Newtown dog groomer pleads not guilty to animal cruelty

DANBURY — The Newtown woman accused of improperly restraining and injuring a dog in her care is expected back in Superior Court in Danbury next month after pleading not guilty to charges of animal cruelty on Tuesday.

Susan Marucci, 57, was arrested earlier this month on a warrant stemming from an incident last fall at Pleasant Paws Pet Center in Newtown, where police say she worked as a groomer.

Another employee told police Marucci “snapped” while trying to trim the nails of a standard poodle at the pet center and started yelling in the dog’s face and “hanging (the dog) from her leash to the point the dog’s legs were off the ground,” according to the warrant for Marucci’s arrest.

The employee said Marucci held the poodle in the air by the leash for about 1.5 minutes before putting the dog down and “aggressively” dragging the dog down a hallway — after which the dog lost consciousness and Marucci proceeded to trim its nails, according to the warrant.

Another employee told police they heard an animal in distress while working in another room, looked through a window into the hallway and saw Marucci “lifting (a dog) up and down to the floor very vigorously for about 15 seconds,” the arrest warrant states.

During an interview with police in March, the poodle’s owner said his dog was “shaken up for quite some time” after the October 2022 incident at Pleasant Paws, and he said he noticed “a large change” in her behavior since it happened.

A staff incident report noted Marucci’s improper use of a slip lead and restraint, and stated that she had been trying to trim the dog’s nails when it tried to bite her, after which she “lifted the lead in the air, resulting in the dog hanging by the throat and … proceeded down the hallway with the animal,” according to the warrant for her arrest.

Police said they obtained a disciplinary action record from Pleasant Paws, in which Marucci claimed her actions had been in self defense. The record also said she had been “the subject of reports describing her yelling at and hitting dogs with her hands or grooming tools for compliance,” according to the warrant for her arrest.

Police said the owner of Pleasant Paws told them he had received no written complaints about Marucci hitting or yelling at dogs, but said incidents had been “reported verbally” of her striking animals in the past.

According to the warrant for her arrest, Marucci was put on “an indefinite administrative leave without pay” Dec. 1, and terminated Jan. 5.

Marucci was released after posting a 10 percent of $5,000 bond after her June 6 arrest and has a pretrial hearing scheduled for July 25, at state Superior Court in Danbury.