![\"Prisoner](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.animals24-7.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Picsart_25-03-14_21-52-41-251-e1742014399766.jpg?ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n MARYSVILLE,\u00a0 Ohio\u2013\u2013<\/strong>Steffen Baldwin,\u00a0 44,\u00a0 alias Steffen Finkelstein,\u00a0 former executive director of Top of Ohio Pet Shelter in Logan County and the Union County Humane Society,\u00a0 also \u00a0in Ohio,\u00a0 and co-founder of the Underdog Alliance in California,\u00a0 was on March 13,\u00a0 2025 sentenced by Judge Daniel T. Hogan to serve 15 years and six months in state prison.<\/p>\n Hogan further barred Baldwin for life from keeping animals in the state of Ohio.<\/p>\n In addition,\u00a0 Baldwin is to serve five years on probation after serving his prison time.\u00a0 During his time on probation,\u00a0 Baldwin is to be subject to random drug screening,\u00a0 to be ineligible to leave Ohio,\u00a0 and to be ineligible to own a firearm.<\/p>\n Steffen Baldwin.\u00a0 (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBaldwin,\u201d\u00a0 claiming current residence in St. Augustine, Florida, \u00a0\u201cstood trial on January 8, 2024, \u00a0accused of 39 total felony counts,\u201d\u00a0 reported Kyle Meddles\u00a0for the Marysville Journal Tribune.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe bench trial lasted for three weeks,\u201d\u00a0 Meddles said,\u00a0 \u201cwhere it saw 58 witnesses testify and 303 exhibits admitted.\u201d<\/p>\n Elaborated the Bellefontaine Examiner<\/em>,\u00a0 \u201cThroughout the trial, \u00a0the prosecution painted Baldwin as a manipulative figure who misled supporters into believing he was rescuing and rehabilitating dogs.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead, prosecutors said, he euthanized at least eight dogs to make space for others he was paid to train. \u00a0They also alleged that Baldwin continued to raise money for dogs who had already been put down, \u00a0exploiting the trust of donors and pet owners.<\/p>\n Steffen Baldwin.\u00a0 (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cWitnesses testified about incidents of aggressive dogs being left unrehabilitated, fatal dog fights, \u00a0and Baldwin\u2019s alleged purchase of a firearm to shoot one of the dogs in his care.<\/p>\n \u201cThe case was further complicated,\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0the Bellefontaine Examiner<\/em> said,\u00a0 \u201cby delays due to changes in Baldwin\u2019s legal representation, \u00a0health concerns, \u00a0and alleged bond violations.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite all that,\u00a0 recounted Meddles,\u00a0 \u201cBaldwin was convicted of 32 felony charges including one count of bribery, \u00a012 counts of telecommunications fraud, \u00a0four counts of tampering with records, \u00a011 counts of cruelty to animals, \u00a0one count of grand theft of a firearm, \u00a0two counts of grand theft,\u00a0 and one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.<\/p>\n (Facebook photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cAccording to court documents, \u201c\u00a0 Meddles continued, \u00a0\u201cof Baldwin\u2019s 11 guilty counts of cruelty to animals, \u00a0seven counts are labeled as dogs Baldwin \u2018needlessly killed.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The sentences for 17 of the 32 guilty counts are be served consecutively,\u00a0 with the rest to be served concurrently,\u00a0 Meddles said.<\/p>\n \u201cBaldwin\u2019s convictions stem from his time running his own dog rescue business called Save Them Dogs Training,\u201d\u00a0 Meddles stipulated.<\/p>\n But Baldwin had credibility issues long before having become involved in nonprofit work and dog rehabilitation.<\/p>\n Steffen Baldwin.\u00a0 (Facebook photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Baldwin claimed on LinkedIn,\u00a0 for instance, \u00a0to have attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from 1999 to 2001,\u00a0 earning a bachelor\u2019s degree in philosophy.<\/p>\n The dates of when Baldwin said he attended West Point conflict,\u00a0 however,\u00a0 with those of his active duty stint in the U.S. Army,\u00a0 from July 1998 to December 2001.<\/p>\n After discharge, \u00a0according to the LinkedIn entry, \u00a0Baldwin held a series of YMCA jobs from June 2002\u00a0through August 2005,\u00a0 became development manager for a drug treatment facility,\u00a0 and then was executive director for the Victor Valley\u00a0Community Hospital Foundation,\u00a0 identified by the web site Scorched Earth as \u201ca community hospital [in southern California] that went bankrupt in 2010.\u201d<\/p>\n Baldwin by then had relocated to Ohio,\u00a0 unsuccessfully running a tattoo shop before becoming executive director of the Union County Humane Society in August 2008.<\/p>\n Rising rapidly to prominence as a pit bull trainer and advocate,\u00a0 Baldwin was often featured at public events,\u00a0 in publications,\u00a0 and on the web sites of pro-pit bull organizations, \u00a0including the Best Friends Animal Society,\u00a0 Los Angeles Animal Services,\u00a0 and Maddie\u2019s Fund.<\/p>\n But Baldwin was riding more than one wild horse at once.