Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:23:25 -0700From: Subject: Denver Pit Bull Ban...A Denver Assistant City Attorney's Lies to IndianapolisTo:

Subject: Denver Pit Bull Ban...A Denver Assistant City Attorney's Lies to Indianapolis

The ridiculousness of Denver's procedures and practices regarding their pit bull ban continues. You might've already seen the silly form Denver uses to decide if your dog is a "pit bull." <groan> You've probably already seen the letter that one assistant city attorney sent out to towns all over the country alluding to, among other things, the...er...um..."fact" that those who are against breed discriminatory laws are basically straw men for dog fighters. Nice. <sigh>

Now this same assistant city attorney is at it again. Below are parts of a letter sent by Kory Nelson, an assistant city attorney in Denver, to Mike Speedy an Indianpolis councilman for district #24. Mr. Nelson is attempting to help Mr. Speedy enact breed specific legislation. That's nothing new from him. Neither is it new that Mr. Nelson felt it necessary to defame and libel Ms. Karen Delise to further his agenda.

Below is only a small sample of the extremely malicious and libelous statements made by Kory Nelson about Karen Delise, author of two books--Fatal Dog Attacks, The Stories Behind The Statistics, and The Pit Bull Placebo. What makes his statements especially interesting (I'm not saying true, just interesting) is that he out and out lies. 

In this letter, he only mentions Karen Delise's first and now out-of-print book, Fatal Dog Attacks, The Stories Behind The Statistics. Does he only mention that book because he thinks he can get away with lying about it because it is out of print and might prove harder for Mr. Speedy to verify? If you are in Indy and worried about your dog laws, you may want to contact Mr. Speedy to let him know he's being lied to.

Attached are copies of a couple random charts from the book that he says don't exist in the book. There are many more, but here are just a few. These are attached to show that Mr. Nelson knows he's lying. He knows it. Why would he knowingly lie? That is the interesting part.

Anyway...read on for a more in depth write-up of what he said. His quotes from the Indianapolis letter are in black and the write-up about them are in blue italics. If that doesn't work on your e-mail, it can be sent again in another format. Feel free to crosspost, just please take out the sender's e-mail information!

A Critical Analysis of Karen Delise’s Book “Fatal Dog Attacks”.

                                                By Kory A. Nelson, Esq. 

Last updated 4/13/2009. "FATAL DOG ATTACKS: The Stories behind the Statistics”An Investigative Study into the Circumstances Surrounding Dog-Bite Related Human Fatalities from 1965 through the Present.by Karen DeliseISBN-10: 0972191402; ISBN-13: 978-72191401

Publisher: Anubis Pub (November 1, 2002)http://www.fataldogattacks.com/ 

I have read her entire book.  I challenge her entire book as being a false work for several reasons:

1)     Qualifications. Karen Delise is a licensed Veterinary Technician with a degree in Veterinary Science Technology. She offers no basis for her opinions to be of any consequence to anyone; she simply lacks any credibility based upon her education or training in her occupational field.

--Mr. Nelson, a code-enforcement attorney for the City of Denver, in 2005, published an article titled, “One City’s Experience, Why Pit Bulls are More Dangerous & Breed Specific Legislation is Justified, ” (Municipal Lawyer, July/August 2005.)

It is quite astonishing that Mr. Nelson would question the credentials of Ms. Delise and her book and dismiss them as lacking credibility, when Mr. Nelson, a low level attorney, with NO experience, education, or training, whatsoever, in any dog-related field, published an article on behavior, temperament, anatomy, genetics and history of the pit bull, along with detailing the pit bull’s “unique manner of attack.”

2)     Data collection.  I don’t believe she actually collected the official reports on these cases as she claims for several reasons.

a)     First, she fails to reproduce any of this alleged data in the book – just her alleged conclusions after having collected this data. IF she had the data – why not publish it? Wouldn’t any objective reviewer expect to see a table of the information, such as a listing of the actual number of fatal attacks, the locations (states/counties/cities), the type of dog involved (reported/revised), age of victim, or the cause of death/nature of injury, etc. 

--The only way to explain this allegation is that since the book is no longer in print and difficult to obtain, that Mr. Nelson assumes no one will see this for the outrageous lie that it is. 

There 10 charts in the book, the last chart being a 16 page (pgs. 97-112) list of over 400 cases of fatal attacks detailing the date, location, victim, breed, and circumstances.

The data IS published, in the very book that Mr. Nelson claims “fails to reproduce any of this alleged data in the book.”   Simply an outrageous lie.

See attached charts….

b)     Second, such a task would not be easy; I have made some attempts and found it very difficult to track such reports down.

