Aurora man pleads guilty to breaking dog’s teeth

An Aurora man who did jail time after a 1993 conviction that he dragged his dog to death behind a vehicle, pleaded guilty Friday to beating another one of his dogs with a broomstick and breaking five of the animal’s teeth.

Phillip A. Rinn, 43, of the 300 block of South Kendall Street, faces a sentence up to three years in prison after pleading guilty to aggravated cruelty, a felony. Probation also is an option.

Kane County Judge Timothy Sheldon accepted the plea and will sentence Rinn May 10.

Rinn was accused of beating Magda, his then-1½-year-old white German shepherd mixed breed, in November 2010.

A different judge ruled that Rinn could not have the dog back and it has been adopted into a permanent home.

“(Magda’s) doing better but (she’s) also still pretty timid,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Reagan McGuire, who prosecuted the case. “Physically, the dog has recovered.”

Authorities were called to Rinn’s home at about 8:30 p.m. Nov. 15 after neighbors saw him inside swinging a sticklike object downward and a dog crying when the stick came down, McGuire said.

The beating continued outside the home and the sheriff’s deputies that arrived saw the dogs with marks on her head and blood near her mouth and nose. Tests run at a state lab indicated that blood found on a broken broom handle in Rinn’s home belonged to a dog, McGuire said.

McGuire said a veterinarian who treated the dog afterward diagnosed the dog with five broken teeth, swelling, an injury to her right eye, skeletal injuries, and a root canal was required to fix the teeth.

Officials have said the medical bill for the dog was around $2,600 and prosecutors could seek that sum in restitution.

Rinn and defense attorney Ned Khan declined to comment afterward.

The matter had been set for a jury trial on Monday after Khan unsuccessfully tried to have Rinn’s arrest thrown out last year.

In 1993, Rinn was found guilty of a misdemeanor charge. He chained a dog to the bumper of his car and dragged it, then detached it and ran over the dog, killing it. He served 30 days in the county jail and was sentenced to 200 hours of community service, according to court records.

Aggravated cruelty also carries an extended term of up to six years in prison, but McGuire said Rinn was not eligible for that because the conviction was a misdemeanor, not a felony. McGuire said that crime is something Sheldon could consider when sentencing Rinn.