<\/p>\n While still at the Union County Humane Society,\u00a0 Baldwin in 2011,\u00a0 as \u201cDirector and Fund Raising\/Grant Writer,\u201d \u00a0joined attorney Matthew L. Smith in forming the \u201cNicaraguan International Coalition for Children & the Elderly,\u201d\u00a0 headquartered in Marysville,\u00a0 Ohio.<\/p>\n The \u201cNicaraguan International Coalition for Children & the Elderly\u201d apparently never filed IRS Form 990,\u00a0 according to\u00a0www.Guidestar.org<\/a>,\u00a0 the organization that posts IRS Form 990 filings for the Internal Revenue Service.<\/p>\n Eventually The \u201cNicaraguan International Coalition for Children & the Elderly\u201d lost IRS nonprofit status.\u00a0 Yet it was still raising funds through Facebook postings as recently as December 19,\u00a0 2020.<\/p>\n Steffen Baldwin.\u00a0 (Facebook photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Leaving the Union County Humane Society in 2013,\u00a0 Baldwin with considerable fanfare formed the Animal Cruelty Task Force of Ohio.\u00a0 That organization fizzled and was stripped of IRS 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit status in 2017 after three consecutive years of not filing annual financial reports.<\/p>\n Meanwhile Baldwin became acting executive director of the Top of Ohio Pet Shelter.<\/p>\n Posted Erica Tyler,\u00a0 moderator of the Logan County Silent Majority page on Facebook,\u00a0 after Baldwin was sentenced,\u00a0 \u201cIn late 2014 I started work at Top of Ohio Pet Shelter as a kennel tech,\u00a0 not long after Steffen Baldwin took over. \u00a0At one point the board starting making Steffen punch the time clock like the rest of the hourly employees, \u00a0because he was lying about how many hours he was working.<\/p>\n \u201cIn addition,\u201d\u00a0 Tyler recalled,\u00a0 \u201ccountless times he told me he would come help me clean kennels.\u00a0 I was our only kennel tech at the time. \u00a0He was late or he would never show up. When he did [show up],\u00a0 he spent the entire time on the phone.<\/p>\n \u201cDuring his time as our executive director,\u201d\u00a0 Tyler said, \u00a0\u201che made many promises he could not keep. \u00a0All the while he was taking innocent lives right under our noses. \u00a0Scumbags like him are the reason we no longer have an animal shelter in Logan County.\u201d<\/p>\n Steffen Baldwin & Luke Westerman<\/strong><\/em> Baldwin and an associate,\u00a0 Jeffery Luke Westerman, \u00a0went on to co-found the political action committee \u201cOhioans Against Breed Discrimination\u201d in 2015.<\/p>\n Westerman moved on in 2018 to become executive director of the Humane Society of El Paso,\u00a0 Texas,\u00a0 but left that position three days after television station KFOX 14 on January 3, \u00a02019 reported his indictment by an Ohio grand jury on 19 felony counts of securities law violations and theft.<\/p>\n Summarized Estefania Seyffert\u00a0of CBS-4 in El Paso,\u00a0 \u201cAccording to prosecutors, Westerman\u00a0solicited at least 19 Ohioans to invest over $1.09-million\u00a0into companies owned or controlled by him and used the money for personal\u00a0expenses.<\/p>\n \u201cWesterman faced three years of prison for each count of unlawful securities practices and 18 months for each count of grand theft. \u00a0All counts could have run consecutive to each other for a total of 19.5 years in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n Westerman instead accepted a plea bargain in October 2021 that allows him to make restitution in minimum monthly payments.<\/p>\n Jacqueline Bedsaul Johnson & husband.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Baldwin during the same years continued to build his reputation as a purported expert trainer and handler of pit bulls despite having apparently been integrally involved in 2017 in the high-profile failed attempted rehabilitation of a pit bull named Bosco by then 61-year-old Best Friends Animal Society employee Jacqueline Bedsaul Johnson.<\/p>\n According to Johnson in an April 4,\u00a0 2017 posting to Facebook,\u00a0 Bosco \u201cwas found running at large in November [2016] and taken to Animal Control,\u201d\u00a0 apparently in Toledo,\u00a0 Ohio.<\/p>\n \u201cLucas County Pit Crew pulled him,\u201d\u00a0 Johnson continued,\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cand he went into a foster home.\u00a0 He was adopted days before Christmas,\u201d\u00a0 but \u201cbit his adopter,\u201d\u00a0 and was returned to a foster home after completing quarantine.<\/p>\n From blog by Jacqueline Bedsaul Johnson.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cOhio declared him a dangerous dog because of the bite,\u201d\u00a0 Johnson admitted, \u00a0\u201cso he was moved to an out of state foster home.\u00a0 He was driven across the country to our home in Arizona.\u201d<\/p>\n On December 4,\u00a0 2017,\u00a0 Bosco turned on Johnson.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth her arms were broken, \u00a0[her] wrist [was] shattered and [she] nearly lost a finger,\u201d\u00a0 which was reattached,\u00a0 Johnson\u2019s daughter Adria recounted in a GoFundMe appeal on her mother\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (See\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>What pit bull advocates don\u2019t learn from their own maulings<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n (Facebook photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n There was also a pit bull named Remi,\u00a0 described in the indictments against Baldwin,\u00a0 who was in May 2016 rehomed by the Trumbull County pound to Angelo and Litsa Kargakos,\u00a0 of Hubbard,\u00a0 Ohio,\u00a0 despite having been legally identified as a \u201cdangerous dog.