Monday June 28, 2010, 12:51 pm

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http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20100628/THISJUSTIN/706289963/1003/NEWS02

Therapist charged with kicking and killing dog

SPRINGFIELD — A therapist who rented space at the Springfield Family Center has been charged with kicking and killing the beloved dog of Lance Cpl. Kurt E. Dechen, a U.S. Marine who died in Iraq in 2006 and whose parents live near the center.

Mark Koch was cited by Springfield police last week for cruelty to an animal. He will be arraigned in White River Junction District Court on Aug. 17.

Koch, who also has an office in Windsor and is listed as a marriage and family counselor, recently taught anger management classes, including at the state prison in Springfield.

According to Richard Dechen, Kurt Dechen’s father, his son’s dog Zoe, a white German shepherd, was very gentle and had never hurt anyone and had never been the subject of complaints.

“That was all we had left of Kurt. Zoe was our only connection. He asked us to take care of her when his company was activated in the fall of 2005 and he never got back and I couldn’t even take care of her,” said the father. The Dechens have another son, Justin.

Kurt Dechen, a Springfield native who graduated from Springfield High School in 2001, died on his 24th birthday in Fallujah, Iraq. Friends and family said he had dreamed of becoming a Vermont State Police trooper. He and his best friend from high school enlisted with the Marines Reserves, although they weren’t able to serve together.

Dechen said that Koch kicked her in an unprovoked attack because Zoe and his smaller dog were sniffing each other. Zoe had slipped her 25-foot cable, he said.

He said Zoe and Koch’s dog had greeted each other that way at least 10 times.

Dechen said that he and his wife rushed Zoe to the Springfield Animal Hospital after the attack by Koch, which was witnessed by one of the Dechens’ neighbors. He said that Zoe was in so much pain that she couldn’t get in the truck by herself.

He said that Zoe was in shock by the time they got her to the animal hospital, where tests revealed she had a blood clot in her lungs and bruised kidneys. She was checked every 15 minutes that night by hospital personnel, but she died shortly after midnight.

The Dechens agreed to an autopsy, which showed that the dog’s spleen was “split” and that while her blood pressure was low while she was in shock, once she came out of it, the bleeding increased and she died.

Dechen said that Koch had kicked her five or six times, but he said the “last kick was a real big swing. The dogs got along fine until he started.”

“He just lost his head,” said Dechen, who said he was sitting in his driveway at the time, and fell trying to respond. He said a neighbor said the force of the kicks lifted all of Zoe’s four feet off the ground. The neighbor didn’t return messages left for her at her home.

Koch, contacted at his Windsor office last week, didn’t return a call for comment. According to Dechen, the family center has revoked Koch’s lease of an office at the center, which is located in a residential neighborhood in Springfield.

“She loved people,” said Dechen. She was neutered, and even the children at the day care center loved her, he said, “It was always ‘Hi Doggy,’ or ‘Hi Zoe,’ she never got violent with anybody,” he said.

His son had gotten the purebred dog while he was a criminal justice major at Castleton State College and living off campus. When he went into the Marines he asked his parents to care for her. She was even mentioned in Kurt Dechen’s obituary. “She was a college dog,” he said.

Dechen said Zoe was six years old and was the couple’s daily reminder of their son, who died on his 24th birthday while helping a fellow soldier who had been shot by a sniper in Fallujah.

Dechen said he was present during the incident with Koch, but he didn’t remember as much as the neighbor who witnessed the incident and wrote it down. The neighbor is a former police officer, he said.

“She saw more and she remembers more because I was all upset,” said Dechen, who said that the veterinarian’s bill totalled $600. He said he hasn’t asked to be reimbursed for Zoe’s care, although he said the police had a copy of the bill.

“This guy is supposed to be a professional, well he didn’t act it that night,” said Dechen, who had filed a notarized complaint against Koch shortly after the June 3 incident with the police.

The Springfield Marine and his dog, while separated in the last year of his life, have been reunited in death, Richard Dechen said.

He and his wife Dale had Zoe cremated, and sprinkled her ashes over their son’s grave in North Springfield.

susan.smallheer@rutlandherald.com

Monday June 28, 2010, 1:04 pm
i hope that the authorities--or someone involved--notifies the licensing board for this area. this "therapist" should surely have his license revoked.

Monday June 28, 2010, 1:17 pm
Shocking, and so heartbreaking to read, I couldn't continue reading. Another deserving case of an eye for an eye type of justice being dished out! To think this piece of vermin was a councillor who also taught anger management beggars believe - I dread to think of the type of advice someone of this nature would have handed out!

Monday June 28, 2010, 2:23 pm
Even if the law doesn't give him what he deserves,( 5yrs.),Springfield isn't so large that he will be able to lay low. Hopefully, his life will be a well deserved hell.

Wednesday September 28, 2011, 7:44 am
while i understand their upset for their losses there is always to sides to every story. if a dog attached my dog i would probly have done the same.as for the cable run, my son went to that daycare n the reason they all knew the dog is because she was always over there running free. in the end it's sad to see what has happened for both parties involved.