Jason Anthony and his male springer spaniel on July 4th, 2019.

A man recalled in court on Tuesday seeing his dog’s blood spattered across the walls of his house, allegedly after being attacked by a friend.

Jason Anthony recounted the Sept. 23 attack on his 12-year-old springer spaniel Bailey during a Butler County Common Pleas Court hearing for John Riordan, a 48-year-old West Virginia man accused of repeatedly hitting the dog with a sledgehammer at Anthony’s Summit Township home.

The case against Riordan was refiled after prosecutors revived a previously dismissed felony charge in December. During an October preliminary hearing in Chicora, former Assistant District Attorney Russ Karl agreed to drop the felony charge to a misdemeanor count of animal cruelty and move the case to county court.

But Karl’s former boss, District Attorney Richard Goldinger, said he did not approve of the decision, and Goldinger refiled the initial charges.

This is a breaking news report — susbcribe online or in print to read the full article in Wednesday's Butler Eagle.