\u201d<\/p>\n After spending four months trying to rehabilitate Remi,\u00a0 Angelo and Litsa Kargakos admitted in Facebook postings,\u00a0 \u201cWe gave Steffen\u00a0$1,000 to polish Remi up and find him his forever home.\u201d<\/p>\n Instead,\u00a0 Remi disappeared.\u00a0 Baldwin in April 2017 claimed via Facebook that Remi had been euthanized after killing another pit bull,\u00a0 named Zack,\u00a0 in a \u201cyard accident.\u201d<\/p>\n Paperwork issued by the Rascal Animal Hospital,\u00a0 of Dublin,\u00a0 Ohio,\u00a0 confirmed that Baldwin brought Remi for euthanasia on December 28,\u00a0 2016.<\/p>\n Chato, Taz, Banksy, & Jitterbug were allegedly\u00a0 left in California by Steffen Baldwin.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n This appears to have been a recurring pattern.<\/p>\n Union County prosecutor Dave Phillips testified that Baldwin \u201cwould raise money for [such] dogs \u2013 for their care, \u00a0for their adoption, \u00a0for their training \u2013 but allegedly euthanized them,\u201d\u00a0 demonstrating what Phillips called \u201ca pattern of lying to people to raise money.<\/p>\n \u201cThe allegations,\u201d Phillips said, \u00a0\u201cindicate the money he raised for the animals, \u00a0even after they were euthanized, \u00a0were used for his personal expenses,\u201d \u00a0including gifts for his girlfriend and entertainment at strip clubs.<\/p>\n Detective Jim Conroy of the Campbell Police Department in Mahoning County,\u00a0 Ohio,\u00a0 told Columbus 10TV reporter Brittany Bailey that the initial police report of alleged criminal activity by Baldwin was filed in June 2017.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom there,\u201d\u00a0 summarized Bailey, \u00a0\u201cthe evidence kept building, \u00a0eventually leading to dozens of charges tied to the deaths of 18 dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n Baldwin fled to California,\u00a0 but his slime trail was catching up to him.<\/p>\n Paw Protectors president Sharon Logan.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Sharon Logan of Paw Protectors Rescue, \u00a0in Orange County, California,\u00a0 on February 6,\u00a0 2019 posted a list of three incidents allegedly involving Baldwin and pit bulls he trained,\u00a0 distilled from information that Baldwin himself posted to social media.<\/p>\n In one of those incidents,\u00a0 a trainer visiting Baldwin from England was allegedly mauled by a pit bull named Goober,\u00a0 \u201chad to be hospitalized for three days,\u00a0 suffered a broken leg and needs extensive plastic surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n Also,\u00a0 Baldwin allegedly \u201crescued\u201d a pit bull named Travis from Orange County Animal Services,\u00a0 who had bitten two other dogs and two humans,\u00a0 and was found dead three weeks later;\u00a0 and a pit bull brought to Baldwin for training by a rescue in Long Beach,\u00a0 California,\u00a0 \u201clost his tail in a fight with another while in Steffen\u2019s care.\u201d<\/p>\n (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Initially arrested on July 23,\u00a0 2020 in Acton,\u00a0 California,\u00a0 Baldwin was extradited to Ohio.<\/p>\n (See\u00a0Pit bull advocate Steffen Baldwin could get 81 years for killing dogs & fraud.)<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n His trial was repeatedly delayed,\u00a0 at first due to the COVID-19 pandemic,\u00a0 later because he claimed to have been seriously injured in an October 2020 car crash.<\/p>\n Further,\u00a0 Baldwin was on December 15,\u00a0 2020 additionally charged with violating the terms of his $200,000 bail bond after allegedly testing positive for opiate use.<\/p>\nCharged in 2020,\u00a0 former Best Friends Animal Society & Maddies Fund star Steffen Baldwin delayed trial until January 2025<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n58 witnesses & 303 exhibits<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cAggressive dogs left unrehabilitated\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cSave Them Dogs Training\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nFrom \u201cWest Point\u201d to YMCA<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Union County Humane Society<\/h2>\n<\/a>The Nicaraguan connection<\/h2>\n<\/a><\/p>\nTop of Ohio Pet Shelter<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n
(Facebook photo)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\u201cOhioans Against Breed Discrimination\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nBosco<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nDangerous dog driven from Ohio to Arizona<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cYard accident\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nRecurring pattern<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nThree more attacks<\/strong><\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nThe slow road to justice<\/h2>\n