{"id":44,"date":"2020-10-15T20:16:20","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T00:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/miskathecat.com\/?page_id=44"},"modified":"2020-10-15T20:58:12","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T00:58:12","slug":"background-timeline","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.possingerlaw.com\/miska\/background-timeline\/","title":{"rendered":"Background & Timeline"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dating back to as early as 2014, at least 37 violation notices have been issued against a Bellevue cat owner by Regional Animal Services of King County (RASKC) for her brown tabby cat Miska, who was alleged among other things to have been allowed to freely roam through her Bellevue neighborhood. The government agency and its Manager (and also a resident in Danieli\u2019s neighborhood), Gene Mueller, asserted that Miska had violated a City of Bellevue ordinance passed in 2010 that prohibited domestic cats from roaming beyond their owners\u2019 property. RASKC also accused the family\u2019s cat of trespassing, taunting, and killing other pets in the neighborhood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a Motion for Partial Summary Judgment, Plaintiff Danieli argues that because the City of Bellevue failed to revise its ordinance and properly update its code, the King County Hearing Examiner does not have the legal authority to decide any of Bellevue’s animal enforcement cases \u2014 and he has never had such authority since he started hearing Bellevue cases in 2016.  Danieli’s motion requests that the Court should now void Miska’s alleged violations during this period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Plaintiff’s motion sets out how the government lacked the legal authority to hear animal enforcement cases arising out of Bellevue due to the City’s failure to update its own laws \u2013 the Bellevue City Code. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A number of issues remain for trial, which is currently set for early 2021.  These issues relate to the Plaintiff’s allegations that a public official used the resources of the county’s animal control agency to capture and incarcerate a cat because the cat lived in his own neighborhood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of note: in addition to attorneys representing the City of Bellevue, at least seven King County prosecutors have spent hundreds of hours prosecuting Miska over the last several years. King County alone has reported spending more than $27,000 in taxpayer money on legal fees, not including reimbursing costs to the City of Bellevue and other expenditures made by RASKC to prosecute Miska and her owner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milestones & Timeline<\/h2>\n\n\n\n