The real story on a viral social post claiming Congresswoman Boebert shot a neighbor’s pet
“I don’t see anything other than this just being an October surprise to think it’s going to sway the vote. But the fact is, she didn’t shoot this woman’s dogs,” said Brady Hogan of Silt, Colorado, referring to sitting Congresswoman Lauren Boebert, and recent claims that she shot and killed one of her neighbor’s dogs.
“It’s the last thing I really want to do is shoot somebody’s damn dogs, because I’ve had dogs my whole life,” said Hogan, who owns property adjacent to Boebert’s. Hogan spoke with the Herald Times this week to explain that he was the one who shot “Omega,” a black and white husky owned by Yaritza Mendoza.
In an Oct. 17 Facebook post that would quickly go viral titled “Dear Lauren Boebert” Mendoza accused the Congresswoman of killing the dog, stating “On August 17th, 2022 you took my best friend away with the ‘power’ of your gun.” She made a number of other claims in the post, notably that Omega was non-violent and rarely escaped the property, that law enforcement had informed her Lauren Boebert shot the dog and that Boebert dumped the body “far from the house” and said nothing, among other claims.
THE DOE AND THE DOGS
Tina Bergonzini, Hogan’s girlfriend, was the first to dispute Mendoza’s claims. She posted a comment on the Facebook post which detailed how Mendoza’s dogs were known to run loose in the neighborhood. The comment was originally deleted, but multiple other users posted screenshots before the original post was taken down. Bergonzini’s comment described how in October of 2021 she and Hogan woke up in the middle of the night to find the husky (Omega) and an unnamed St. Bernard fatally attacking one of their goats. “My doe was purebred, rare,” said Bergonzini, adding, “She was killed on her own property, at her home in a painful, awful death.”
Hogan described the same story. “It was a purebred Nigerian dwarf and she had blue eyes. And she was a beautiful goat,” he said. “I opened the back door, and here’s two dogs, one on each end, eating this goat while it was trying to get to the house and let me know something’s going on,” said Hogan, noting the dogs and doe both ran off his property. He said he spent the rest of the night looking for all three of them.
THE ST. BERNARD
The following day, Hogan said a neighbor who knew he’d been out searching for the dogs informed him the dogs were in Boebert’s barn, “And you could hear this frenzy,” said Hogan. After multiple failed attempts to contact the Boeberts, he entered their property with a .22 rifle to find the St. Bernard attacking goats. He said the dog had already killed three goats by the time he arrived. “That dog was on a rampage. I had never seen anything like it. It looked like Cujo. So I shot that dog that day,” said Hogan. Later that day he found the body of his dead doe, and one other dead goat he believed was killed by the dogs that night.
Unredacted email correspondence and Garfield County Sheriff’s Department records published on Twitter by “American Muckraker‘s PAC” earlier this week corroborate Hogan’s story about the incident last October. It is still unclear how the group received unredacted copies of these documents which included names, phone numbers and addresses of multiple people including some who were not even involved with the incident.
In an email sent to Garfield County Commissioner Mike Samson, Bergonzini expressed frustration that the St. Bernard’s owner was not charged following the incident on Oct. 17, 2021. “Does Garfield County do animal control, or not? Because it feels as if they are doing animal control for her but not for the victims of her actions.” The email resulted in a follow up report written by Garfield County Sheriff Commander Joshua Craine. The report notes that Hogan declined to press charges on the dog’s owner. The report states, “Mr. Hogan advised he was not interested in pursuing ‘dog at large,’ ‘dangerous dog,’ or any other charges as long as the remaining dogs were kept on the original RP’s [reporting party’s] property.”
Hogan told the HT that deputies explained to him where the dogs lived and that “they had a long rap sheet of causing problems in the neighborhood” prior to the incident. Craine’s report notes another incident from Oct. 19, 2022, where a different neighbor called to report that “a neighbor’s dog has been killing her chickens.” Craine speculated, “I’m thinking this is probably the same dogs from Ms. Bergonzini and Mr. Hogan’s incident earlier this week.”
THE AUGUST INCIDENT
On Aug. 17, 2022, around 6 a.m., Hogan and Bergonzini said they heard the sound of screaming goats coming from Boebert’s property once again. “I could hear the noises of those dogs. There were two of them at the time at their arena behind their barns,” said Hogan. He said after failing to reach either Jayson or Lauren Boebert by phone, he entered the property. “They had already got three babies, they’d hurt three babies, but nobody was dead,” said Hogan. “And I shot one and shot at the other and thought I’d wounded it but evidently I didn’t. Or if I did nobody said anything about it,” he continued.
The HT obtained eight pages of redacted court and sheriff’s records detailing the events of that day and a summons issued to Yaritza Mendoza. According to a report filed on Aug. 23, 2022, Deputy James Roe met with Yaritza Mendoza and Tanahayry Morales Millan (Tany) at the Silt Police Department on Aug. 17, 2022. Both Mendoza and Morales filed witness statement forms detailing their attempts to locate a dog (Omega) earlier that morning. Morales told Deputy Roe that in their search for Omega, the two women had spoken with their neighbor Lauren Boebert. Morales said Boebert told them “someone” shot the dog, but wouldn’t say who, or where the dog was. Roe questioned further, “I asked Tany (Morales) if Lauren stated she had shot the dog, Tany stated that Lauren did not admit to shooting the dog.”
Morales’ written statement lines up with what Deputy Roe says she told him that day. It says “we went to ask our neighbor and she told us she got out and she was shot, she didn’t say by who [sic].” Mendoza’s written statement conflicted with Morales, stating “I went to my neighbor’s house which she stated my dog killed her goats so she killed our dog.”
Deputy Roe then spoke with Lauren Boebert who told him the dog had injured goats on her property, that the goats were at the vet being treated and that she didn’t know who shot the dog or whether it had been buried. She also asked Roe if her name could be left out of any report and said she didn’t want to be involved with the case. After reaching out to “someone,” Boebert shared information with Roe that led him to the location of the corral/pen where the dog was shot earlier that morning. He found the dog’s body at the location, and spoke with Brady Hogan, who admitted to shooting the dog because it was attacking livestock. Hogan’s witness statement from that day says “at approximately 6 a.m. I heard a commotion at my neighbor’s barn. I could hear goats screaming so I went north with a .22 rifle and found two dogs attacking numerous goats. After screaming at them and it having no effect I shot at them killing one and possibly injuring the other.”
COURT SUMMONS AND RESPONSE
After being escorted by Deputy Roe to collect her dog’s remains, Yaritza Mendoza was issued a court summons for Oct. 12, 2022, for Vicious Animal 05-48 and Dog at large 05-48 (4.8). Court records obtained by the HT from the 9th Judicial District Attorney’s Office reveal that Mendoza pled guilty to “dog at large” on Oct. 12. The other charge was dismissed by the DA.
In a story published in the Daily Mail Tuesday, Mendoza was quoted as saying she did not know if Lauren Boebert shot her dog, and that she “needed to figure that out.”
The Facebook post has since been deleted, and despite originally agreeing to an interview, Mendoza told the HT, “I do not think I am ready. I would like to step away from any news reporters for the moment.”
The Daily Mail story also has photos shared by Rep. Boebert’s office which show goats at the vet on the morning of the attack. You can read that story at https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11325289/GOP-Rep-Lauren-Boebert-denies-claim-killed-husky-attacked-goats-Colorado-ranch.html
