.
“This is a mental health case as I see it,” Wackowski argued to Bevacqua.
“What happened is a symptom, not the problem,” the defense attorney told the judge. “And, to say he’s not right for PTI, send him to prison, he’s not going to get treatment. He’s going to come out in five years, and we’re going to have the same problem.”
Keri-Leigh Schaefer, assistant Monmouth County prosecutor, argued that the state took the nature of Mezquititla’s alleged offenses and the facts of the case into consideration and gave them heavy weight in rejecting him from the program.
“This animal cruelty case shocks the conscience,” Schaefer said.
She elaborated that Mezquititla is alleged to have sexually abused his pet cat, “Ellie” on multiple occasions, tortured her by restraining her paws with miniature handcuffs while strangling her with a phone charging cord. She said he saved videos of the torture on his phone and ultimately threw her dead body out of his apartment window after he killed her.
“The state here, in its rejection memorandum, found the defendant’s crimes need to be vigorously prosecuted and that the community would be upset and alarmed if the defendant’s torture, sexual abuse and killing of a pet were to receive the leniency of diversion through the pretrial intervention program,” Schaefer argued.
Bevacqua, in rejecting Mezquititla’s appeal, agreed that the alleged behavior “shocks the conscience” and that it appears to be “a continuing pattern of antisocial behavior.”
She said the heavy weight placed on the facts of the case, including that Mezquititla admitted sexually penetrating Ellie with a pencil and his penis on repeated occasions, tortured her over a period of months and even restrained her with miniature handcuffs to punish her for running away, could not be overstated.
“It was his triggering event, Ellie’s running away, which ultimately led to his breaking point, wherein he strangled her for seven minutes, resuscitated her only to continue his abuse, only to discard her lifeless body through his bedroom window to his backyard,” the judge said.
Bevacqua noted the pretrial intervention program is designed to give certain defendants the opportunity to avoid a criminal record by providing “early rehabilitative services expected to deter future criminal behavior,” but she said the defendant was not entitled to entry into the program as a right. She said a doctor who evaluated Mezquititla conceded there were problems in “accurately categorizing his risk toward future animal cruelty and violence toward humans.”
Mezquititla is charged in an indictment with two counts of animal cruelty. One alleges he tormented, tortured or abused Ellie. The other accuses him of using his cat in a sexual manner.
He was arrested March 2, 2023, after he showed his roommate images of the torture and told her he threw the pet out of their apartment window. The roommate went outside, retrieved the cat’s corpse and brought it to the Asbury Park police, spurring an investigation.
Mezquititla then confessed to the abuse, telling police it began with him masturbating in front of the cat in December 2022 and escalated to repeated acts of sexual intercourse and sexually penetrating the cat with a pencil, authorities said.
Authorities allege Mezquititla cut off Ellie’s tongue and part of her jaw while she was still alive before throwing her out of his apartment window.
Mezquititla has been held without bail at the Monmouth County Jail since his arrest. He faces a conference before Superior Court Judge Chad N. Cagan on March 26.
Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties. Contact her at khopkins@app.com.