Man Sentenced to 120 Days for 'Violently Swinging' Chihuahua Around Inside South Pasadena PD Station

SOUTH PASDENA, CA - A man who abused a Chihuahua at a South Pasadena police station was sentenced to 120 days in jail and ordered to complete two-dozen animal cruelty classes, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced today.

Christian Andrew Najera was also ordered to attend a six-month residential treatment program and serve three years on probation, and is barred from owning, possessing, maintaining, living with or caring for an animal for five years.

Najera, 48, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor animal cruelty charge on Tuesday, according to the District Attorney's Office.

Employees of the South Pasadena police station heard and saw Najera kicking and violently pulling the dog by its leash in the station lobby on Feb. 6, according to Deputy District Attorney Vanessa Alfaro. A South Pasedena Police Department news released at the time said Najera was "violently swing it in the air by its leash in a circular motion."

Najera had left the lobby with the dog by the time officers arrived in the lobby, the prosecutor said. He was later located with the dog and arrested.

The 2-year-old pooch, named Daisy, was turned over to the Pasadena Humane Society.

--City News Service, photos courtesy of the South Pasadena Police Department