Dog abuser jailed for month and fined $1.5K

Defense attorney says judge’s sentence ‘fair’

By charles W. kim

Staff Writer

The man charged with sodomizing a dog in a South Brunswick mobile home will spend the next month in jail.

"It was wrong, and that is how I plan on dealing with it," South Brunswick Municipal Court Judge Michael Dowgin said to Joseph Cocho, 47.

Dowgin then imposed a 60-day jail term, $1,500 in fines, and a year of supervised probation on Cocho.

Cocho, standing handcuffed and passive in front of Dowgin, pleaded guilty Tuesday night to one count of criminal torture of an animal and two civil counts of animal torture and cruelty.

The charges stem from a Nov. 9 incident at the mobile home of Dorothy Gallagher in the Monmouth Mobile Home Park on Route 1, where Cocho rented a room.

Gallagher claimed that on that date she discovered Cocho sodomizing her 3-year-old mixed beagle named Daisy.

"I just lost it. I ran to get a friend to get help," Gallagher said outside the municipal courtroom.

Gallagher said that she rented a room to Cocho in August because he was a friend of a friend, and needed a place to stay.

"He was helping fix up the place," she said.

According to the police report, there were six other dogs inside the home when they arrived on the scene to question Cocho.

After investigating the incident, police arrested Cocho at the home, and charged him with torture/torment of animals and unlawful possession of a weapon — a 12-inch dagger police discovered in his room.

The weapons charge was later dismissed because police could not determine that Cocho had the dagger for an unlawful purpose.

The other charges were downgraded to a disorderly persons offense.

According to police, at the time of his arrest, Cocho said that he had a "dirty bomb" in one of the suitcases in the trailer.

That kind of device uses conventional explosives to deliver radiation or other contaminants to the area.

Police said that the case took on a new twist later that morning when police received an anonymous 911 call claiming that there was a "dirty bomb" somewhere in the mobile home park located off Route 1.

Several investigators and bomb squad members searched the trailer but did not find any device.

About 20 officers from the South Brunswick police, the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office, county prosecutor’s office and the state police’s domestic preparedness division spent from 2:45 to 5 p.m. searching the home and park for a device.

South Brunswick Detective Jim Ryan said Tuesday that police are still trying to determine where the call came from.

According to police, the voice on the phone may have been electronically altered, and it did not come from the jail where Cocho was lodged.

Several journals were recovered from the trailer. According to police, the journals contained several conspiracy theories written by Cocho.

According to Ryan, the journals mentioned the FBI, CIA and a local daily newspaper.

Gallagher said that Cocho did talk some during his stay with her.

"It was a lot of nonsense stuff and mumbo jumbo," Gallagher said.

Court-appointed defense attorney Rhinold Ponder of Piscataway said that he felt Dowgin’s sentence was fair, and that Cocho helped prepare his defense.

"He clearly understood what the charges were and the ramifications," Ponder said.

He will get credit for the 29 days that he has already served since being arrested on Nov. 9, according to Dowgin.