A Brookeville man is frustrated by e-mail and listserv accusations that dogs seen roaming the community are his following an incident in which dogs visiting his house were involved in an altercation with other dogs that were being walked by their owner.

Randy Williams, 47, said the dogs, a 3-year-old Presa Canario and a 5-year-old Rottweiler, are registered to his mother and live with her in Silver Spring. He said they have not been to his house since an Aug. 20 incident during which the dogs got out of the house and attacked another dog.

"That is just not true," he said. "The dogs have been at my house just two nights since I moved here last October. They left [Aug. 20] and haven't been back since."

Williams said he is sorry the incident happened and feels it is a shame he and the other dogs' owner crossed paths in that manner.

His mother, Betty Williams, was charged with allowing the dogs to roam at-large and allowing the dogs to engage in unwanted contact, county police reported. The charges carry fines totaling $600.

Because the two dogs have been declared legally dangerous, they now are required to be on a leash and muzzled if off of the owner's property and under control of someone older 18 years old and physically able to restrain them. Additionally, they must wear a microchip for future identification purposes.

Williams said his mother and the two dogs were staying at his house on Aug. 20 because she was having the floors refinished in her home. He has a fenced-in enclosure that the dogs use when they are allowed outside, but thinks the dogs escaped out the front door when a contractor working in his house inadvertently left the door unlatched.

Brookeville resident Carole Levy was taking her daily walk on the path along Gold Mine Road on Aug. 20 with her two dogs, a 7-year-old yellow Labrador mix and a 1-year-old shepherd mix, when she said two dogs — which she had called pit bulls — attacked her Labrador as she approached Williams' house at 1800 Gold Mine Road. The wounds required two layers of stitches to close, she said.

Capt. Michael Wahl, director of Animal Services, said the investigation showed the two dogs were not pit bulls, but were instead a Presa Canario and a Rottweiler. Both breeds are large, sturdy dogs.

"It's not hard to assume that the dogs involved in the attack might be mistaken for pit bulls," he said.  

Wahl confirmed the dogs do not live at the Brookeville house and this was the first incident reported involving the two dogs.

Although he did not see the altercation, Williams said the dogs are well mannered and have never shown any aggression towards people or other dogs. He said it appears the dogs at his house bit one of Levy's dogs, but he does not think it was a mauling.

"I got out there after the fact, but my dogs just wouldn't do that," he said. "Not in a million years, and I would bet my life on that."

Williams fears he has unjustly earned the reputation of being irresponsible and thinks that whenever someone sees a dog roaming the community they will assume it is his.

"We are responsible dog owners," he said. "Our dogs are licensed, vaccinated and have been trained.  This was just an accident, and I am sorry that it happened."

Levy and Williams remain at odds. She said that Williams has not made an effort to contact her since the morning of the attack.  

"There is nothing to stop him from calling and doing the right thing," she said.  

Williams said he has not called because Levy's husband called Williams' family the day of the incident and told his mother that the police would put the dogs down, and if the police did not, he would.

Levy's attorney, Hank Schlosberg of the law offices of Hubert M. Schlosberg in Washington, D.C., and Chevy Chase, declined to comment on the threat.

Schlosberg said Williams is not being sued, but that a claim has been filed with his homeowner's insurance company.

Schlosberg said the veterinarian bills total about $600 so far and that Levy also suffered some bruising and a "nip" to her leg during the incident.

"She's a nice person and is not out to break the bank, but she is entitled to some reasonable compensation, particularly for her pain and suffering," Schlosberg said.

Williams said that during the weekend he received a notice from Animal Control at his door about a pit bull running at large, likely the result of a neighbor who saw a dog and assumed it was his.

"The dogs have not been here since that day, and at this point I don't want them to come to my house again," Williams said. "I haven't done anything to my neighbors, and yet I am labeled as the bad guy. I just want this all to go away."

thogan@gazette.net