Mr. Nelson’s difficultly at obtaining records and information is only a testament to his ineptness and not a valid argument against Ms. Delise’s abilities. Apparently, Ms. Delise was able to obtain these documents as demonstrated by the exhaustive details, references and footnotes found in both her books.

c)     Fourth, and most damning -- if she actually claims to have requested and obtained copies of reports involving each and every fatal or serious maulings in the 1980’s, this would be a lie. I have the only available copies of reports involving a highly reported fatal pit bull attack upon a 3-year old child in Denver in 1986. As Ms. Delise never contacted my office, never obtained copies of these reports, I challenge her claims of researching these cases.  She provides no information within her book to even suggest that she had conducted any individual case review.

--Mr. Nelson was assigned as an Assistant City Attorney for Denver’s Prosecution and Code Enforcement Section in 1989 - three years AFTER the fatal attack on the 3-year-old boy.

        Mr. Nelson was NOT employed by the City of Denver at the time he claims Ms. Delise “never contacted my office.”

 Even if Mr. Nelson were employed at the time Ms. Delise would have been conducting her research, there would be NO reason to contact a “code enforcement attorney,”-- as he would be inconsequential and simply would have no involvement or relevant information about the case.

Conclusion: As a direct result of this apparent knowing or intentional misrepresentation, if not constituting direct fraud, Ms. Delise’s credibility in regards to her alleged work and her conclusions in her books is subject to severe, if not complete, impeachment, otherwise known as “complete discreditation”.

    --Mr. Nelson, name a single incident or a single piece of Ms. Delise’s research that is inaccurate. Please provide specifics and actual facts; not supposition, allegations or lame statements of “I believe, or I think, or I assume.”

3)     Unreliable Publisher. The publisher of Ms. Delise’s books is “Anubis Publishing”, which is an enigma, as it can’t be located. But now there is little doubt that her book has not been “published” by any entity with a history of ethical responsibility in fact checking or editing of substantive claims.

--This statememt goes far beyond Mr. Nelson’s ineptness to locate Ms. Delise’s publisher, it speaks to his abuse of his authority as a Denver Assistant City Attorney. 

On or about April 12, 2009, Mr. Nelson attempted, via email, to extract and intimidate at least 8 different publishing companies into providing him with information on Ms. Delise.

The mails sent to these publishing companies were from Kory.Nelson@denvergov.org and the subject line was “Request for info – Anubis Publishing and Karen Delise”

The emails all open with:

Kory A. Nelson – Department of Law - Requesting information on Karen Delise

And ended with:

Kory A. Nelson

 Assistant City Attorney - Senior

 Prosecution and Code Enforcement (PACE) Section

Denver City Attorney's Office

 Wellington E. Webb Municipal Administration Bldg.

 201 W. Colfax Ave., Dept. # 1207

 Denver CO 80203

 Telephone: (720) 913-8050

 FAX: (720) 913-8010

 Email: Kory.Nelson@Denvergov.org

The next day, April 13, 2009, the information Mr. Nelson extracted from these publishing companies (thru his government email) was included in this “critique of Karen Delise” and sent in an email attachment to Mike Speedy and other members of the council looking to ban or restrict pit bulls in Indianapolis.

4)     Ms. Delise – whom, as explained above, is not a credible expert on this topic, but in fact, is a self-serving author who may have falsified her research and who apparently has no proof of the creditability, reliability, or accuracy of her conclusions. The financial source for her hypothesized self-publication could be hidden for a multitude of reasons, including that her financial supporter(s) may have their own hidden political agenda.

--There is only one word that can describe this:   Libelous

Conclusion. Ms. Delise’s book appears to be nothing more than a series of subjective conclusions that are impossible to verify in any manner—either through the data allegedly collected, or any objective methodology of logically analysis. 

--The date and location of each and every case is listed in the book (pages 97-112). Each and every single case (and therefore the veracity of her conclusions) are accessible to anyone who wishes to independently verify the data.

 The book simply appears to be a piece of propaganda with a clear political agenda to assist anti-BSL groups by printing all of their subjective opinions and wrap it in a cloak of self-serving objective authority through an unverifiable claim that the author “reviewed” all this data, when I have personal knowledge that she has not reviewed the data of two very high profile fatal maulings in the 1980’s that directly led to one of the most controversial Pit Bull bans in the United States. 

--Mr. Nelson claims that Ms. Delise “has not reviewed the data of two very high profile fatal maulings in the 1980’s.”

Firstly, only one of these attacks was fatal, the other was NOT a “fatal mauling.” Additionally, Mr. Nelson was NOT employed by the city of Denver in 1986, 1987, or 1988, and for him to claim that he knows Ms. Delise does not have this information because he was “not contacted” by her is a preposterous combination of bad math and unbridled egotism. 

Additionally, Mr. Nelson cannot possibly have any knowledge of what information Ms. Delise does or does not possess on either the fatal attack in 1986 or the severe attack case in 1989, or any other case for that matter.

Therefore, Ms. Delise’s work is not only highly suspect, but may be considered as being without any credibility, without any academic integrity whatsoever, that the totality of circumstances could justify the fully informed reader to reach the exact opposite conclusions of Ms. Delise, because it may appear to that reader that she is a fraud.

--Wait...Who's the fraud?