Dispute over dog lands two behind bars

Courts have increasingly come to consider companion animals when it comes to cases of divorce, but you don’t have to be married to for pets to be a source of contention. A case in point is an unmarried local couple who apparently placed so much value on a dog that both crossed the legal line in the course of their dispute. In fact, each has now has been charged with a felony offense as a result of the custody battle..

In an email routed through City Hall after a request by the Daily Record, SMPD Commander Kelly Bomersbach said two separate incidents handled by officers on Tuesday stemmed back to the dispute between 20-year-old Chidera Charles Ekwem and Ellease Michelle Forward, 18.

Bomersbach said officers responded to the Junction Apartments on West Avenue Tuesday afternoon for a reported disturbance involving one person with a handgun. 

They found two people leaving an apartment at the complex and detained both. One was Forward, described as the former girlfriend of Ekwem, the resident of the apartment, and the other was described as a friend who had brought her there.

The purpose of the trip was to retrieve a dog, something Bomersbach said was learned after “a lengthy investigation.” It was unclear if Ekwem was home at the time they arrived, or whether he got home after thate, but in either case the couple argued and “during the exchange, Ekwem displayed a handgun.”

Someone Bomersbach described as “the other subject” then broke the windshield — though she didn’t say how — of the vehicle Forward and her friend arrived in. “They left the area to avoid further conflict,” Bomersbach wrote, without mentioning the dog in question.

Ekwem was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, which is a second degree felony. He was still in jail as of press time under a cash or surety bond of $15,000.

Forward, for her actions of going inside to look for the dog, was charged with burglary of a habitation, which is also a second degree felony. “She was arrested for burglary because she did not have permission/consent to go into Ekwem’s bedroom to retrieve the dog,” Bomersbach wrote, adding that while she was there, Forward took some of his belongings “as collateral.”

Bomersbach did finally address the dog itself, which she said “was located and left in custody of Forward’s friends.”

Forward, who was also still behind bars as of press time, is being held on a cash or surety bond of $10,000.